Mary had her chance at Vassar. She had her chance at Shazam. And neither of them really worked out. Now, she’s down and out and in a worse place. The internet thinks she’s a joke. She’s trying her best, though. There’s someone who’s kidnapping people in Philadelphia. She’s got a job to do in The New Champion of Shazam! #3. Writer Josie Campbell continues to usher the new hero through her first steps in another issue brought to life by artist Evan “Doc” Shaner. Campbell is giving Mary a slow and gradual coming-of-age that manages to take its time with its main character while also maintaining a steady rhythm to the action. 

Mary’s looking at a wall full of posters of missing people. Her foster parents have also gone missing. She’s got superpowers. She’s got a talking bunny. The whole world is opening up for her right after high school, but she can’t do anything for the people who mean the most to her because she doesn’t know where they are. And since everyone knows her as a superhero who hasn’t been doing the best job of superheroing, things are at a pretty low point for her. One of her adoptive siblings wants to help her, but she just ran into some very dangerous people. She’s going to need to be cautious. 

Campbell has chosen to keep Mary’s life evenly balanced on the page. In 20 pages between two covers, the reader gets to see her in her personal life, her life as a student at a community college, and her life as a superhero investigating a situation that she’s in WAY over her head on. Through it all, Campbell keeps Mary a firmly earthbound superhero who could quite easily give up and try to be normal. She’s not doing that, though. She’s dedicated to solving the puzzle. Mary may have a lot of power, but it’s the inner struggle that keeps her interesting. Campbell hasn’t lost sight of that, which is what makes this particular struggling young superhero so distinctive.

Mary looks determined. Her determination can be seen in her posture. It can be seen in the focus on her face. It can be seen in the way she’s framed in the panel. That determination really goes a long way toward endearing her to the reader. Shaner does a good job of framing the rest of everything going on in Philadelphia around her, but he manages to keep her in the center of the panel without making her seem totally superhuman even when she IS walking around with a glowing lightning bolt on her chest.

Campbell and Shaner make The New Champion of Shazam! work on a very social level that keeps Mary close to the reader throughout the action. It would be all too easy to let the action sweep everything away in a more traditional superhero comic. There have been so many instances of young superheroes coming-of-age in comics over the decades, but Campbell and Shaner manage to keep everything feeling so specific to Mary. It’s quite an accomplishment.

Grade: B+