Comic Review: Shazam (2018-) #5

Shazam (2018-) #5

DC Comics

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artists: Marco Santucci Dale Eaglesham

Shazam #5 starts where 4 left off; Black Adam discovers that Billy Batson and his friends have traveled to the different realms of The Magiclands with this issue being done in 3 segments. Really, 4. The magic train station with Black Adam has art by Marco Santucci. Billy and Mary in The Funlands with art by Dale Eaglesham. Eugene and Pedro in The Gamelands with art by Scott Kolins. And Freddy and Darla in The Wildlands with art by Max Raynor. All segments colored by Mike Atiyeh.

The Funlands part showcases Billy and Mary as slaves, working below The Funlands with the other slaves who are over the age of 18 because, y’know, King Kid hates adults. King Kid also believes that Shazam’s power will greatly improve The Funlands by making rides better, lights brighter, etc. Of course, Shazam can opt out of being a slave, but in order to do so, he must relinquish his power to King Kid.
This segment (and most of the issue) just seems kinda cliche and feels like something we’ve already read before, but it doesn’t come off as bad. It’s just nothing special. Dale Eaglesham’s artwork, on the other hand, is something special. I really hope he can do more full issues of Shazam in the future because his style fits this series’ tone so well.

Meanwhile in the Gamelands – which is essentially a Tron inspired video game world that unfortunately ends up seeming more Spy Kids 3D than anything – Pedro and Eugene discover that they can become Gamemaster and have access to anything by beating the current unknown Gamemasters high score, as score means everything here. They feel if one of them become The Gamemaster, that can get them closer to getting back home.
Now, earlier I mentioned how the Funlands segment was cliche, but not bad. Gamelands is both cliche and almost bad, honestly. There’s a part where Eugene talks about how he was a strange kid and only ever had video games to comfort him and also says he may be a loser in reality, but in the game world, he can be somebody.

This came off to me as Geoff Johns trying to appeal to a younger audience. No, there’s nothing wrong with that at all, but he’s taking the “How do you do, fellow kids?” route. Johns has been successful in the past when reaching out to a younger audience but falls flat this time around. Scott Kolins reuniting with Johns again was nice though, as his art really worked in The Gamelands world.

Finally, in the Wildlands, Freddy and Darla are on trial simply because they’re humans in a realm populated by animals. Think Disney’s Zootopia, but with hate against humans. After discussion, Freddy and Darla are sentenced to death by a tiger… Hey, wasn’t Tawny seen in The Wildlands earlier in the series? Interesting…
Wildlands is the best segment of the book that reads like classic Geoff Johns and that Max Raynor art was pretty great as well.

This issue felt like it’s going to be the weakest point in the arc. Kind of like a filler, but the purpose of this issue is to basically hype up the one after it and because of that, not a whole lot happened and the story ended at a weird point. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens in issue 6 and also pray it doesn’t get delayed.