The Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures (DC)

via IGN

writer: Grant Morrison

artist: Cameron Stewart

To even begin to outline the convoluted publishing history of Captain Marvel again would exhaust me so much, I would actually prefer the Sivana Family to attack...

The latest chapter of The Multiversity from Grant Morrison tackles Fawcett City's own Big Red Cheese.  From the opening pages, featuring a more dynamic Wizard than anyone one's (the way he's been handling every character, basically, in this whole splendid exercise) to Captain Marvel's own Lex Luthor, Sivana, at long last creating his own Sivana Family to counteract Billy Batson's allies in Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr., it's once again a textbook adventure of the given set of superheroes.  The only major element missing, other than in substitute form, of the Captain Marvel mythos is Black Adam, who arguably became the most significant one in DC's estimation in recent years.

It's a fun read, not exactly the dense Pax Americana experience, and proves that Captain Marvel, who is now routinely known as Shazam, could be a viable franchise all his own.  I mean, who wouldn't want a Talky Tawny book?  And did Morrison invent the Lieutenant Marvels?  Once all these allies are present, it pretty well demolishes the typical image Captain Marvel projects of being that superhero who isn't Superman but also happens to switch places with an adolescent boy (who plays reporter thanks to "loosely enforced child labor laws," one of several clever quips, including allusions to Mary Marvel's turn to the dark side in Countdown to Final Crisis).

Sivana is the real winner.  It takes someone really willing to play with the concept of the mad scientist to make a character like him pop.  He's what Luther would be like without gobs of money to make him socially respectable.  There's also great fun with a different aspect of the multiverse than has so far been explored in the project, as Sivanas from across several realities attempt to collaborate on something other than the creation of "Sivanaday."

Artist Cameron Stewart has previously worked with Morrison in the pages of the Seaguy comics.  He's altered his style to match the traditional Captain Marvel style for the purposes of Thunderworld Adventures.

Everything's more vivid and vital in The Multiversity...