Fans of the mightiest mortal are still dealing with the shocking reveal that Shazam #1, the first of a four-issue miniseries beginning in July.
The new miniseries comes from writer Tim Sheridan (Teen Titans Academy, Future State: Shazam) and artists Clayton Henry and Marcelo Maiolo, spinning directly out of Teen Titans Academy, the title following DC's youngest metahumans in training at Titans Tower. But as the students have been fighting battles of their own, Billy Batson is suffering in silence. For him, failing magic means an inability to share his strength with his friends and family. And with the wizard Shazam gone, the Rock of Eternity missing, and nobody else to turn to for answer... the time has come for Billy Batson to grow up. Fast. Thankfully, readers won't have to wait any longer to get their first look--and first tease of what's coming--with our exclusive preview of Shazam #1.
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As the mastermind behind multiple new DC mysteries, Screen Rant got the chance to speak with writer Tim Sheridan about this strange new chapter in Billy Batson's life, the mystery of Red X, and much more. Readers can find our full interview along with a first look at Shazam! #1 (and variant covers by Gary Frank and Brad Anderson, and Steve Lieber) embedded below.
Screen Rant: You are riding high at the moment with Teen Titans Academy, a book that is one of the favorites among the Screen Rant comic team.
Tim Sheridan: That's so nice to hear. Thank you so much.
SR: This new Shazam miniseries could be seen as a relaunch or a new start as an Issue #1, but it seems firmly planted in the Teen Titans Academy corner of the DC universe.
Tim Sheridan: Tthe first issue takes place entirely at the Tower, at school. It was all part of the design. We started with the worst case scenario, and that was with Future State: Teen Titans and Future State: Shazam. That gave us some elbow room, so we know what the stakes are. If I'm going to take on doing a book with a bunch of new kids, who are fresh-faced and eager to become heroes and learn from the old generation, then we needed to see what the stakes were and what they're up against every day. Because I don't think you can just have the fun and games without knowing that every time they put on the cape, there are big consequences waiting for them. And that really plays out in Shazam.
The four-issue miniseries is really a microcosm of that, and it ties in directly to the Teen Titans Academy story and to those Future State stories. It's all part of the narrative we started with in January.
For people who haven't read Teen Titans Academy or the Future State books, what is Billy going through right now? Because it's certainly a change to the status quo.
Tim Sheridan: Yeah, there are big changes to the status quo in this. When we meet him in Titans Academy and at the beginning of the Shazam series, he's dealing with the fact that his powers - that have been so reliable for him - are no longer reliable. They're unstable, and the thing about Billy is that it's not just about him. The Shazam family, the other kids with whom he shares his power, are part of who he is and part of what he does. We're gonna see a real complication arise, which is a bit of a change in the status quo as well with how not being able to share that power can affect him and the family and other things.
It ends up giving him a real ticking clock and a real personal sense of responsibility. It's one thing if it's Billy Batson and his powers aren't working. "Okay, I'll do something else. I'll try something else." He's not selfish, you know? So, it was important to look at it from another perspective, and to say, "What are the motivating factors for Billy? Why would Billy put himself in a compromising situation and a dangerous situation when he doesn't have the reliability of the powers of Shazam?" I think it ties directly into his family, and that ties directly to who he is.
SR: When Billy's magic word doesn't work, it's almost like an Apple product.
Tim Sheridan: [Laughs]
SR: It works until it doesn't, and then you go, "Where do I even start trying to solve this?"
Tim Sheridan: It really shows how much he uses and wields these powers, but also how deep his understanding of them isn't. He still has a lot to learn. He's still growing up, not just as Billy Batson but as Shazam. Being cut off from the power, or at least having it be so unreliable that he can't really trust it or turn it on - without having direct with the wizard or being able to access the rock of eternity - he's all at sea.
What was important to me, the reason why we're telling the story, and the reason why it ties into Titans Academy is because so many of us at Billy's age are coming into our power. We're coming to understand our power in those years, and we don't get it yet, but we feel it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. It can be frustrating, and it can be scary, but it's all part of growing up. Growing up is at the core of who Billy Batson and Shazam are - I mean, he does it for a living all the time.
We find him in a very delicate moment; a very difficult moment. But like I say, if it was just about him dealing with his own problem, he might not feel the imperative that he feels to take swift and dangerous action. But there are other people who depend on him, and the world depends on him. Through the course of this series, he's going to find out that the dependence on him is even greater than he thought. And that's a big thing for a kid who's growing up, who's becoming a man, to grapple with.
SR: Billy has been keeping his identity as Shazam a secret from the rest of the Teen Titans Academy, but in this first issue Starfire makes a reference to "who Billy really is," and his response makes him stand opposite almost all superhero characters. That he's just him, that's the secret. That's part of the problem you're talking about here, right?
Tim Sheridan: Yeah. And this is how it ties in thematically with what's happening in Titans Academy. There are breadcrumbs scattered all over the place.
We haven't really explicitly made the argument for why the events of Future State happened, and how that ties into the whole basic concept of the Academy. But I think in that moment that you're referencing, we see some of the cracks begin to show in the basic philosophy of what's happening and what we've done by putting this academy together. The fundamental misunderstanding of Billy's power and his identity is on display in that moment. We try to do it subtly, but, that's gonna be part of some breadcrumbs that lead to bigger things in this larger story.
I'm very glad you got a chance to look at [Issue #1], it's interesting; it's an onramp. We had to do some work to get you to the premise of what we're doing here and really set the stage. And I think being able to do that by starting it at the academy and then taking you where we're taking you was important and key. I can't tell you how amazed I've been; it's been an interesting experience. We've done an issue now where we see Titans Academy, but it's through the eyes of Clayton Henry and not Rafa Sandoval or Steve Lieber too - and it's so fun. It's so interesting for me to work with these guys, who have such a pedigree and such a vision and are able to bring a new twist or new spin or a new angle to the thing that we've been looking at for a few months. I'm having fun with that.
SR: If you want to talk about breadcrumbs that are... flaming, readers can just look at Future State: Shazam #1. Do you encourage the theorizing and connecting of dots between your series, when predicting how Billy's life and relationship with Shazam is going to go?
Tim Sheridan: This is what I've been saying. For me, in order to understand who these characters are, and to understand how and why they do what they do, I feel like it's important to see how good it can be and how bad it can. I think we've seen, from my perspective, how Billy Batson and Shazam's innocence can be used against him as a weapon and turn him into something he never meant to be - or that we never thought he would be. We saw that play out, and it is a very real road that he could end up heading down. Maybe through no fault of his own, but caution is something that he's going to have to learn. Again, this is all part of the process of growing up and growing into this hero legacy.
I think we've taken for granted the duality of Shazam and Billy Batson for too long. I've been working on another thing which involves a similar kind of character, where you have a young guy who calls down this great mysterious power and becomes this all-powerful creature; this God-like being. I'm just fascinated by the duality of those two personalities, and where we can separate them.
It's literally the first thing I did in Future State. When we talked about doing it, I said, "Okay, what I want to do is separate Shazam and Billy Batson. I want to see who they are as two different entities, and what that means for them. And ultimately, hopefully, make an argument for why they need to be the same; why they need to be one." That's part of the narrative of the larger story that I've been telling.
SR: The solicitation for the Shazam miniseries lays it all out: the Wizard's missing, the Rock of Eternity is missing, and it's falling on to Billy to solve this mystery without his powers. Someone looking at Future State and this series would say, "This is much bigger than just Billy, and even bigger than the magic side of the DC universe."
Tim Sheridan: Yeah, if we're doing our job right. The first time we spend with Billy on this is in Teen Titans Academy #4, that's out now, and it seems like this is a Billy problem. And then when we begin Shazam #1, we realize Billy's problem actually extends further. It's not just Billy's problem; he's got a bigger problem than he thought.
And I think by the end of these four issues, Billy himself is going to realize - and we're all going to come to realize - that the problem is even bigger than that. It's way bigger than he or anybody could have ever dreamed. And we've seen some hints of what that might mean in Future State, obviously.
SR: Instead of grilling you on the new Red X, I will just ask you what it has been like watching fans of both comics and the animated Titans series reveling in this, while also obsessively theorizing over what the heck is actually going on in the story you're telling.
Tim Sheridan: I'm crazy about the guys online and all their theories. They're like the Question, and they've got the board - in fact, Steve Lieber and I did an homage to the fans on Twitter in Titans Academy #1. It opens with a giant conspiracy corkboard with all the possible identities, which is also a reference to the stuff they did on the animated show.
But I'm crazy about it. I love it. I'm such a fan of Glen Murakami's show, and I actually wrote an episode of Teen Titans Go! too. Those were my experiences with Teen Titans before I came to DC. It's an honor to get to work on bringing this character, or at least this characterization, to life. The thing is, we learn very quickly that the Red X we're dealing with in Titans Academy is a new Red X. Everything is still part of the canon: we know that Dick Grayson was the first Red X, we know that there was another one after that. We even hear that there was probably another one after that, before the one that we have now. So, there's a history and mysterious backstory.
I will say that I don't know when anyone will be hearing about this, but if the Teen Titans Academy Yearbook is out by then, you'll see some interesting clues and some touching on the mythology and history in there as well.
Yeah, it's absolutely fun as we go in a little bit further in the story. It's a bit of a background note right now, but more will be coming. Big stuff is coming in #5 and in the Annual. You're gonna see a lot of big Red X stuff that's gonna maybe fuel some more speculation and interest, so we'll see. We're getting there. We're gonna bring the plane in for a landing at a point in the near future.
SR: Everyone wants to talk about Red X, whereas I just want to talk about The Unkindness making a debut in DC Comics.
Tim Sheridan: Oh, thanks. Well, speaking of animation, The Unkindness was from the sequel to Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. My friend Jeremy Adams, a writer, worked on that movie. We were talking about Future State, and I was thinking about Raven, so I said, "Where do we take Raven? What can we do with Raven?" Obviously, we've seen Raven corrupted before, but how can we do something new and unique with it?
I heard everybody was excited about the first appearance of Red X coming out of animation. Well, how about the first appearance of The Unkindness? When I heard that pitch for The Unkindness a long time ago, I was like, "That's brilliant." I'm sure people have looked it up and realized that a group of Ravens is referred to as an unkindness. Like a murder of crows, that's another great one.
Coming out of animation myself and having started my career there, it's really fun to get to mine some of the great stuff that's happened on that side of the business and help bring it to life in the pages of the center of the DC Multiverse at DC Comics.
SR: Shazam might be the most well-known DC hero with the fewest solo stories that were truly his own. When you have the opportunity to not just tell a Billy story, but a story with Shazam on the cover, it must be a different kind of thing.
Tim Sheridan: It's funny to me to think about it that way. Because I've always felt that Shazam works so much better on his own. We saw that in the movie, right? I think he works better like that. When you put him on a team, he has that problem of sometimes being too powerful or sometimes having a similar power set to other people who were on the team.
That's why it was fun in Future State to put together a new Justice League team, of which he was the central leader, essentially. Building a team around Shazam makes the most sense when you're doing a team of which he's a member. I think you build it around Shazam, but that's just me. I think he works so well on his own. Billy Batson is such an iconic character, and he's a character that we can really relate to.
The idea behind Billy in the early years was someone a kid can identify with, and the great fantasy of being a grown up - snapping your fingers or saying a magic word and being able to skip all the terrors of being a kid and get make your own decisions and be the hero. I think all of that is important and is such a huge part of the legacy. But I just haven't seen enough of Billy coping with the concept of growing up. I'm interested in what that means from his perspective, as somebody who has been growing up every day and then becoming a kid again, every night. What does it mean to him? How is his perspective different?
When we meet him in Shazam #1, the things he's afraid of have less to do with what e calls his "malfunctioning lightning bolt," and more to do with his identity. He's grappling with who he is, and who he is going to be; the inevitability of growing up and of adulthood. Those are the things he's grappling with. Not to spoil anything, but he's also grappling internally with the concept of what it means for a kid who doesn't get to grow up. It's his main motivating force in in this book, and it's tragic. The story and the motivations are tragic, but it all comes down to the fears I felt as a kid about losing something.
What's that song? "I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger." But I always say it wrong. I always say, "I wish I knew what I knew now when I was older." I think it turns out to be a prescient thing, because it has a lot to do with this story. The loss of innocence, and how when you're a kid, you think you really want to grow up. "I just want to grow up. I want to grow up faster. I want to be my own man." I think that you get to a certain point in the middle of that growing up process where you start to realize how great you had it as a kid; how great being a kid is, and the freedom of that. You go through the beginning of a mourning process for your childhood - even at a young age, in your teens, you're starting to think about that.
And mortality suddenly becomes an issue. What is the concept of mortality to the world's mightiest mortal? I feel like Billy is feeling that. He's thinking about, "When I'm when I'm older, am I gonna know the things that I know now that I'm a kid? Or will that all go away?" Billy is is all about magic. Shazam is all about magic. But part of that magic is the wonder of childhood, and the freedom and the innocence that comes with that. And that's not forever.
SR: This first issue definitely sets the stage for a lot of what you're talking about. We can't wait to read the rest of the story.
Tim Sheridan: If you liked issue #1, I can't wait to hear what you think of #2. Issue #2 is a lot of fun and games. I think Clayton and I really found a groove on #2 that just was so rewarding. We had a wonderful process on that one, and it's just been snowballing. We've had a great time on issue #3 and moving into issue #4 as well.
Shazam! #1 will arrive in comic book stores, both physical and digital, on July 20th.
