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Shazam! (2021) #0.1-4

Shazam!: To Hell and Back

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Billy Batson came to Titans Academy looking for answers. Why was the rest of his family cut off from the power of Shazam, and why are his own powers becoming increasingly unreliable? The answers send Billy on an outrageous adventure to Hell to retrieve the missing Rock of Eternity. It’s a journey that will change not just Billy, but the entire school! Collects Shazam! #1-4.

152 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2022

17 people are currently reading
43 people want to read

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Tim Sheridan

126 books9 followers

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5 stars
13 (7%)
4 stars
32 (19%)
3 stars
65 (39%)
2 stars
50 (30%)
1 star
6 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.4k reviews1,060 followers
April 25, 2022
This was fine. It just didn't feel much like Shazam. Billy's powers are cutting in and out. Turns out the Rock of Eternity is in Hell for some reason. So Billy descends into Hell with a new character named Dane who is a magic user at Titans Academy. Lots of wackiness and running around like a Scooby Doo cartoon ensues. The whole impetus behind everything isn't explained very well. It's all tied into the Future State story (which also wasn't explained well.) Clayton Henry's art has gotten more animated and everyone looks a little stretched. Eh. That's what I say about most of DC these days.
Profile Image for Vinicius.
824 reviews29 followers
September 19, 2025
2,5 🌟

Nessa minissérie de Shazam!, acompanhamos Billy Batson na Academia dos Jovens Titãs, sendo que ambas ocorrem em paralelo e possuem conexões. Porém, até o momento que li o Volume 1 da Academia dos titãs e essa minissérie, não senti uma interdependência de ambas, basta saber que Billy frequenta a escola dos titãs e está tendo problemas com seus poderes.

Por conta desses problemas, ele entra na academia para tentar soluciona-los, e acaba descobrindo que o motivador dos problemas é a Pedra da Eternidade, fonte de seus poderes, que foi transportada para o inferno.

Após a descoberta dessa informação, Billy e seu novo amigo, Dane, partem para o inferno em busca da Pedra, local onde ambos se envolvem com demônios, Dane revela seus poderes e origem, além do Billy encontrar um velho conhecido.

Toda essa parte do Billy no inferno toma a maior parte da HQ, e embora seja interessante em alguns momentos, peca por desenvolvimento fraco e cupturas/cortes de cenas sem maiores explicações. Por exemplo, Billy e outro personagem estão correndo de um monstro e do nada não estão mais, aparecem salvos em um café.

Ademais, a história não finaliza nesse encadernado, deixando a resolução para o volume 2 da Academia dos Jovens Titãs, sendo agora necessário recorrer a esse outro titulo.
Profile Image for A.J..
603 reviews84 followers
January 15, 2022
Considering how not great Teen Titans Academy has been so far, I was pleasantly suprised with how fun this was.

Wasn’t perfect by any means, but you could probably read this without having read TTA, and you’ll probably enjoy it, especially if you are a shazam fan.
Profile Image for Robert.
2,196 reviews148 followers
June 21, 2022
What an absolutely incoherent turkey of a book! Some pretty art is its sole redeeming feature.
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books123 followers
April 2, 2022
Billy Batson's powers aren't working right, and that spells disaster for the entire Marvel family. But hopefully, with a little help from new friend Dane and a trip to Hell, he might be able to get everything back on track. And if he can't, well, it's not too far to fall to hit rock bottom when you're literally in Hell already.

Given that Tim Sheridan's Teen Titans Academy has struggled (to say the least), I was sceptical about how good this would turn out to be, but it's surprisingly well done actually. Sheridan gets to laser-focus on Billy and Dane to the exclusion of everyone else, and manages to move both of their plotlines forward more in 4 issues than he managed to do with most everyone else in the main book in 15. Considering it's only four issues there are a few little superfluous moments like a demon's daughter that we didn't really need, but the bromance between Billy and Dane keeps things moving for the most part.

On art is Clayton Henry, who manages to draw all four issues here without assistance which I've not seen him do since his Valiant work. Henry's figures are sometimes a little stretched out, but he does a good job with the majority of what's going on here.

The most successful arc of Teen Titans Academy is found in a book with a totally different title. Who knew?
Profile Image for Guilherme Smee.
Author 27 books191 followers
July 9, 2022
Fazia tempo que as histórias em quadrinhos do Shazam/Capitão Marvel vinham amargando decisões editoriais ruins e roteiros mal enjambrados. Com exceção do tratamento dado por Geoff Johns e Gary Frank para Billy Batson, tanto no Renascimento DC como nos Novos 52, as outras tentativas foram horríveis. Boas mesmo eram as histórias de Jerry Ordway que tiveram pouca publicação no Brasil. Dito isso, essa nova versão por Sheridan, Henry e Maiolo cumpriu uma boa missão, trazendo ao mesmo tempo um personagem bem caracterizado e uma trama que toma uma faceta a cada edição da minissérie, integrada à também boa revista da Academia dos Titãs. O que eu preciso reclamar, entretanto, é versão brasileira da revista. A tradução e algumas escolhas de expressões me pareceram esquisitas. Também as letras da edição pareciam que variavam em tamanho de fonte, de entrelinhas e pareciam fora da centralização dos balões, saindo do "padrão Panini" no tratamento de design de suas edições. Fora isso, não achei ruim essa minissérie como eu achava que seria, não. Foi bem divertido de acompanhar a história e, aparentemente, o personagem não foi estragado nem descaracterizado aqui.
Profile Image for Dexter.
173 reviews10 followers
July 30, 2022
3,5!
Ich mag die Figur. Echt mal: ein Junge, der durchs Aussprechen eines Zauberwortes ein erwachsener Superheld wird, im Kopf aber Kind bleibt. Zum ersten Mal in der Helden-Historie wackeln die Kräfte von Captain Marvel, gehen unkontrolliert an und an. Als er der Sache auf den Grund gehen will, landet er in der Hölle. Ich mag das alles, mir ging es nur zu schnell, einige Figuren sind gänzlich auf der Strecke geblieben, wurden einfach ausgeblendet zugunsten der Hauptfigur. Das fand ich schade. Aber ich freue mich auf den nächsten Band ♥️
Profile Image for Lucas Savio.
603 reviews29 followers
June 3, 2023
Aqui o Sheridan consegue abordar melhor, creio que por ser menos pessoas em foco, creio que no final esse foi o problema, muitos personagens talvez ele não lide bem, até a penúltima edição vai bem e é divertido na última edição que desanda na real com um adão negro do futuro e um final sem final?!
Profile Image for Ross.
1,547 reviews
February 19, 2022
If you ignore the 'Future State' connections and the tie-ins to 'Teen Titans Academy', this is a good Shazam story. Those two storylines pretty much limit your storytelling possibilities. Billy's powers are going haywire. He can't safely share the power of the Wizard with ANYONE. Even his closest friends and family are being left out of the loop.

He has to face the facts at some point. Honesty will get him farther than all this secrecy.
Profile Image for Ashe Catlin.
907 reviews7 followers
March 31, 2023
Given that this collects the whole Future State and To Hell and Back stories, I expected them to be a lot more coherent, both were left open with no real conclusion.

Future State Had A lot going for it, a murder on the lose with the League, lead by Shazam trying to track down a murderer. The Question is very suspicious of his leader, trying to get his team members to back him up. Then you get the best reveal, Then we get the second issue and the whole thing falls apart, they introduce so maybe ideas but none of them stick and that ending with a person behind the scenes made zero sense. If we had a few more issues it could have been a lot more fleshed out and not felt so rushed or confusing.

To Hell and Back Had some interesting ideas but none of the momentum Future State had. Billy is losing his powers, Freddy is sick and Mary is worried. The Shazam family are all suffering but even though it's brought up multiple times in the story there is no closure for them, as nothing happens. You could have taken this out and the story wouldn't have changed whatsoever.

We have some Titans Academy stuff which feels odd, as Yes Billy is the age to attend but I've always consider Shazam part of the Justice League, a big leaguer so to have him here felt strange. He's going to school with other meta humans blah blah blah and there's a friend and they both decided to ditch the Titans and fix the problem themselves.

In hell we get a casino and a lot of irrelevant stuff, Sabbac is there and not threatening in the least even when Billy loses his powers. There a tunnel with Neron, that made me think this'll connect to the previous story but no. Somethings happen and then Billy's in the rock with a young Black Adam, no it's not explained. There is yet another threat introduced and then it ends, no resolution to anything it's introduced.

Billy's powers work because he's in the rock and he thinks that has resolved the problem but it was established earlier, that due to it being misplaced that's effecting his powers. So as he doesn't move it as soon as he goes back to earth the problem with still occur, he never visits Freddy which he claims is the reason he's going, to save his life. He's also now super chill with Black Adam, as if they're besties just because he looks young and says a lot has changed, with again no explanation.

and this story is a mess. Even with more issues, it wouldn't help the narrative is all over the place. The worst part of it though, is that it's an entertaining read so you engage with all the nonsense that it gives you.
Profile Image for Adam Fisher.
3,607 reviews24 followers
June 30, 2022
3.5 Stars.
Since the restructuring of the DC Universe after the events of Death Metal, many aspects of the universe have changed, mostly for the better. One exception to this is Shazam, as his powers have become very unreliable. Why? The Rock of Eternity is now complete moved to Hell!
Teaming up with Dane, a classmate of his at Teen Titans Academy (guess I have to read that one next!), they head off to Hell to see if the situation can be resolved.
Also included is the two "Future State" issues for Shazam, which actually raise more questions about the near and upcoming state of the Teen Titans. Raven has gone full evil and contains the spirits of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse!
Overall, This Volume was alright. Shazam hasn't be very prevalent in the DC comics universe as of late, and the tone of the comics is much different from the tone set by the movie. Perhaps DC will find something for this character to do with the upcoming interest for Black Adam, given they have similar power set and origin.
Recommend, but really only for fans of the character.
Profile Image for Anchorpete.
759 reviews6 followers
January 7, 2024
This book is so close to great. I don't think it is the writer's fault that it isn't a five star book.

Essentially, Tim Sheridan was tasked with completing a story about Billy Batson growing up too fast, executing a really awesome reveal and making it fit within DC's current convoluted status quo.

Sheridan had to tell a Shazam story focused in Hell, that also incorporated Future State and Titans Academy. That is no easy task.

The first 25% of the book is the Future State story, which is one of the darkest Shazam stories ever, and has a really clever twist on the idea of the Billy Batson into Shazam transformation. The rest of the book is basically planting the seeds for that dark future, but offering the possibility that Billy's actions could avert it.

I think if this was two trades worth of stories, with the first trade focusing on Billy attending Titans Academy and feeling like an outsider and the second trade stretching out the exodus through Hell, I think you would have two five star books.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books167 followers
May 18, 2022
I cringed when I saw this volume started with Future State, but this was actually a decent story, telling of a hellish yet believable future for Billy and the Captain. Of course, it was inconclusive.

The rest of the volume was as step, and felt like a traditional Captain Marvel story, with a trip to Hell actually being fun. There was great use of classic DC Hell characters and strong links to the superior Teen Titans Academy comic (in fact, I was pleased to read this because it finally revealed why Billy was so moody in that volume).

I'd generally call it a nice addendum to the TTA story.
Profile Image for Mithun Sarker.
358 reviews3 followers
December 13, 2022
Name Shazam! Issue 1-4 (2021)
Writer and Artist: Tim Sheridan, art by Clayton Henry

A great mini-series of 2021. The most attractive part must be the artwork. It was soo good. Loved every panel of it. This is from the pages of Teen Titans Academy, an extended version. The storyline follows billy struggling to control his powers. His powers are malfunctioning. The 4 issues explore why it was happening and how he could solve it. In the end, it all worked out, with a glimpse of a dark future ahead. As

The storyline was funny. It was super enjoyable. The optimism is beautiful.

Storyline: 7/10
Artwork: 10/10
Profile Image for Jasmine.
141 reviews
March 15, 2024
I feel like a lot of things happened but a lot of things also didn't happen. cool that billy and the captain were separated from each other but i feel like its reaaaally gullible of both of billy and cap to not realize where cap's sight came from when it happened. like??? idk the rest of the main plot sort of relies on this moment of out of character stupidity on both cap and billy. i do really like that the story recognizes the billy's superpower is his goodness and optimism
5 reviews
May 4, 2022
A story that goes in repetitive, uninteresting circles, and then just stops -- not ends, stops -- without really resolving anything. Annoying and unsatisfying.
The art's not bad.
The only really notably-above-average things in this volume are a few of the variant covers, especially one by Juni Ba, and one by Steve Lieber in the style of Dore's engraving illustrations for The Divine Comedy.
Profile Image for Tom French.
36 reviews
July 11, 2022
The undercurrent theme of "Grow up, Billy" shows a complete misunderstanding of this character. Billy IS enthusiasm and childlike wonder personified -- that's the whole point. It's his strength. Billy would not (nor should he) give up on Freddy -- and his optimism should win the day!

The story was flawed from its conception. Poorly executed.
363 reviews8 followers
September 12, 2024
Probably rather required read if you read Teen Titans Academy but, same as that title and all related to it, it is pretty bad so you better just skip everything...
I just wanted to read War for Earth 3 and went back reading all that lead to it (very cheaply in digital sales hopefully) but that turned out to be a waste of time.
Profile Image for Will Cooper.
1,899 reviews6 followers
June 14, 2023
Uh oh, Baby Boy's powers aren't really working and he's got to get to the Rock of Eternity! And then there's Future State, none of which makes sense, and he meets a young version of a character that made me go, "Oh yeah?"

Nothing really gained in this, in my humble o.
Profile Image for Erik J.
145 reviews1 follower
January 2, 2025
First things first - I love Shazam/Captain Marvel. He gets overlooked so often so whenever he has a moment to shine, I'm all for it.

That being said, aside from the absolutely gorgeous artwork, this story felt ... unnecessary.
Profile Image for Parker J.
492 reviews15 followers
May 8, 2022
I'm the minority in this one...and that is ok! I actually had a really good time with this mini series.
Profile Image for NereaNickFan.
134 reviews1 follower
August 11, 2022
Me da penica Freddy. Me hubiera gustado que la serie fuera mas larga.
Profile Image for Jus.
226 reviews
November 7, 2022
Had a good time till they (kill?) Freddy offscreen.
Profile Image for Cesar Infante.
12 reviews
February 1, 2023
Great art and the story had good humor. Not the greatest Shazam story ever but still a fun time.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews

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