CAPTAIN MARVEL & SQUADRON OF JUSTICE versus SEVEN DEADLY ENEMIES OF MAN
The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man (DC)
Where: Power of Shazam #11 When: January 1996
Why: Jerry Ordway How: Pete Krause
The Story So Far...
The Wizard Shazam has been taken captive and held in the depths of the Netherworld by his evil demon daughter Lady Blaze. Only a powerful magic can restore him to The Rock of Eternity -- but Blaze has other plans!
Her agent, Black Adam, failed to prevent the resurrection spell that summons Ibis the Invincible and his amazing Ibis-stick to the modern age, but her allies of darkness continue to plague Fawcett City, and threaten to consume the heroic spirit of Captain Marvel!
The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man are on the loose! It's up to Mary Marvel and Ibis to put a stop to their terror and return them to the statues Shazam created to hold them!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Captain Marvel 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Captain Marvel 5 (Professor)
Speed: Captain Marvel 5 (Super-Human)
Stamina: Captain Marvel 6 (Generator)
Agility: Bulletman 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Captain Marvel 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Ibis 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Captain Marvel 30 (Super)
It's good to have friends. People you can trust to pull you into line when the shadow of pride, or hatred, obscures your view. Captain Marvel can usually rely on the Marvel Family to have his back, but he's also got some other great friends in reserve, ready to lend a hand when the going gets tough!
The Squadron of Justice are: Ibis, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr, Uncle Dudley, Tawky Tawny, and Bulletman.
Though not officially acting as The Squadron, these seven heroes are summoned for the expressed purpose of going man to man against adversaries that have plagued mankind throughout its history!
The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man are: Pride, Envy, Greed, Hatred, Selfishness, Laziness, and Injustice.
More forthright incarnations include Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lust, but today we feature the above list. By any name or configuration, The Seven Sins are some of the most ancient evils to vex humanity -- bad news for our heroes!
Ibis the Invincible is the one calling in reinforcements, which speaks volumes about the insidious threat! We saw his magic Ibis-Stick effortlessly remove Black Adam from play earlier in Power of Shazam #11, but this time his magic seems unable to simply sweep the problem aside.
To join Mary Marvel and he in the fight he'll imbue Uncle Dudley with the powers of Shazam, Tawky Tawny with unlimited life, summon Captain Marvel Jr from hospital, and even pluck Bulletman from the distant past! One opponent for even enemy -- assuming the spirits don't turn them against one another!
We saw Psycho-Pirate's influence befuddled the Marvel Family during the chaos of Crisis on Infinite Earths #6, and the evil New Gods corrupt Mary Marvel against Wonder Woman and Supergirl during Final Crisis, but it was only a month before today's battle that Underworld Unleashed #3 showed us that Captain Marvel's spirit is good & true -- resilient against the corrupting darkness of Hell itself!
Where: Power of Shazam #11 When: January 1996
Why: Jerry Ordway How: Pete Krause
The Story So Far...
The Wizard Shazam has been taken captive and held in the depths of the Netherworld by his evil demon daughter Lady Blaze. Only a powerful magic can restore him to The Rock of Eternity -- but Blaze has other plans!
Her agent, Black Adam, failed to prevent the resurrection spell that summons Ibis the Invincible and his amazing Ibis-stick to the modern age, but her allies of darkness continue to plague Fawcett City, and threaten to consume the heroic spirit of Captain Marvel!
The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man are on the loose! It's up to Mary Marvel and Ibis to put a stop to their terror and return them to the statues Shazam created to hold them!
Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Captain Marvel 6 (Invincible)Intelligence: Captain Marvel 5 (Professor)
Speed: Captain Marvel 5 (Super-Human)
Stamina: Captain Marvel 6 (Generator)
Agility: Bulletman 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Captain Marvel 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Ibis 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Captain Marvel 30 (Super)
It's good to have friends. People you can trust to pull you into line when the shadow of pride, or hatred, obscures your view. Captain Marvel can usually rely on the Marvel Family to have his back, but he's also got some other great friends in reserve, ready to lend a hand when the going gets tough!
The Squadron of Justice are: Ibis, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr, Uncle Dudley, Tawky Tawny, and Bulletman.
Though not officially acting as The Squadron, these seven heroes are summoned for the expressed purpose of going man to man against adversaries that have plagued mankind throughout its history!
The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man are: Pride, Envy, Greed, Hatred, Selfishness, Laziness, and Injustice.
More forthright incarnations include Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, and Lust, but today we feature the above list. By any name or configuration, The Seven Sins are some of the most ancient evils to vex humanity -- bad news for our heroes!
Ibis the Invincible is the one calling in reinforcements, which speaks volumes about the insidious threat! We saw his magic Ibis-Stick effortlessly remove Black Adam from play earlier in Power of Shazam #11, but this time his magic seems unable to simply sweep the problem aside.
To join Mary Marvel and he in the fight he'll imbue Uncle Dudley with the powers of Shazam, Tawky Tawny with unlimited life, summon Captain Marvel Jr from hospital, and even pluck Bulletman from the distant past! One opponent for even enemy -- assuming the spirits don't turn them against one another!
We saw Psycho-Pirate's influence befuddled the Marvel Family during the chaos of Crisis on Infinite Earths #6, and the evil New Gods corrupt Mary Marvel against Wonder Woman and Supergirl during Final Crisis, but it was only a month before today's battle that Underworld Unleashed #3 showed us that Captain Marvel's spirit is good & true -- resilient against the corrupting darkness of Hell itself!
Cap defeated the corrupt Justice League and an Eclipsed Superman before that, and who could forget the Marvel Family's fan-favourite triumph over the Monster Society of Evil from Convergence Shazam? With their friends beside them, how could they possibly lose? Let's find out how it went!
The Tape: Squadron of Justice Ranking: Captain Marvel Jr (#50)
The Tape: Squadron of Justice Ranking: Captain Marvel Jr (#50)
What Went Down...
Dudley, Mary Marvel, and Ibis race from the subway underground to the streets above where they find a stampeding mob.
The frightened masses flee from the darkened figure of Captain Marvel who shouts "SHAZAM! SHAZAM!" in vain! A vile voice from within taunts Captain Marvel with the absence of the wizard's lightning, but the hero refuses to yield!
Ibis attempts to return the dark spirits to their place in The Rock of Eternity, while Mary Marvel rushes to support her brother. The Ibis-stick's magic somehow fails and Mary is met with a backward swing from her brother's possessed fist!
Mary endures to warn that the wizard Shazam is unable to answer their cries.
With that, Captain Marvel abandons his gambit and focuses on resisting -- aided by Ibis the Invincible, who uses his Ibis-stick to purge the corrupting spirits from Marvel's body and give them physical form!
The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man float through the air -- revealed!
Captain Marvel posits their solid presence may now allow for physical ushering back to The Rock of Eternity. A plan Ibis agrees could work -- if they even the odds a little!
With a simple command the Ibis-stick inducts Uncle Dudley, and the stuffed Tawky Tawny toy he's carrying, into the burgeoning Marvel Family!
A misunderstood remark from Mary soon adds Freddy Freeman to the team -- teleported instantly from the hospital in a body cast. A predicament soon remedied when Freddy says the name "Captain Marvel" and bursts free from the cast as an uninjured Captain Marvel Jr!
Bulletman makes seven as Ibis reaches into the past to bring forth an old ally for a new fight. It's not a minute too soon as terrified citizens cry for help from the stalking Enemies of Man!
The heroes fly valiantly into battle! Captain Marvel puts Uncle Dudley's nerves at ease with some calm assurance, whilst targeting the personification of Hatred with a snappy uppercut from his good arm!
Mary beats back Envy, with everyone doing their part to repel the wicked creatures! Bulletman with a flying fist! Tawky Tawny a pouncing paw! Captain Marvel Jr riding the bucking back of evil! Even Uncle Dudley has a stiff left for the vile spirits that remind him so much of bugs infesting Miss Wormwood's school!
Mary Marvel locks one of the stunned wraiths around the throat and drags it through the air towards a magical doorway!
The other heroes follow her advice, finding the stairwell within that leads to a hidden interdimensional cave. They brave the forces of eternity within to emerge in a hall of shattered statues.
Mary notices the absence of their ace player, but Ibis the Invincible has already made his way to the Rock of Eternity through other means. He steps forward with the squirming dark figure of Sloth in the grip of his left hand.
In his right, Ibis wields the awesome Ibis-stick, with magic enough to return the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man to the bondage of the seven corresponding statues created by the wizard Shazam himself!
The dark shadows are pulled back into figures that once held them -- trapped again as they previously were by the missing wizard and his old allies!
The Hammer...The powerful magic of Ibis the Invincible saves the day, resealing the Seven Deadly spirits back in their statue prisons.
Perhaps he could've done it all on his own, but it's nice that he didn't have to -- sharing the victory in even measure with Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and their four courageous comrades!
You might remember I mythologized this issue, and Ibis' involvement, a few years back, following up with a closer look at his rousing return against Black Adam.
I thusly set out to revisit the action-packed second half in conjunction with the impending theatrical release of Shazam: Fury of the Gods, but it seems this much-loved comic was again destined to find me in a time of need, as I struggle with the somewhat sudden loss of a loved one, now exactly two weeks ago.
The Power of Shazam! #11 hits with the right balance of action, adventure, and nostalgia, filtered through the then-new lens of a series that would define Captain Marvel and his crew for the nineteen-nineties, even as it occupied its own insular world -- a retro reality where magic encases Fawcett City in anachronisms.
This battle sees the return of a lot of "old fashioned" ideas that are received with enthusiasm. Tawky Tawny is restored to the side of angels after serving as a pawn for Lady Blaze, and being ripped in half by Black Adam when he was turned back into a helpless stuffed toy. Even better: Bulletman is plucked from the past!
I've gotta admit: If Ibis had me jazzed for the earlier parts of this issue, it was Bulletman that I was most excited to see in this back half. He doesn't particularly stand out when the group battles the Seven Deadly Enemies, but the silver-helmeted hero is nevertheless a thrillingly unique visual throughout. I quite enjoy it when he light heartedly hastens Ibis to the conclusion: "Uh-- Can we cut the chatter... I'm an old man, and I can't do this all day!"
You might remember I mythologized this issue, and Ibis' involvement, a few years back, following up with a closer look at his rousing return against Black Adam.
I thusly set out to revisit the action-packed second half in conjunction with the impending theatrical release of Shazam: Fury of the Gods, but it seems this much-loved comic was again destined to find me in a time of need, as I struggle with the somewhat sudden loss of a loved one, now exactly two weeks ago.
The Power of Shazam! #11 hits with the right balance of action, adventure, and nostalgia, filtered through the then-new lens of a series that would define Captain Marvel and his crew for the nineteen-nineties, even as it occupied its own insular world -- a retro reality where magic encases Fawcett City in anachronisms.
This battle sees the return of a lot of "old fashioned" ideas that are received with enthusiasm. Tawky Tawny is restored to the side of angels after serving as a pawn for Lady Blaze, and being ripped in half by Black Adam when he was turned back into a helpless stuffed toy. Even better: Bulletman is plucked from the past!
I've gotta admit: If Ibis had me jazzed for the earlier parts of this issue, it was Bulletman that I was most excited to see in this back half. He doesn't particularly stand out when the group battles the Seven Deadly Enemies, but the silver-helmeted hero is nevertheless a thrillingly unique visual throughout. I quite enjoy it when he light heartedly hastens Ibis to the conclusion: "Uh-- Can we cut the chatter... I'm an old man, and I can't do this all day!"
It's interesting that the Seven Deadly Enemies go very much in a different direction. These incarnations take forms reminiscent of HR Giger's Xenomorph from the Alien film series. It feels like a decidedly modern intrusion upon the old fashioned heroes and their retro-tinged world -- even as the fanged shadow forms are seen terrorizing decidedly nineties Fawcett City citizenry.
You could mistake this for the present intruding upon the past, but I don't see the nostalgia of Power of Shazam as regressive. I see it as still moving forward, but without a broad discarding of things. Retaining a character like Bulletman to give the present something it doesn't otherwise have, but still moving it forward in a modern context. Even if that context is in part an interesting culture clash.
The fight begins when Mary and Ibis convene with a semi-possessed Captain Marvel. His struggle, and attempts to call upon the wizard's lightning, directly reference his trip to Hell in Underworld Unleashed, which proposed the thesis that the good-natured Captain would be incorruptible -- or something close to it.
Released a month later: The Power of Shazam #11 honors this idea, even as it flirts with undermining it. Though the Seven Deadly Enemies briefly inhabit his body, they never quite gain control, and ultimately fall to a combination of Captain Marvel's will to resist, and the magic of the Ibis-stick.
Freddy Freeman's transformation into Captain Marvel Jr may momentarily seem like a lapse in attention as well, but his lightning presumably comes directly from Captain Marvel, and with a little help from the Ibis-stick. Remembering that his magic words are "Captain Marvel", unlike Billy & Mary's "SHAZAM".
You could mistake this for the present intruding upon the past, but I don't see the nostalgia of Power of Shazam as regressive. I see it as still moving forward, but without a broad discarding of things. Retaining a character like Bulletman to give the present something it doesn't otherwise have, but still moving it forward in a modern context. Even if that context is in part an interesting culture clash.
The fight begins when Mary and Ibis convene with a semi-possessed Captain Marvel. His struggle, and attempts to call upon the wizard's lightning, directly reference his trip to Hell in Underworld Unleashed, which proposed the thesis that the good-natured Captain would be incorruptible -- or something close to it.
Released a month later: The Power of Shazam #11 honors this idea, even as it flirts with undermining it. Though the Seven Deadly Enemies briefly inhabit his body, they never quite gain control, and ultimately fall to a combination of Captain Marvel's will to resist, and the magic of the Ibis-stick.
Freddy Freeman's transformation into Captain Marvel Jr may momentarily seem like a lapse in attention as well, but his lightning presumably comes directly from Captain Marvel, and with a little help from the Ibis-stick. Remembering that his magic words are "Captain Marvel", unlike Billy & Mary's "SHAZAM".
The whole adventure is a happy time of good triumphing over evil. I figure we could all use a few more happy times like this. I know I sure could.
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Winners: The Squadron of Justice
#39 (+11) Captain Marvel Jr
#40 (+14) Captain Marvel
#77 (+63) Mary Marvel
#120 (+200) Ibis the Invincible
#121 (+213) Tawky Tawny
#138 (+252) Uncle Dudley
#357 (new) Bulletman
#991 (new) Pride
#992 (new) Envy
#993 (new) Greed
#994 (new) Hatred
#995 (new) Selfishness
#996 (new) Laziness
#997 (new) Injustice
#39 (+11) Captain Marvel Jr
#40 (+14) Captain Marvel
#77 (+63) Mary Marvel
#120 (+200) Ibis the Invincible
#121 (+213) Tawky Tawny
#138 (+252) Uncle Dudley
#357 (new) Bulletman
#991 (new) Pride
#992 (new) Envy
#993 (new) Greed
#994 (new) Hatred
#995 (new) Selfishness
#996 (new) Laziness
#997 (new) Injustice
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