Shazam! #7 Review

Into The Darklands

Written By: Geoff Johns

Art By: Dale Eaglesham, Scott Kolins, Michael Atiyeh, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 25, 2019

The Magiclands are calling us back to the Rock of Eternity, but Billy's going to have a lot on his plate before he can get back to the hunt for his family because his long lost father has shown up out of nowhere and looking to put the Batson family back together again and Mary has decided that with her foster brothers and sister missing in the Magiclands, she'd better come clean to Victor and Rosa Vasquez and has let the cat out of the bag about every one's superhero shenanigans.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Billy can juggle all these problems, while also getting ready to take on Sivana and Mr. Mind as they continue to try to put together the Monster Society of Evil.  Let's check it out.

Now with what I was saying about Billy juggling all these elements, I'm not lying because with so much packed into only seven issues... it might just be too much going on in this book.  We're dealing with the Shazam Family's secret being outed to their foster parents, which in my mind should be a huge development, but because the majority of the family are still stuck in the Magiclands, there isn't time to deal with that or really even Sivana, Mr. Mind and Black Adam being in the Rock of Eternity.

Essentially, besides for the bare minimum that's needed to get Billy Batson past Victor and Rosa so that he can get back to finding his brothers and sister, which means a recap of what's been going on, we barely touch this aspect of the book and that's a shame for how good this reveal could have been.  Mostly, we see Eugene and Pedro, along with the Wizard Shazam going to another new magical land...... The Wozenderlands....... which is Oz and Wonderland mashed up and comes off kind of underwhelming for how original these lands felt previously and we have Freddy and Darla escaping the Wildlands with their new friend Talky Tawny.  Now, this is a really fun section of the book and I'm glad that we dealt with it, even having them being led to another new land to explore, but we could have had more if Geoff Johns wasn't cramming as much as he could into an issue, undercutting all the fun aspects to this series.  

All in all, I love Dale Eaglesham's art in this issue, but feel that things take a bit of a dip when Scott Kolins comes on.  I'm not saying that it's worse than what Kolins usually offers, but it doesn't stack to what Eaglesham brought previous.  As for the story...... I love Shazam and the Shazam Family that Geoff Johns is giving us, but now that we're deep in the Magiclands story..... things seem to be getting away from him and the epic nature of this story just kind of feels like it's getting lessened by the sporadic nature of the writing and even the lands that are being presented don't seem as original or as fun.  There's still a lot of fun to be had this issue though and I love everything that we dealt with in the Wildlands, not to mention some of the interesting questions that get raised here, but something just seemed off with some of this issue this month.

Bits and Pieces:

Dale Eaglesham's art is amazing this issue, I just wish he would have done the entire thing.  Jumping around with artists and even aspects to this story seems to be this series' thing though and sadly, it's starting to work against it.  I'm not saying that this issue is bad by any means, I just wish it could be more focused because there's not enough time to really enjoy all that Geoff Johns wants to give us.  

7/10