#2 is out today! 
A cover, by Evan Shaner.
B cover, by Dan Hipp.
C cover, by Marguerite Sauvage (1:25).
What’s your cover pick? More importantly, what’d you think of the new ish?
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Okay! So, issue #2 was the motherload of retro-references.
Let’s start with the first page and the panel about W.H.I.Z. Radio. WHIZ radio was the name of the station that Billy Batson worked as a broadcaster for in the Golden Age and beyond. In the panel, there are some posters of note. One shows the image and the name of Zazzo. Zazzo was a Bronze Age Captain Marvel villain who was a 5th dimensional imp who specialized in stealing Shazam’s powers. There’s also a poster for the Monster Society of Evil. The Monster Society was an early example of a supervillain team and they featured in an epic, serialized, Golden Age saga in Captain Marvel Adventures #22-46.
Then I got to the pages with the missing posters and I realized I would have my work cut out for me. It turns out that it’s not only Mary’s foster parents, Rosa and Victor Vasquez, who are missing. It’s, also, many of the greatest Fawcett Comics heroes who are missing. The following characters are named on the missing posters:
Roger Parsons aka Golden Arrow
Nyoka Meredith aka Nyoka the Jungle Girl
Susan Kent aka Bulletgirl
Jack Weston aka Minute-Man
Chase Yale aka Commando Yank
Brian Butler aka Mr. Scarlet
Alan Armstrong aka Spy Smasher
There are two more I’m less sure I’m correct about as the panel art cuts out major parts of their names, but they are:
James Barr aka Bulletman (I feel pretty good about this one since Bulletgirl is represented and Bulletman was a major Fawcett character.)
Christopher “Kit” Kendall who was a support character for Kara the Jungle Princess (I’m much less sure about this one as he’s technically a Nedor character and Fawcett didn’t purchase Nedor until late in their run.)
I also have the feeling that the flying gator and the triplicate villain are retro-references, but can’t figure out to what. Though, the gator did kind of remind me of Sobek who was the Black Adam Family mascot in 52.
Otherwise, I really felt for Mary. She had to leave her dream school and enroll in Community College while she works this mystery out. That’s a bit depressing and hit me in a real kind of way. I think her Bio teacher is cool, though!
Edit: I wanted to jump back in to highlight this article by Calamity Jon about Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny.
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I enjoyed the issue, especially the complicated family dynamic.
I do hope we see Mary interact more with Freddy. I liked their team ups in the past, so I’d like to see some of that reflected here.
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What issue is that from???
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Holy Moly, am I glad I read this post before I read the book!
Now I know all manner of Easter eggs to hunt for.
Thanks, TCM! 
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Np! I live for the Easter Eggs…
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Likewise for most other franchises.
However, I’ve read next to nothing of the GA Captain Marvel stuff, so if it wasn’t for your Easter egg call-outs, most of them would go over my head and not be noticed.
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So, here’s a Q for my fellow Shazam fans:
How do you spell “moly” in “holy moly”?
I’ve seen “moly” (my preferred spelling) and “moley”.
What’s your 
take?
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Well, there were only two important factors for me when it comes to this issue:
- How did they spell it in the Golden Age? Which could be a tricky question since I’ve seen alternate spellings for many different words in the Golden Age (including alternate spellings for words that do not have alternate spellings). Every time I came across this in the Golden Age stories, though, it was always “Holy moley!”
From Captain Marvel Adventures #18
From Captain Marvel Adventures #27
Again, there’s a chance that I will see it spelled the alternate way since… Golden Age spelling is chaotic (and I will let you know if I do come across it spelled that way in the retro tales). But, every time I came across it in the older books, it was “Holy moley!”
- How does Grant Morrison spell it? Because… you know me… And the answer to that from Final Crisis: Superman Beyond:
So… ultimately… it’s “Holy Moley” for me.
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See, the Grammar/Spelling Geek™ in me has a hard time with that spelling, since Billy isn’t talking about moles. 
Plus, “moly” is more akin to “holy”, both in spelling and letter count.
I think its one of those things where fans can go with which version they like best, and for me, that’s “moly”.
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Eh, not a hill I care to die on. I’m just saying, from the comic evidence I’ve come across, it’s “holy moley.” For me, this would be an issue where the rules of comic book tradition would outweigh any grammar/spelling issues (which are debatable since even Google searching the phrase will give you both spellings from different dictionaries). So, if I wrote a Shazam story tomorrow, I would write: “Holy moley!”
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I’m all-for tradition of course, but I’m also all-in on correct grammar and spelling. 
…and no, English wasn’t one of my favorite classes in school. 
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The funny thing is, I studied English in college. However, I am not a grammar hardliner. Generally speaking, most of the spelling and grammar rules within the English language are a bit arbitrary. They were created by many people from many different language backgrounds over a long period of time and whenever there was a disagreement it usually came down to “the dude with the most clout in the room wins” rather than for any logical reason. That’s what makes English a difficult language to learn. Grammar and spelling rules also, generally, look down on slang idioms like “holy mol(e)y” which is why there can be spelling disagreements like the one we’re discussing. All of which leads me to say that if there is a grammar/spelling issue with “holy moley” (which is, again, debatable), it’s not worth sweating over.
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Exactly. Fans can go their own way on that one.
Now, “Ra’s” and whether its “Raysh” or “Rahs”, there’s only one answer for that…
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Mary returns!
The New Champion of Shazam! #3 is in stores this week, while issues 1 and 2 are available on DCUI to Ultra members.
Have you been reading this series (especially because of other recent Shazam-related content cough Black Adam cough)?
Channel the powers of the gods below with your thoughts on The New Champion of Shazam!
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I finished The New Champion of Shazam #3 and I spent much more time researching the Easter eggs than it took to actually read it. I love it!
Let me start with the most obvious and important Golden Age reference. Issue #3 introduces us to
“Uncle Marv” who is obviously an updated version of Dudley H. Dudley aka Uncle Marvel. Uncle Marvel first appeared in Wow Comics #18. He was a con man (or as Mary used to say, “a lovable, old fraud”) who claimed to be Billy and Mary’s Uncle. He also pretended to get superpowers by saying “Shazam,” but he really just snuck off to change into a Marvel costume without having any of the abilities. He became an important support character to Mary’s Golden Age adventures and the Marvel Family as a whole.
Next we got many, many new Missing posters. Here’s a reminder of the Missing posters from issue #2 that I already identified:
Rosa Vasquez- Mary’s foster-mother
Victor Vasquez- Mary’s foster-father
Roger Parsons aka Golden Arrow
Nyoka Meredith aka Nyoka the Jungle Girl
Susan Kent aka Bulletgirl
Jack Weston aka Minute-Man
Chase Yale aka Commando Yank
Brian Butler aka Mr. Scarlet
Alan Armstrong aka Spy Smasher
James Barr aka Bulletman
Christopher “Kit” Kendall from Nedor’s Kara the Jungle Princess stories
Let me break down the new Missing references I’m sure about:
Hittany Brolzherr- Anagram for editor Brittany Holzherr
Cozie Jambles- Anagram for writer Josie Campbell
Ehan “Cod” Savner- Anagram for artist Evan “Doc” Shaner
Billy Batson aka Shazam (the artist formerly known as Captain Marvel)
Stanley Printwhistle aka Ibac
Mickey Malone aka The Phantom Eagle
Scoop Smith aka… well Scoop Smith from Whiz Comics
Stuart Blake who was the father of Atom Blake, The Boy Wizard
Van Crawford aka Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer (who was published by Lightning, not Fawcett. However, his creators were important Marvel Family collaborators: Otto Binder and C.C. Beck).
Charles Clarence is a reference to C.C. (Charles Clarence) Beck who was the most important Golden Age artist for the Marvel Family.
George Tweedle aka The Arson Fiend
Amentep Prince aka Prince Amentep aka Ibis the Invincible
Flipots is probably a misspelling of the last name of Kurt Filpots aka Mr. Banjo
Dora Keane aka Darkling from World’s Finest Comics #278
There’s a poster that just says Fawcett which was the Marvel Family’s Golden Age publisher, of course!
There are three new missing posters that are driving me crazy:
Horace Hand- I think this may be a reference to The Horrible Hand from the Ibis the Invincible story in Whiz Comics #34. The Horrible Hand was a disembodied, demon hand that evil magicians commanded from afar to commit crimes. That might explain why “Horace Hand” is covering up his face in his poster so only his hands are featured. I’m not too sure about this one, though.
Oswald Babs- …I don’t know. None of my searches in the usual places turned up anything. I’ll keep looking since all the other posters referenced something, but for now I have nothing on Oswald.
Finally there is one Missing poster that is so obscured that I can only make out the last three letters of the first name (les) and the last three letters of the last name (nis). I’ll keep looking into that, as well, but that’s not a lot to go off of.
Yet another Easter Egg can be found in the subway stop where the homeless Camp Patco is set up. On the pillars of the subway stop, you can see the name Oksner which is a reference to artist Bob Oksner who drew Shazam for DC in the 70’s. You can also see a sign that says SHZM 19 which is a reference to Shazam #19 from 1975 which Oksner drew and was the first appearance of Zazzo who was an Easter egg in issue #1.
There are a few other things that may be references to older material that I’m not sure about:
Issue #3 references one of the missing persons as “The Sunshine Man” or “Sunny” for short. I couldn’t find an earlier reference to a “Sunshine Man.” However, one of Mary’s most notable villains from the Golden Age was Mister Night. Mister Night appeared in Wow Comics #14 and was a darkness themed villain who terrorized the magical Rainbow City. Maybe poor Sunshine Man is being set up to be transformed into Mister Night?
I feel like issue #3’s villain, Babel, has to be a reference to an earlier villain. The other villains have been so far. However, outside of the obvious Biblical reference, I couldn’t find anything.
Finally, after the reveal that Dr. G is likely the big bad of this series (which I thought was very well done), I tried to see if she was an updated version of a classic villain. The best I could come up with, for now, is that she could be a reference to the Black Terror villain Dr. Ghoul. Dr. Ghoul appeared in Black Terror #12 and his M.O. was turning normal people into scientifically enhanced monsters. However, this theory is a Hail Mary from me. Dr. Ghoul like “Kit” Kendall is a Nedor character and not a Fawcett or DC one. Outside the fact that G could stand for Ghoul, Fawcett purchased Nedor before they went belly-up, and the similar M.O.'s, I have little to back this up with. There’s probably a better answer out there.
Outside of all the wonderful Easter eggs, I continue to enjoy this series. I feel a great deal of sympathy for Mary as she continues to deal with the fact she’s not living her ideal college life and is now having to put up with online fanboy trolls. The plot has pulled me in to Mary’s plight and disappointments.
I will continue to research the Easter eggs I’m struggling with. For now, though, I need a break. If anyone has anything to add, though, please chime in!
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Actually, forget all that stuff about Dr. Ghoul. Wishful thinking from a Golden Age nerd. It’s far more likely that Dr. G is Georgia Sivana, because… of course it is.
I’m also beginning to think that “Sunshine Man” is actually Sunny Sparkle who first appeared in DC’s Shazam #2 from 1973. Sunny was so nice that people couldn’t help but do nice things for him.
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Wow. I had no idea there was so many references. Here I was, just enjoying the comic for what it was. Didn’t know how deep the rabbit hole went. This is awesome. Thanks for the update.
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No prob! I love jumping down the rabbit holes…
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