CBR: Wallace Shouts "Shazam!" In 2011

[CBR News]

Veteran television writer Eric Wallace ("Eureka") is telling a story featuring the Marvel Family - Freddy Freeman, Billy Batson and Mary Marvel - in January's "Shazam" one-shot and his ongoing "Titans" series.


Full article here.

[DarkKnghtJared]

I haven't read the interview yet, but...Wallace is a writer for Eureka? WOW. How is it possible that he can write one of the worse comics I've read in a while, and yet write one of the best TV shows I've seen in a while?

[Punchdrunk]

I liked the Power of Shazam Blackest Night One Shot - don't and probably won't read the Titans but I am very excited to see this.

The villains he's discussing are exactly right for the Marvel family to take on.

But let's cut through all the big red cheese and get to the question on everyone's lips.....


WILL THERE BE MORE TALKING TAWNY????

[The Cool Thatguy]

I haven't read the interview yet, but...Wallace is a writer for Eureka? WOW. How is it possible that he can write one of the worse comics I've read in a while, and yet write one of the best TV shows I've seen in a while?

Editors have power over him, and a vested interest in his good performance, actors can sell questionable scenes, to say nothing of the fact that it's an entirely different medium.

[Skaddix]

Editors have power over him, and a vested interest in his good performance, actors can sell questionable scenes, to say nothing of the fact that it's an entirely different medium.

This is the answer. Different medium.

[Supermutant2099]

I will see it when I believe it that something good will come out of this but after all the garbage DC creators have put them through words are no longer good. 2011 and beyond could mean next we see any of them 2012 really. I'm just tired of dc end around on them. Just be honest with fans.

[Jbenn]

More specifically in the case of Billy and Mary Batson, they've gone through so much recently in the pages of "Justice Society of America" that they've become tragic figures. That, in turn, makes them irresistible to write.

No, no, no, NO. They are not “tragic” figures. WTF? This sounds exactly like some of the stuff the Countdown writers were mouthing about Mary Marvel before they messed her up. That she needed to be knocked from her pedestal, do things she’d regret, be shown to have feet of clay in order to be “relatable”. The Marvel Family do have tragic backgrounds (orphans, parents murdered, in Billy’s case raised on the streets, in Mary’s case raised with an abusive guardian) but they rose above it long ago. The Marvels don’t dwell in angst - that’s what truly separates them from the rest of the DCU. What is this continuing need to make them miserable? Is it truly that “irresistible”?

As for the background on Billy and Mary, all readers need to know is that their powers were taken away because both of them had essentially given into the dark side and were abusing them. The two have been looking for a way to regain those powers - the ability to become Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel respectively - ever since. In the meantime, Freddy Freeman has since become the new Captain Marvel.

More of this “dark side” stuff? What part of the whole “Black Mary” fiasco not working didn’t Didio get? Why keep bringing this up. What ever happened to the Billy Batson who was the only hero Neron COULDN’T corrupt (that was a bigger deal than being infected by Black Adam’s suddenly all encompassing evil power for 5 seconds in JSA)? After the positive critical reception for both Jeff Smith’s mini-series and the Johnny DC Billy Batson series, what is with this need to make the Batson siblings still “darker” in the regular DCU? And who is this one-shot being marketed to? Marvel Family fans? In that group you can probably count on one hand the number who want Billy and Mary continued to be written as losers who needs to be saved by Freddy, whose suddenly the hero of the series though there seems to be no difference (based on how he’s drawn) between him and Billy Batson. And the “new “Captain Marvel? Whatever happened to him being called “Shazam”. Wasn’t that the whole point of the Trials of Shazam mini-series? Or is it DC itself doesn’t know? James Robinson (with Editorial approval) even mocked the fact that other heroes don’t what to call Freddy anymore in Cry for Justice.


Nothing against Wallace. But based on his whining continually humiliated and disrespected Osiris over in Titans (the least well regarded of all the Brightest Day books) this is not something I’m looking forward to. And it says something I think that DC has seemingly handed (based on previous interviews back last years he was just told to Osiris to use in his Titans series )a comic writer with little track record to be the one to revive the Marvel Family has viable characters in the DCU. Not someone mind you who pitched a Shazam/Marvel Family story (like Johns/Alex Ross did and was rejected) but someone who seemingly was just assigned to the job by Editorial. Even with Johns, Gail Simone (who’s been talking about her love of the Marvels for years), Morrison, and now Paul Cornell in their A-List bullpen to bring back the Marvel Family. This seems to be DC’s way to do it. With a whimper (one-shot and the horrible Titans series no one reads) and not with a bang (an event centered on the Marvels and not say Superman for the upteempth time).

[Free-Man]

More of this “dark side” stuff? What part of the whole “Black Mary” fiasco not working didn’t Didio get? Why keep bringing this up.

Far be it from me to defend Didio or Wallace, but from the way he's talking, I'm almost certain this is being used as a platform to restore the Marvels. Hell, that's been DC's mantra in recent years: restoring the past.

And while I think it is degrading that their return is apparently going to be regulated to a book like Titans, I'm assuming that has more to do with DC trying to pull a stunt to get more people to read it.

[RaidenMGS]

The Shazam family need some payback from all this years of suffering and bad writing, and Superman is responsable for that and we all know it.

[ThePinkPeril]

The Marvel Family do have tragic backgrounds (orphans, parents murdered, in Billy’s case raised on the streets, in Mary’s case raised with an abusive guardian) but they rose above it long ago.

What? She was adopted and raised by the Bromfields. Although DC keeps forgetting that fact.

[Duy]

Every time they keep trying to push the "dark" direction for these characters, I cringe. I get trying to make this franchise "adaptable to the modern audience," but is the modern audience really into all this angsty, dark crap?

Every time - EVERY TIME - they've tried to go dark and serious with the Marvel characters, it's been a critical bomb. NEW BEGINNING: bomb. TRIALS OF SHAZAM: bomb. And every time - EVERY TIME - they've gotten behind the original concept, as with Jeff Smith's take or the current BILLY BATSON series, it's been critically acclaimed. The POWER OF SHAZAM, which fell in the middle in terms of the approach, ALSO fell in the middle in terms of acclaim.

I get trying to make them adaptable. But in my opinion, they're just wasting time.

[md62]

I'm convinced DC hates the Marvel family. Nothing in this interview made me want to even skim thru this book.

[Mark_S]

I don't think that DC hates them, I think that they just need to toss out a few issues now and then to keep the copywrite and that is what they are doing.

Mark_S

[a13506]

I'm truly sorry for the Marvels fans. This is among the worst news they could get. Angst Marvels by Wallace! It's like DC is inviting the Marvel family fan to the the next targets of Jackass!

[Jbenn]

What? She was adopted and raised by the Bromfields. Although DC keeps forgetting that fact.

I'm pretty sure it was insinuated by Ordway that Mary was not treated well by Sarah Primm (Theo Adam's sister who got control of Mary after Theo Adam kidnapped the child when he murdered the Batson parents) - eventually Sarah Primm "sold" her to the Bromfields (it was an illegal adoption), who treated her well but still...not exactly a great backstory for Mary to recover from yet she did and WAS well-adjusted until Mr. Didio had other ideas.