Geoff Johns and Gary
Frank introduce the World's Mightiest Mortal to a new generation as
a backup in the pages of Justice League. Gone is the old "Captain
Marvel" name, and now the character will be simply known as Shazam
(which is how I have always called it anyway, and probably most
people). Gone is also goodie-two-shoes Billy Batson, which is
perhaps the most shocking part of the revamp, and the one with most
potential for interesting developments.
Being only a 12 page backup, it would have been expected for the
story to be more compressed, but Johns did not change his style here
and dragged it out instead. With four writing assignments plus other
projects, the only way for a writer to meet deadlines is to use lots
of fluff, and this could be detrimental down the road. Gary Frank's
work has evolved with time, and right now it is in a great place
stylistically. Nice backup, but it needed more story.