There’s a lot I liked about Mark Waid’s Shazam Vol. 1: Meet the Captain!. It’s kicky and exciting and fun; Waid makes the book believably kid-friendly (which is probably the bar between what is a Shazam story and what is a Superman story), while pleasing older fans, I think, with deep (and zany) cuts from DC lore.
I would say this book feels much like setup, a prologue to the first real story. I struggle yet to know what Waid’s Shazam is about, some sense of the central conflict and who the supporting cast is (besides the obvious). With Waid leaving after the next book and then Josie Campbell coming on, I wonder if it’s going to be a while before this book has a real foundation. I’ve no doubts about Campbell, but that much can-kicking down the road is sometimes an ill-portent for a book.
