At times, canon is the bedrock from which stories spring, while at others it’s the cement shoes dragging characters and story down to increasingly murky depths in which only the most seasoned comics readers can tread. Luckily, we have stories like The New Champion of Shazam by Josie Campbell, Evan “Doc” Shaner, and Becca Carey to help make sense of these canon-complicated worlds.

The New Champion of Shazam is the story of Mary Marvel Bromfield and her new start after her and her foster siblings all lost their connection to the powers of Shazam. For the first time in her life, she’s leaving her foster home to be independent as she begins her new college life in upstate New York. But she’s almost immediately brought back home by two things:

1. Her foster parents’ disappearance shortly after dropping her off at the bus station.
2. The talking rabbit that brings her a message from her brother, Billy Batson, and the powers of Shazam for her and her alone.

U-turning back into her old life without the stability of her parents and brother, the resentment from her other siblings for getting superpowers again without them, and the slow unraveling of all of her plans for herself, Mary is having a bad time.

The world’s crumbling around her (literally and figuratively depending on the page), and this is compelling despite us knowing very little about everything that had led up to the first issue. This canon-light story feels much more approachable for readers who may not be familiar with the extended, odd Shazam family. Campbell, Shaner, and Carey mold the canon around the story instead of the other way around. This allows us to see Mary as a character experiencing her own story as opposed to just one piece in the larger canon jigsaw puzzle.

The New Champion of Shazam is what we expect from our cape stories: bombastic action, strange new villains, a mystery that takes our main characters on a journey to unexpected places. But more than anything else, it provides us a character in Mary Bromfield that we want to see overcome all of her obstacles. Even though she has superpowers, she feels much more grounded in the beats of the story, even with the talking bunny helping her along the way. 

Get excited. Get magic. 

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, & 510) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.