The cast of March 2023's Shazam! Fury of the Gods found a novel way to get into character - some members of the live-action Shazam family are writing a story featuring their characters for a February DC comic book one-shot special.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods Special: Shazamily Matters #1 is a 96-page, prestige format anthology special written by actor Zachary Levi (Shazam), Grace Caroline Currey (Mary and superhero Mary this time around), Ross Butler (superhero Eugene), D.J. Cotrona (superhero Pedro), Adam Brody (superhero Freddy), Faithe Herman (Darla), plus screenwriter Henry Gayden, and Colleen Doran, Josh Trujillo, Tim Seeley, Amanda Deibert, David F. Sandberg, Scott Kolins, Kenny Porter, and others.
"Battle zombies, befriend dinosaurs, try to get a phone signal in a world of barbarians, explore glitter land, and more," reads DC's description of the special that is made with "all the love and fun of a superhuman family cookout."
The stories are illustrated by a variety of artists. Here's a look at the creative credits for all the special's stories, along with new first look art DC released on January 27 for some of them:
Billy Batson and the "Shazamily" in "Door to Death"
Written by Zachary Levi, D.J. Cotrona, and Colleen Doran
Art by Freddie Williams II, Andrew Dalhouse, and Dave Sharpe
Darla in "Darla's Keeper"
Written by Faithe Herman and Amanda Deibert
Art by Erica Henderson and Josh Reed
Pedro in "The Big Game"
Written by D.J. Cotrona and Tim Seeley
Art by Jorge Corona and Patrick Brosseau
The Shazamily in "Crocodile Catastrophe"
Written by David F. Sandberg and Scott Kolins
Art by Scott Kolins, John Kalisz, and Dave Sharpe
Eugene in "Time Out"
Written by Ross Butler and Josh Trujillo
Art by Andrew Drilon and Wes Abbott
Mary in "Darla's Birthday"
Written by Grace Caroline Currey
Art by Damian Fulton, Nick Filardo, and Justin Birch
Freddy in "Dogtown and Blue Boy"
Written by Adam Brody and Kenny Porter
Art by Mike Norton, Allen Passalaqua, and Ferran Delgado
Billy Batson in "Leadership Qualities"
Written by Henry Gayden
Art by Scott Godlewski, Alex Guimares and Saida Temofonte
And here's a look at three covers to the special, along with the photo variant cover seen above.
The special (and movie) arrive at a key time for the comic book franchise. Billy Batson took a brief sabbatical as Shazam and was replaced by Mary in the recent New Champion of Shazam! limited series, but Billy will return to the forefront of the Shazam family in a new action-comedy series by writer Mark Waid and artist Dan Mora that will launch in May as part of DC's year-long Dawn of DC publishing initiative, and Shazam/Billy will also be a major player in the Lazarus Planet tie-in limited series co-starring Wonder Woman Revenge of the Gods, both just in time for the release of the film (the similarity in titles is not a coincidence).
Finally, DC is also releasing a series of variant covers for various titles on sale in March inspired by Fury of the Gods.
Here's a look at five of those covers, along with the artist, title, and on-sale date of all six:
- Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1 (3/7) – Lee Weeks
- The Flash #794 (3/7) – Jerry Ordway and Alex Sinclair
- Batman/Superman: World's Finest #13 (3/21) – Jesus Marino and Adriano Lucas
- Wonder Woman #797 (3/21) – Pop Mhan
- Action Comics #1053 (3/28) – Lucio Parrillo
- Detective Comics #1070 (3/28) – Travis Moore
Why Marvel has a Captain Marvel but DC has a Captain Marvel called Shazam
