Mary Marvel is having a very bad dream. Sent into a supernatural sleep by new villain Insomnia, she’s confronted by a horrific version of brother Billy, a Shazam who’s more Black Adam than the Captain. But having been freaked out in the first half of this micro-series tying into the Knight Terrors event, Mary has rallied, emotionally and intellectually.
And with that, Mary nominates herself the Dream Police, using her own magic to connect with the visions of not only her brothers and sister, but her parents. To deal with the intensity of the nightmares she shares the Shazam power around. My favourite vignette tells us something about Pedro.
We all know that the Knight Terrors spin-offs are eminently disposable, not really able to advance the storyline. So the best we can hope for is an entertaining tale that shows something of the personalities of the books’ stars. And that’s what we get here from writer Mark Waid, with Mary on classic form – smart, spunky, inspirational, everything you could want in a hero. The various family vignettes are happily varied, with parents Victor and Rosa having a whale of a time and Freddy showing an interestingly weird side.
While Mary can’t properly beat Insomnia she gets a few very good blows in, and the closing blurb implies she’ll have an important role in something called Knight Terrors: Night’s End in a few weeks’ time, which I’m assuming is the event-ending comic.
Roger Cruz pencils the story once again and Wellington Dias is similarly back to supply the inks. Cruz’s energetic, even spiky, layouts suit the freaky journey Mary undertakes, while the firm finishes of Dias ground the fancy fantasy footwork. Arif Prianto’s lighting of the issue is smartly done, and the colours well chosen, with a highlight being a spread in which Mary is punched through a series of nightmares by Black Adam… sorry, Bad Billy… er, Insomnia. As for letterer Troy Peteri’s contribution, just look at those terrific sound effects.
As for the cover illustration, it’s a fun take by Dan Mora on a classic fictional fear.
All in all, this is a fun conclusion to the Marvel Family’s featured role in Knight Terrors. I especially liked seeing the younger kids in costume again – in the regular book they’re currently locked out of the Shazam spell. I do wonder, though, what Mr Tawny is dreaming about…
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
“Minerva’s wisdom”? Does Mary have her own set of gods again? Can she get her own book, so I can read one about Billy Batson without her horning in all the time. Did Billy even appear in this storyline???
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She does have the original goddesses again, as of Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #4, although ‘beauty’ and ‘grace’ have been swapped out for punchier powers.
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Beauty and grace are very potent powers, just ask Aphrodite. I notice that feminine attributes are swapped out these days, as feminine=weak. Gotta man these chicks up! 😉 Beauty promotes trust, peace, and love. Grace implies poise and skill. Any gymnast puts that depiction on display easily. Curious that writers don’t understand this, but they’re just scared of being cancelled I suppose.
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You’re so right. I’d love to have grace, I’m so lumpen.
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Read the first part, have to get around to the second. I was disappointed at how much this felt like a fill-in despite Waid’s involvement. Also I’m really shocked that Waid did not find a way to bring readers up to speed on Mary’s status. It’s not crucial to the story, but it would have been nice to have a better understanding of where she gets her powers from. Maybe I will like issue 2 better, and maybe this will all somehow be worked into Waid’s larger ongoing storylines. But for now this feels like an unnecessary break in what has been an otherwise enjoyable launch of a new book. And I’m also not sold on the larger Shazam family, either. Feels to cluttered. I know that when Geoff Johns established them he was aiming for diversity, which is laudible. But the foster family is just too darn big at this point. I’d have preferred they been ditched/forgotten and we get Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel and leave things there.
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Oh, I think we’re safe in assuming this is filler, but at least it’s written by the regular writer who cares enough not to give us Dark Hot Mary Marvel again. And I agree about the excess of Marvel kids… maybe spin them off into their own title as the New Newsboy Legion (and Darla) or something.
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I like the new Marvel kids, but definitely don’t need to see them all the time. They’re basically an update on the Lieutenant Marvels, and should be used about as often. Or each one used separately, to let us get to know them all better as individuals.
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Now I really want to see the Lt Marvels… except we’d likely get three (or was it four) for every one of the current Shazam Family.
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