There is a disturbing trend on Trials of Shazam. The Revolution has given a lower score with each issue. That is definitely not what you want to see happen on any title. I really enjoyed Trials of Shazam #1, but each issue has gotten worse than the last one. Can Trials of Shazam #4 break the downward trend and get the Revolution excited about this title once again? Let’s find out.
Creative Team
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Howard Porter
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: We begin with Winick preaching to us his anti-war sermon and showing us a bunch of young soldiers getting killed by a road bomb over in the Middle East. We cut to Lieutenant Alvarez (And I guarantee you that mi hermano here turns out to be one of the “new” forms of the Greek Gods.) talking with his Captain. Alvarez is angry that he just lost six good marine to a road bomb. Especially, when the road was swept clean last night. Alvarez had handpicked the team for a classified special ops.
We see Alvarez leaving the Captain’s tent. Two soldiers, Corporal Freeman and Sergeant Barak, report to duty with Alvarez. Alvarez takes them into his tent. Freddy tells Alvarez that he is here for the trials. Alvarez pulls a gun on them and instructs them to “Drop the glamor.” Freddy and Zareb drop their magical disguises. Freddy tells Alvarez that he is here to take the trial from the immortal soldier. The god of courage: Achilles. (Told ya. Alvarez is a god.)
Alvarez tells Freddy that he doesn’t have time to test Freddy’s mettle. Alvarez tells Freddy to come back in a week. That right now Alvarez is on a mission. Freddy says that he doesn’t have a week, so Alvarez’s mission will be his trial. Alvarez tells Freddy that there is a Hate Empath that may or may not crack through a weak wall into this realm. That a Hate Empath in the Middle East would quadruple in size by nightfall due to all the hate in the hearts of the people in the Middle East.
We cut to Sabina and her army of hog-like warriors (Heh, they look like Jabba’s Gamorrean guards) trying to help set free the Hate Empath. We then cut to Alvarez and Freddy at the same location. Sabina and her hog-like warriors attack Alvarez and Freddy. Alvarez and Freddy start battling with the hog-like warriors. Meanwhile, while those two are busy fighting her hog-like warriors, Sabina slinks off to a cave and successfully helps the Hate Empath break the wall into our realm.
Alvarez and Freddy realize that the Hate empathy has arrived in their realm. Suddenly, a new wave of hog-like warriors arrive to re-enforce the ones that were defeated. Alvarez tells Freddy to get ready to do some serious battle. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: And Trials of Shazam continues to head south. Trials of Shazam #4 was a pretty lousy read and certainly the weakest issue in this mini-series. Of course, the Revolution’s Rule of Positivity commands that I find something I enjoyed about this issue.
Howard Porter did a solid job with the artwork. However, I did think that this issue was Porter’s weakest effort up to this point. But, Porter is talented enough that even a weak effort by him is still better than your average artist. I did like the one page splash shot of Alvarez with Achilles behind him. And the Hate Empath looked pretty cool, too.
The Bad: Trials of Shazam #4 was a rather unimpressive read. Winick is quickly losing steam on this title. One problem with this issue was rather uninteresting. Freddy meets up with Achilles and fights some hog warriors while a Hate Empath is set free. This trial isn’t anything intriguing or unique at all. It seems like Winick is just trotting out a rather uninspired trial for Freddy to tackle. This entire issue was nothing more than a set up for the next issue. And not a particularly captivating set up at that.
Plus, the action scenes were uninspired and felt like your standard issue comic book fight scenes. It was certainly nothing that I found particularly entertaining.
My fears for Winick’s re-imagined world of magic is coming true. Winick has always been a bit too trendy and P.C. for my tastes. I had a sinking feeling that once Winick revealed that the old Greek Gods in their original forms were gone that we were in store for exactly what we are now getting. The Solomon is now a woman who happens to be a tattoo artist. Part P.C. by having Solomon be a woman and part trendy by making her a tattoo artist. Now we get Achilles in the form of a Hispanic marine. This one is another P.C. move by Winick.
Now, I would imagine that I would be the exact target that Winick is trying to appeal to with this P.C. move to “diversify” the Greek Gods. Wouldn’t I be excited to see one of the Greek Gods in the form of one of mi hermanos? Um, no. You see, I don’t need a character to be of my ethnicity for me to enjoy the story.
And these are Greek Gods. Not a single one was Hispanic. I’m totally O.K. with that fact. If Winick was writing a story involving Mexican Aztec gods, would he feel the need to “diversify” the Mexican gods and make one Russian and another German and another Italian? I’m thinking not. But, if they are old white guys then they’ve got to go. Old white guys are persona non grata in the new DCU. Throw out the Greek Gods and replace them with some trendy P.C. modern versions. Yippie.
I find Winick’s new universe of magic totally unnecessary and completely uninteresting. Also, the fact that Winick is making these version of the gods so “modern” and “trendy” he is making this entire story susceptible to be appearing extremely dated and rather cheesy in about five to ten years.
The pacing on this maxi-series still seems to be a bit too slow. Winick doesn’t seem to have a tightly plotted storyline. We are four issues in and only partway though the second trial. That leaves us eight issues to complete five trials, have Freddy become Captain Marvel and then take one the bad guys and defeat them and their champion Sabina. That is lots of storyline left to cover. Looking on the bright side, maybe Winick has a wildly fast paced and exciting ending in store for us.
Overall: Trials of Shazam #4 was a pretty unexciting read. I just don’t find this new world of magic particularly captivating. The trials that Freddy has had to undergo have been lacking in creativity. However, I’m sticking with this series until the end. I hope that Winick can prove me wrong and end up making Trials of Shazam and interesting maxi-series.