King Shazam! #1: A Chance to Be Dope

After Black Adam’s “Year of the Villain” one-shot, I didn’t have much faith in Shazam’s strength or believability as a villain. Admittedly, this is because I love Adam that much more than Shazam, but this one-shot proved just how much of a bastard an Infected Shazam can be. He’s arrogant, violent and sees himself as a one man army that doesn’t need his family and to show his strength, he goes after the gods that he gets his powers from and other deities as well.

After a nasty argument with his foster parents and being chastised for his attitude by Mary, Billy decides to run away and stop letting people control him, taking his frustrations out on the Gods that make his namesake and potentially hoping to form a League of his own. 

Systematically, he defeats Atlas, then DC’s Thor because Hercules was missing, even Superman’s God, Rao, falls to Billy’s might. The only one who manages to stand toe to toe with Billy is Mary Marvel herself before she’s tricked by her love for Billy and suffers a fate worse than death herself.

Joe Bennett smashes the art on this issue with tons of help from Belardino Brabo and Matt Samtorelli on inks and Hi-Fi on color. He brings the horror from his work on Immortal Hulk and brings it to this one-shot, making Shazam’s rampage a thing of terror. Brabo and Santorelli put the perfect amount of ink on the pages, accentuating Billy’s darkness and Hi-Fi turns the normally bright hero into a terrifying paradox, making his reds a symbol of fear.