Written by Michael Jelenic
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos
Superman: "So you're what this is all about."
Shazam (re Black Adam): "I'm his replacement."
Superman: "Then let's replace him."
First of all, I was a little surprised by how short this movie was. I assumed like most DC Animated features, it was around 70-80 minute mark but coming in at 25 minutes, this little feature had a lot of ground to cover and managed to do it rather neatly.
We meet young Billy Batson (Zach Callison) living on his own, feeding rats, being nice to neighbours and getting his ass kicked when trying to defend a homeless man (Kevin Michael Richardson) from a group of punks and that's all before meeting Clark Kent (George Newborn) for breakfast as the latter is writing a piece to help Billy out of his dire situation.
As Billy mused over how being good hasn't particularly paid off for him, Black Adam (Arnold Vosloo) arrives on the scene, knowing that Billy has been earmarked by the Wizard to be his successor and naturally Black Adam isn't happy with that prospect, so he tries to kill Billy while also dealing with Superman for good measure as well.
Of course given the length of this movie, it's a little surprising that we have to wait until the last ten minutes before Billy encounters the Wizard and becomes Shazam (or Captain Marvel) but when it happens, it's a rather glorious moment as Shazam proves himself as a hero even though it takes Superman to make sure that he doesn't stoop to the same levels as Black Adam.
Black Adam's defeat is also done rather as well as he succumbs to old age rather than allowing Mister Tawky Tawny (the homeless man in disguise acting as Billy's guardian angel) banish him for another couple of thousand years. The movie then ends with a nice moment where Billy also got to get his own back on the bullies that beat him up to begin with.
- I noticed two of the Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony and Lust are replaced with Selfishness and Injustice.
- It seems like Billy doesn't even have Mary or Freddy in this universe as neither of them were mentioned at all. We do know that his parents are currently dead.
- The title of this movie is a homage to Superman and Shazam's first crossover series.
- Chronology: I'll assume it was 2010 given when the film was released.
Superman/Shazam!: The Return Of Black Adam is a solid romp with the title characters getting a fun meeting and Black Adam being utilised pretty well. Now, I do wish it had been a bit longer and that we had met some of Billy's foster family but other than that, this was a lot of fun to watch.
Rating: 7 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment