DC Comics has finally aged up Mary Marvel, who will explore her personal identity in the four-part miniseries The New Champion of Shazam.
Warning: contains spoilers for The New Champion of Shazam #1!
Big changes are happening for Mary Marvel, and it’s not just that she’s taking over the mantle of Shazam. DC has made a significant development in Mary’s character, one which will impact the Shazam family indefinitely – she’s going to college! With new roommates, a new costume, and a new sidekick, Mary Bromfield has a lot on her plate. And by the looks of things, it might be more than she bargained for.
Now that Billy Batson is trapped in the Rock of Eternity, the world needs a Shazam, and Mary Marvel is taking up the mantle with a whole new status quo. Shifting the ages of characters in the DC universe is basically irreversible unless a Crisis-level rewrite is thrown in the mix. For example, when characters like Robin and Kid Flash grew up and became Nightwing and the Flash, those were both permanent changes. In DC’s main continuity, both characters are now adult superheroes, leaving their sidekick pasts well behind them. The same is now happening for Mary Marvel, as becoming a freshmen at college marks a new stage of life that DC can’t easily reverse.
In The New Champion of Shazam #1, by Josie Campbell and Evan “Doc” Shaner, Mary Marvel embarks on her own journey as the hero Shazam in a 4-part miniseries. This series aims to reinvent Mary’s identity, ageing the character up to a college freshman. Leaving behind her past in foster-homes and as the smart older sister, Mary is experiencing a new beginning for both her hero and civilian identities. In the first issue of the series, Mary hops off a bus outside of Vassar College, her dream school, eight hours away from her home in Philadelphia. Here, she meets her new roommates, introducing herself as “Marina” to try to seem cool to the pair, who seem to already be close.
Playing the older sister role for most of her life, Mary has rarely had the chance to explore her individuality. Now that she’s away from the Shazam family, she’ll also be working solo as a hero for the first time. For many characters in DC Comics, ageing up is a rarity. Tim Drake has never made it past his teen years and Barry Allen refuses to grow old. With the Shazam family being made up of children and teens, it’s noteworthy that DC has allowed a major life milestone like Mary going to college, hopefully showing the publisher’s commitment to her new era.
Mary beginning college is an exciting change for DC. She’s a fish-out-of-water in New York, still trying to figure out who she is. This miniseries is creating a strong foundation for Mary Marvel‘s adult superhero career as Shazam.
The New Champion of Shazam #1 is available now from DC Comics digitally and in print.
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