Category: Written Reviews

Shortly after publishing the previously-unseen edition of Batman #428 – the alternative third chapter of the controversial “A Death In The Family” storyline that depicted the non-death of Jason Todd a.k.a. Robin – DC put out a four-issue mini-series dubbed A Death In The Family: Robin Lives. They claim this to be from the DC Vault, which implies that this was a previously shelved story that never saw the light of day because readers voted for Robin to be put down.

But instead, it’s a whole new story. A whole new What If story… that gave me pause because I am always weary of these continuations of vintage properties written and illustrated by people who were probably babies when these things first graced the public consciousness. What gave me hope was that this was being written by J.M. DeMatteis, a veteran who’s been doing this for decades and should have a good idea on how to tell a follow-up to a previously unearthed 1988 comic book. That’s the only hope I had going into this, since the overall art quality is… less than stellar.

And you want to know something? At first, this series had promise. Opening the series up with the Joker shot dead in the head and then having the story bring us up to that point is not a bad idea on paper, though it did spoil things for me. I knew where they were going with this and I was almost dreading it, but the story up to that point had been pretty solid. Jason Todd struggling with how to move on after suffering a horrific beating at the hands of the Joker as well as the loss of the mother he barely knew, Batman struggling with his lack of experience in fatherhood in trying to comfort the boy, and… well, the shrink felt a bit excessive and the narration is a bit much, but for three issues, this was a somewhat solid story with some decent character moments.

However, once we hit that fourth and final issue, that’s when things fall apart. I’ll try not to spoil too much here, but the way that final issue played out gave me flashbacks of Return Of The Joker, the Batman Beyond animated movie. If you know the plot to that film, then you’ll get a sense of dejavu here, except with a chance in player pieces. And when all is said and done and we get to that final epilogue… let’s just say that it only took a couple pages to kill off any goodwill that the first three issues brought up.

That’s the best way to sum up Death In The Family: Robin Lives. It starts off great, goes along smoothly, and then eventually falls off a cliff before landing headfirst onto a block of concrete. Maybe there’s a better ending stashed away in the DC Vault that got sidelined in favor of what we got here. Hopefully, it doesn’t take four decades to have that see the light of day.

Here’s an interesting piece of business that DC put out last year; the alternate version of Batman #428 from 1988 that served as the third chapter of the much controversial storyline “A Death In The Family,” that saw readers call in to vote for the demise of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Now, we’ve already seen that story and we’ve also seen that story’s importance minimized with the subsequent resurrection of Jason Todd back in the mid-2000s.

However, if callers had voted for Robin to live, this would have been the issue that would continue the story. And if you were expecting any drastic divergence from what was already published, you’re probably going to come away disappointed. Part 3 of A Death In The Family – The Robin Lives Edition plays out in pretty much the same way as the version we got, except this time, Robin… well, you know, lives. Beyond that, he doesn’t play much of a role afterwards and the story continues as it had before.

Batman #428 – The Robin Lives Edition could easily be slotted into the rest of the story without compromise if you want to imagine this story in a world where readers voted to let Jason Todd live. It’s not much of a big deal from a story standpoint, but being able to see what could have been after all this time is still a pretty sweet deal and something that I’m sure would be included in future TPB editions of this particular storyline. I’m rather pleased to see that this exists.

Now, the follow-up miniseries that DC begat afterwards… that, I could do without…

Written and Illustrated by Jerry Ordway

To the best of my recollection, this is the only Shazam I’ve read that features the closest thing to what can be considered the original take on the Captain Marvel character. I may have read a few issues of the subsequent series that resulted from the success of this series, but my only exposure to the Marvel family would’ve been guest spots in other comic books and maybe that one cartoon from the days when a cartoon based on a comic book was about as much of the norm as a superhero film would be today.

For all intents and purposes, The Power Of Shazam is the then-modern day origin story of how young Billy Batson was chosen by the wizard Shazam to become the mighty hero Captain Marvel. Those who are only familiar with the modern-day version with the whole family thing will find this to be a much different. This is the story of Billy Batson trying to find his place in the world… all the while having to deal with a new power set given to him by an ancient wizard while also dealing with a villain with ties to the wizard and Billy as well.

A reviewer by the name of Tom Knapp had compared The Power Of Shazam to one of those old-timey Saturday Morning serials from the 1930s and that’s a viewpoint I would agree with wholeheartedly. Not just in terms of imagining the world of Fawcett City as a typical metropolis (no pun intended) of the 1930s, complete with all the visual stylings, dressings, and lingo of the day – only way you could have taken this over the top was to print the story in black and white – but also in terms of its wholesomeness. Despite being written during contemporary times, this is a story where the line between heroes and villains are clearly defined, there’s no mixed message to be found here, and there’s an ending to a story that may lead to other stories, but is nonetheless an ending to this story.

There’s no question that Jerry Ordway put together a compelling piece of work that pays homage and tribute to the character and his lore. While it is clearly a sampler of things to come, it also serves very nicely as its own piece of work. Ordway also puts in time with the painted interior art, which is exceptional stuff, indeed.

The Power Of Shazam is an excellent read indeed and for whatever it’s worth, it’s one of the strongest Shazam stories ever conceived. If you’re going to read just one of these things, make it this one.