DCU Comic Book Reviews

THE TRIALS OF SHAZAM! #5

They Just Fade Away

March 2007

Written by Judd Winick

Pencils by Howard Porter

Inks by Howard Porter

Cover by Howard Porter

Synopsis

In the Rock Of Eternity, Billy tells Freddy that his next trail to earn courage, which means he will mostly likely be facing his fear.  In Quarac, Freddy and Achilles (disguised as a soldier) are shooting at an army of half-men, half-pigs.  While Freddy continues to fire at the oncoming horde, Achilles goes after the empath demon let loose by Sabina.  As he is fighting the demon, Sabina shots Achilles in the heel, wounding him.  Freddy goes to help him.  Achilles tells Freddy to kill the demon moments before he dies.  Freddy faces the demon, first calling down the lightning to change him back to normal, then literally jumping into the belly of the beast.  Inside the demon, Freddy calls upon the power of Shazam.  The lightning hits Freddy, killing the demon.  Later, Zareb tells Freddy his passed the trial, judging by the Shazam colors he now wears.  In Africa, a new lieutenant with the marks of Achilles reports for duty to finish his mission.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

SHAZAM = Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury

I liked this issue and, to date, is probably one of the better issues of this mini-series.  The core of this mini-series are the various trials that Freddy must endure and I think the key to whether or not it works (and how much I will like it) depends on how well Winick is able to execute each trial.  For the trial in this issue, I liked the way it worked and how Freddy succeeded for two reasons.  First, there was Winick’s ingenious use of the lightning to kill the beast.  Winick has done this before, most notably in the Lightning Strikes Twice storyline that ran across the Superman titles back in early 2005.  I am not sure if Winick was the first to realize that the lightning can be used as weapon, but he has used it effectively.  Hopefully, he won’t overuse it.  There was palpable feeling of true terror when Freddy was inside the beast and he wondered if he would actually be able to speak the necessary words.  It is not so much the feeling that he couldn’t, but just the overwhelming fear that can get to you and make you believe you can’t.  There is a subtle difference and Freddy’s refusal to give into the fear is the key to making the trial work.  Finally, the ending worked as well as we see Achilles returning to battle.  I am not sure if this suggests that Achilles faked his death to help Freddy or if his mortal body really did die and he just found a new host.  Either way, the final page worked, at least for me.