Some thoughts about Shazam #14

 

How can the Shazam family face one of the biggest threats in the Multiverse?

Superboy-Prime is back and is willing to take what he considers an inferior version of Captain Marvel but they might be stronger than he thought.

This marks the finale of Geoff Johns' run on this book (and technically the book itself), this has been a pretty enjoyable read over the course of its duration and this ending feels appropriate in many ways.

Let take this out of the way, Superboy-Prime continues to be a parody of fanboy, if that bothers you then you might have some issues to resolve yourself. Second of all, this shouldn't bother you so much since this is making fun of a very particular fanboy, one that created the term "Billy Bratson" himself and used to harass people around because of it. This is justified.

Speaking of which, Superboy-Prime is still a metacommentary about the nature of continuity. About how things keep changing and he is still being sucked into new universes where he doesn't recognize characters anymore and he just doesn't like it. Is still on the nose but they are still nice references.

The plot progresses at a pretty fast pace with the fight escalating in every page. The character work shines here with the relationship between Billy and Black Adam becoming stronger and Billy finally accepting who he father really is, the latter is particularly interesting since Johns portrays it in a pretty realistic way while Billy's dad is not depicted as a truly awful person, or at least not in the way how this portrayals go.

The ending is also intriguing because it showcases a compelling way to how Black Adam's powers are what keep them alive and how his relationship with the rest of the Shazam family could become even closer. It's all coming together and is fitting.

Dale Eaglesham and Scott Kolins handle the art and while they do a fine job, the transitions between the different styles can be a little jarring.

Still, great conclusion. There's one issue left but is written by the person who did that awful fill-in issue in this same book so I'm not expecting anything good.