Review: ‘SHAZAM! #2’ Might End The Captain’s Adventures Before They Really Start

The gods who empowered Billy Batson aren’t happy. Now they’re scheming against him and his Captain alter ego, and it may destroy the power of SHAZAM! entirely!

Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Alejandro Sanchez, and Troy Peteri continue Billy’s new adventures.

Billy’s outburst as the Captain has begun to go viral. His family knows that it’s not like him, but it’s caused tension nonetheless. With that in mind, Billy had begun to track down the culprit, putting him face to face with the Psycho-Pirate! Meanwhile, Freddy has started looking on his own, putting him on a crash course with the gods of legend.

Waid builds up a fantastic conflict here. Billy being held accountable by his siblings makes for a dramatic introduction, showing how important they still are to the book while putting Billy on warning for his behavior. Each scene from there builds on the last, going into a slapstick comedy, then the Psycho-Pirate fight and finally the dual epilogues that reveal the villains responsible. It’s a strong single issue that stands completely on its own, but also nails being a part of the larger arc.

Mora and Sanchez continue to impress. On the first page, Mora shows a range of emotion on each sibling’s face, even as he’s staggering their staging within the page. His redesign for Psycho-Pirate is great, even if it’s only a few relatively small tweaks. Best of all, he paces the action perfectly for the big reveals of each moment. Sanchez’s colors are enough of a throwback in style to evoke SHAZAM’s classic origins, but also suits more modern coloring sensibilities.

SHAZAM! #2 is available now from DC Comics.