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Shazam!: The World's Mightiest Mortal #3
Shazam!: The World's Mightiest Mortal Vol. 3
With one magic word...he becomes the World's Mightiest Mortal...SHAZAM!
In 1973 DC brought back one of the most beloved superheroes of all time: Shazam! With the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury, Shazam is one of humankind's most powerful champions!
Alongside superheroes like Superman and Batman, the World's Mightiest Mortal will fight against villains...including Satan!
Collects World's Finest Comics #253-270, World's Finest Comics #272-282, and Adventure Comics #491 and #492
In 1973 DC brought back one of the most beloved superheroes of all time: Shazam! With the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury, Shazam is one of humankind's most powerful champions!
Alongside superheroes like Superman and Batman, the World's Mightiest Mortal will fight against villains...including Satan!
Collects World's Finest Comics #253-270, World's Finest Comics #272-282, and Adventure Comics #491 and #492
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 18, 2021
10 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
E. Nelson Bridwell
287 books9 followersEdward Nelson Bridwell was a writer for Mad magazine (writing the now-famous catchphrase, "What you mean...we?" in a 1958 parody of The Lone Ranger in Mad) and various comic books published by DC Comics. One of the writers for the Batman comic strip and Super Friends, he also wrote The Inferior Five, among other comics. He has been called "DC's self-appointed continuity cop."
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 31, 2021
Shazam! The World's Mightiest Mortal Volume 3 collects stories from World's Finest Comics #253-270, 272-282 and Adventure Comics #491 and 492.
The original Captain Marvel is one of those characters I've always been interested in but there's never much material in print at any given time. The other two Shazam collections were fun so I picked this one up.
E. Nelson Bridwell writes all the stories in this collection and with the exception of a Gil Kane fill in issue, Dandy Don Newton handles the penciling chores, backed by a whole slew of inkers. E. Nelson Bridwell is adept at cranking out short but compelling stories. I don't think there's a single story in this collection longer than 15 pages and most of them were shorter, as befits the small page count available in DC's anthology books in the late 1970s.
Officially, I prefer a more CC Beck influenced style to my Marvel Family adventures but Don Newton draws a great looking book. I didn't realize how much ENB did to flesh out Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family during the Bronze Age. A lot of what I read in Who's Who back in the day actually happened during E. Nelson Bridwell's run rather than Cap's original adventures at Fawcett.
One thing this volume shows is that when the rest of the DC universe isn't in the picture, the Marvel Family really shines. Captain Marvel is presented as the top dog, not a second banana to Superman as he has been depicted in the last thirty or so years.
Shazam! The World's Mightiest Mortal Volume 3 might be the last time the Marvel Family was really given time to shine prior to The Power of Shazam twenty years later. Four out of five lightning bolts.
The original Captain Marvel is one of those characters I've always been interested in but there's never much material in print at any given time. The other two Shazam collections were fun so I picked this one up.
E. Nelson Bridwell writes all the stories in this collection and with the exception of a Gil Kane fill in issue, Dandy Don Newton handles the penciling chores, backed by a whole slew of inkers. E. Nelson Bridwell is adept at cranking out short but compelling stories. I don't think there's a single story in this collection longer than 15 pages and most of them were shorter, as befits the small page count available in DC's anthology books in the late 1970s.
Officially, I prefer a more CC Beck influenced style to my Marvel Family adventures but Don Newton draws a great looking book. I didn't realize how much ENB did to flesh out Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family during the Bronze Age. A lot of what I read in Who's Who back in the day actually happened during E. Nelson Bridwell's run rather than Cap's original adventures at Fawcett.
One thing this volume shows is that when the rest of the DC universe isn't in the picture, the Marvel Family really shines. Captain Marvel is presented as the top dog, not a second banana to Superman as he has been depicted in the last thirty or so years.
Shazam! The World's Mightiest Mortal Volume 3 might be the last time the Marvel Family was really given time to shine prior to The Power of Shazam twenty years later. Four out of five lightning bolts.
May 30, 2021
This third volume of Shazam! reprints contains the short stories published in World's Finest Comics and the first few from the Adventure Comics digest. Running at 8-17 pages, this volume has lots of stories that are really a great length for Shazam! (though the DC Shazam! comic often ran shorter stories too.) Just enough space to tell a fun story and offer a little characterization and a few laughs without overstaying its welcome.
The vast majority of stories in here are charming in some way. Billy needing to save the soul of his evil Uncle Ebenezer in "The Devil and Capt. Marvel" is terrific morality of the sort that you didn't find often even in the era of the Comic Code. Two longer arcs are also strong. One sets the Marvels against the Monster Society, showing off their greatest foes a few at a time. The other introduces Kid Eternity, formerly from Quality comics, into the Fawcett-created Marvel Family. As the creators at the time knew, it was a good combination because of their similar theming, but the revelation of Kid's relationship to the Marvels is surprising even today (and a great little retcon worthy of Roy Thomas himself).
The author of this entire volume is E. Nelson Bridwell. He wrote a bit more than a third of DC's previous Shazam! comic, including the year or so just prior to Shazam's jump to World's Finest and Adventure Comics. He really gets the unique theming and fell of Shazam! and it shows here.
The vast majority of stories in here are charming in some way. Billy needing to save the soul of his evil Uncle Ebenezer in "The Devil and Capt. Marvel" is terrific morality of the sort that you didn't find often even in the era of the Comic Code. Two longer arcs are also strong. One sets the Marvels against the Monster Society, showing off their greatest foes a few at a time. The other introduces Kid Eternity, formerly from Quality comics, into the Fawcett-created Marvel Family. As the creators at the time knew, it was a good combination because of their similar theming, but the revelation of Kid's relationship to the Marvels is surprising even today (and a great little retcon worthy of Roy Thomas himself).
The author of this entire volume is E. Nelson Bridwell. He wrote a bit more than a third of DC's previous Shazam! comic, including the year or so just prior to Shazam's jump to World's Finest and Adventure Comics. He really gets the unique theming and fell of Shazam! and it shows here.
June 10, 2021
Stupid silly fun with some remarkable artwork out of the 70s.
August 1, 2024
The end of the 70s and first few years of Captain Marvel in the 80s bring some truly fantastic continuation for the Marvel Family!
Continue on this stellar run to see some fun takes on the classic casts of heroes and villains!
This book does the best job on informing the reader on any character that pops up and progressing them in creative ways!
My favorite was bringing back a certain classic 40s superhero and making him extremely relevant again that I won't spoil!
Also seeing villains that hadn't been used in this run yet like Black Adam's movie villain of Sabbac!
Altogether a great time, occasionally funny, but always interesting!
Continue on this stellar run to see some fun takes on the classic casts of heroes and villains!
This book does the best job on informing the reader on any character that pops up and progressing them in creative ways!
My favorite was bringing back a certain classic 40s superhero and making him extremely relevant again that I won't spoil!
Also seeing villains that hadn't been used in this run yet like Black Adam's movie villain of Sabbac!
Altogether a great time, occasionally funny, but always interesting!
June 8, 2021
Third time's the charm? All I can say - out of the three volumes of this nostalgic inducing series - this was hands down my favorite read. I will even say this collection has my favorite Captain Marvel stories of all time (yeah - it's called Shazam! because of copyright issues with Marvel but we all know the character is Captain Marvel).
Why? Let's start at the top - with Don Newton. This artist is so under rated, partly because he wasn't prolific and didn't draw on any "big runs" and partly because he died too young at the age of 50, just when he was about to start drawing Infinity Inc. He is best known for Batman but this is his best work. I attribute that because he loved the character so much and that love shines through in every page. There is only one story not drawn by him (Gil Kane is the artist - not too shabby for a fill-in :) and the rest is page after page of gorgeous Captain Marvel family. Don was a genius at capturing motion and when he drew the Marvels flying it was like a painting from the renaissance. Even the quiet moments were well done - a panel with the Marvels as Billy, Freddy and Mary, just walking in the snow could be framed and put on a wall. Every panel is a joy. I don't normally gush so much but I don't think Don Newton ever got his proper due as an artist. I talked n earlier volumes how I loved Kurt Shaffenburger's art on this series and that definitely hearkens back to Cap's more cartoonish roots. But with Don, the squinty eyes are dropped, the wavy hair is soon replaced with more realistic strands and it helps elevate the tension and drama of the stories. The whole atmosphere changes thanks to Don's art.
It also gives me a chance to see how different inkers can really affect a penciller's outcome. Shaffenburger starts on inks and he does a solid job giving Don't pencil's more weight to them but he can't capture the flow of Don. But overall - one of the better inkers. But, for my money, Dave Hunt was the perfect match for Don. Getting the shading right and not overpowering Don't faces like many inker's did. Frank Chiaramonte also deserves honorable mention - his inks on the last stories are genius. You can see why Don requested certain inkers (Josef Rubinstein)near the end of his career. He deserved to have someone who could elevate his pencils and not ruin them.
Okay - what about the stories? E. Nelson Bridwell did them so that means you get a writer who knows the history of these characters and his love of the character shines through. We get the classic villains we get new additions to the history we get Kid Eternity. Now, poor Nelson was working within the constraints of 7-10 page stories because this was a back-up feature in World's Finest and later in Adventure comics (a small digest - so this is the first time these stories are in normal size - yay!) but he did admirably within these constraints. They are fun adventures. Not five star ones but fun. The other constraint is Captain Marvel is invulnerable so it is hard to put these heroes in danger so the best you can do is build fun adventures around them and Nelson does this. We don't get any character development but we get some fun adventures.
On the negative side - Nelson missteps a few times trying to build up drama that doesn't exist - there is an off panel character that appears for three issues and the "payoff" is he is the brother of Billy's secretary. Not a bad guy as we were led to believe and barely appears in the story featuring him. On the other hand - the build up to the Kid Eternity reveal is pretty good.
From the production side of things - DC actually got this right. You get matted paper not glossy but I am slowly becoming a fan of that paper. It is less thick/strong BUT captures the art better and FEELS more like reading an old comic book. Also it has page numbers! - I know that sounds sarcastic but you would be shocked how many DC editions don't even have page numbers. This one has a great table of contents and pages numbers - good job DC. No extras - but that's okay. Also only two covers because the World's Finest covers didn't feature Shazam.
Overall - I have gone on too long - but I loved this collection. If you are a Captain Marvel fan - you will too.
Why? Let's start at the top - with Don Newton. This artist is so under rated, partly because he wasn't prolific and didn't draw on any "big runs" and partly because he died too young at the age of 50, just when he was about to start drawing Infinity Inc. He is best known for Batman but this is his best work. I attribute that because he loved the character so much and that love shines through in every page. There is only one story not drawn by him (Gil Kane is the artist - not too shabby for a fill-in :) and the rest is page after page of gorgeous Captain Marvel family. Don was a genius at capturing motion and when he drew the Marvels flying it was like a painting from the renaissance. Even the quiet moments were well done - a panel with the Marvels as Billy, Freddy and Mary, just walking in the snow could be framed and put on a wall. Every panel is a joy. I don't normally gush so much but I don't think Don Newton ever got his proper due as an artist. I talked n earlier volumes how I loved Kurt Shaffenburger's art on this series and that definitely hearkens back to Cap's more cartoonish roots. But with Don, the squinty eyes are dropped, the wavy hair is soon replaced with more realistic strands and it helps elevate the tension and drama of the stories. The whole atmosphere changes thanks to Don's art.
It also gives me a chance to see how different inkers can really affect a penciller's outcome. Shaffenburger starts on inks and he does a solid job giving Don't pencil's more weight to them but he can't capture the flow of Don. But overall - one of the better inkers. But, for my money, Dave Hunt was the perfect match for Don. Getting the shading right and not overpowering Don't faces like many inker's did. Frank Chiaramonte also deserves honorable mention - his inks on the last stories are genius. You can see why Don requested certain inkers (Josef Rubinstein)near the end of his career. He deserved to have someone who could elevate his pencils and not ruin them.
Okay - what about the stories? E. Nelson Bridwell did them so that means you get a writer who knows the history of these characters and his love of the character shines through. We get the classic villains we get new additions to the history we get Kid Eternity. Now, poor Nelson was working within the constraints of 7-10 page stories because this was a back-up feature in World's Finest and later in Adventure comics (a small digest - so this is the first time these stories are in normal size - yay!) but he did admirably within these constraints. They are fun adventures. Not five star ones but fun. The other constraint is Captain Marvel is invulnerable so it is hard to put these heroes in danger so the best you can do is build fun adventures around them and Nelson does this. We don't get any character development but we get some fun adventures.
On the negative side - Nelson missteps a few times trying to build up drama that doesn't exist - there is an off panel character that appears for three issues and the "payoff" is he is the brother of Billy's secretary. Not a bad guy as we were led to believe and barely appears in the story featuring him. On the other hand - the build up to the Kid Eternity reveal is pretty good.
From the production side of things - DC actually got this right. You get matted paper not glossy but I am slowly becoming a fan of that paper. It is less thick/strong BUT captures the art better and FEELS more like reading an old comic book. Also it has page numbers! - I know that sounds sarcastic but you would be shocked how many DC editions don't even have page numbers. This one has a great table of contents and pages numbers - good job DC. No extras - but that's okay. Also only two covers because the World's Finest covers didn't feature Shazam.
Overall - I have gone on too long - but I loved this collection. If you are a Captain Marvel fan - you will too.
March 13, 2025
Estupenda colección de historias del Capitán Marvel de la Edad de Bronce, aunque cualquiera lo diría, porque por el tono de las mismas parece salida de la Silver Age; la familia Marvel, dibujada por el excelente y prematuramente fallecido Don Newton, demuestra que los cómics realizados con corazón y sentido del humor nunca pasan de moda. E. Nelson Bridwell nos ofrece un puñado de buenos tebeos, protagonizados por un montón de personajes deliciosamente estrafalarios que nos retrotaen a un mundo más sencillo y entrañable. De entre ellos, destacaría dos: el primero versa sobre la lucha del Capitán Marvel para salvar el alma de su apropiadamente llamado tío Ebenezer Batson de las garras del mismísimo Satán, y la segunda, una verdadera joya, trata de la concesión del premio Nobel al inefable Doctor Sivana, que las pasa canutas por el daño que este honor supone para su reputación entre los bajos fondos. No hay ningún problema que no pueda resolverse con un poco de ingenio y un buen puñetazo, y así es como debe ser en Tierra S, hogar de... ¡¡la familia Marvel, los mortales más poderosos del mundo!!!
December 8, 2024
After the "Shazam" title ended in 1978, the series continued as a short feature in anthology comics, primarily World's Finest. Transitioning away from the Beck/Schaffenberger style which tried to capture the feel of the Golden Age stories, Don Newton was brought in for a more modern look.
Despite that the stories are slight, even silly ('The Gamester's Death Wager' crosses the line to being downright stupid), although Bridwell's and Newton's obvious love for the original material sustains the tone a bit, and the author brings back a variety of obscure characters and villains from the Fawcett years. Fans of the character who are down with the light entertainment tone will enjoy the book.
Despite that the stories are slight, even silly ('The Gamester's Death Wager' crosses the line to being downright stupid), although Bridwell's and Newton's obvious love for the original material sustains the tone a bit, and the author brings back a variety of obscure characters and villains from the Fawcett years. Fans of the character who are down with the light entertainment tone will enjoy the book.
May 21, 2021
The only thing that would have made this final volume of the pre-Crisis Captain Marvel even better would have been to include the DC COMICS PRESENTS stories with Superman instead of reprinting the recent SUPERMAN VS. SHAZAM! trade paperback.
May 7, 2022
Fun, readable stuff. I enjoyed much more than I expected. The stories were fast paced with usually quite great art that I don't usually associate with the 70's.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews