Rantquake: Shazam!

All good points.  I’m under the impression it’s called SHAZAM because it’s starting from the discovery which will lead to everyone’s MARVELous magical strength.  After all, no one would have powers if not for the wizard.  The reason could also be that there is no Cap yet and it is being built up as a team (can’t really say “book” right now so I’ll just say…) story.  How will these disparate young characters, who are already stricken with hard times, handle what is to come as a unit?  On a bigger note, the complete change in Billy’s demeanor is a whole different ball game.  For the longest time, the character has been known as a “gosh-golly” nice kid in an all-powerful body.  Most of the allure was in that strange/humorous juxtaposition.  It’s what made the character so lovable.  You wanted him to win because, as a comic reading kid, you could live vicariously through him.  Any little boy or girl could be a grown-up super hero when the time called for it (and you could still retain your youth at the end of the day…how cool is that?!).  This time, though, it seems they are going for the complete opposite…a complete 180 (a brat with power akin to Superman).  It’s a hard pill to swallow, but maybe it is put in place to give the character a hard transformation not only of body, but of spirit as well.  Perhaps this new supportive/stable family setting and the need to adjust to the responsibility of powers greater than himself might just shape Billy into the boy we remember him as.  Who says “Gee, Gosh!” anymore anyhow?  At any rate, I’m loving the Sivana angle they’re going with!  With the way Johns turned Green Lantern into an epic masterpiece (and also with the way Johns is giving Aquaman some respect), I have to offer the benefit of the doubt that he knows what he’s doing!