Shazam!: The Greatest Stories Ever Told VOL 01 Paperback – February 20, 2008

A good collection of stories .The only one that should not be here ( even though it's kind of Shazam related ) is the "Captain Thunder" story .It should have replaced with a real Shazam story .Probably one from the Jerry Ordway "Power of Shazam" ongoing.Other than that it's a good collection of stories that gives the reader a well rounded look into the character .

The biggest advantage to this collection is that all of these are reprinted in full color and not in black and white like many of these collections. There are six stories from the golden age and the rest come from the seventies on. A good solid collection and overview at a reasonable price.

This collection contains reprints from two eras. The first half of the book is from the original Golden Age stories, the second from the 1970's DC revival. I would have rated this 5 stars if they had concentrated on the earlier, vastly superior incarnation. Still recommended, though, as a great way to introduce the whimsical Captain Marvel to young readers at an affordable price.

Good if you don't know nothing about this guy. That's not impossible for young readers, since he is neglected by DC. There are a few historys that complete the hardcover 75th year volume. So if you will buy this, you also "Shazam- A celebration of 75 years".

Perfect stories for those who dont know much about Shazam or are interested in a different superhero

great storys.loved the 2 marvel family storys and the rest are fab.if you just want to read captain marvel,then dig this.

Like any of the Golden Age characters, with 70+ year histories, narrowing down the "greatest" stories of Captain Marvel an impossible task. First you would have to have access to all of his thousands of tales starting from "Whiz Comics #2" all the way up to the present, including numerous crossovers into other titles, and then you would have to read them all and pick the best. I don't think the editors of "The Greatest Shazam Stories Ever Told" even attempted that; instead it seems like they tried to pick a few tales representative of the different eras of the Big Red Cheese.As Jeff Smith says in his introduction, the very best of Captain Marvel was in the Golden Age work of creators Otto Binder and C. C. Beck. The zeitgeist of the times and the union of Beck and Binder created a particular magic that has never since been recaptured. This collection wisely focuses of the Golden Age, with six of the thirteen stories being from the 1940-1950 era. Of course, Captain Marvel's origin and first appearance from "Whiz #2"(1940) is included, as well as one of the Jack Kirby/Joe Simon stories from "Captain Marvel #1." (1941) The other Golden Age stories give a good feel for Captain Marvel, battling loose interpretations of mythological creatures like Argus, Satyr and Hydra, or King Kull and the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. Included is one of my favorites from "Captain Marvel Adventures #148," (1953) where the Earth gets sick of humans drilling into it for oil and decided to purge itself of the pests, leading to "Captain Marvel Battles the World." The Golden Age stories are all solo-adventures except for one Marvel Family story from "Marvel Family #85" (1953) where Junior and Mary show up.The later stories are a mix of important stages in the Big Red Cheeses career, like his re-introduction to the modern world in "Shazam #1" (1973) and the try-out character Captain Thunder from "Superman #276." (1974). There is one story that showed the 80's version of Captain Marvel, from "DC Comics Presents Annual #3" (1984) by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, where they tried to make him a slightly more serious character and fit him into the DC Universe. The touching story of a burn victim from "Power of Shazam #33" (1997) makes for a nice single-issue inclusion of the best of modern Captain Marvel, and I was delighted to see one of the good Captain's adventures from the animation-influenced "Adventures in the DC Universe #15." (1998)About the only story I wasn't really thrilled with was the Lobo/Captain Marvel crossover from "L.E.G.I.O.N. '91 #31,"(1991) although it does show the Captain Marvel of the era. I would have preferred something from "Justice League," or the Green Lantern/Captain Marvel cross-over from "Heroquest." I was surprised that Black Adam didn't appear in any of the stories, and Mr. Mind only popped up in partnership with Dr. Sivana. At least some of Jeff Smith's "Monster Society of Evil" should have been included - he wrote the introduction, after all. But even a long-time Captain Marvel fan like myself found something new and lots to enjoy in "The Greatest Shazam Stories Ever Told." Full-color reprints of Golden Age stories are always appreciated, and this volume is much more affordable than the DC Archive editions. And even though I own many of the original stories presented here, it is nice to have them bound together in a readable format.

Captain Marvel was known as the Big Red Cheese and during the golden age, his sales rivaled Superman. However, his historic run came to an end when Fawcett Publications stopped making comics. And then DC acquired its old nemesis and wrote him up in this series of Greatest Stories books. The book is called Shazam because in the interim between the end of the Captain Marvel title and DC's purchase of the character, Marvel created its own character named Captain Marvel.What's good about this book are the six golden age stories which in many ways seemed reminiscent of the Silver Age DC stories I'd read only a lot more fun. Captain Marvel and (in two stories) Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. bring a great deal of fun to some epic sci-fi and fantasy plots including battles against aliens, intelligent gorillas, and the Earth itself.Where the book goes wrong is that they dedicate the rest of the book to DC's floundering attempts to revive and update the character. Jeff Smith who wrote the Introduction said that none of the latter stories had the same magic as the newer ones. Therefore, it kind of doesn't make sense that 60% of the book is made up of these weaker efforts.If this is truly the best of what DC has done with the Shazam character since 1973, Captain Marvel fans have reason to be annoyed. The book contains a story from Superman #276 (1974) that features Superman battling a Captain Marvel knock-off called Captain Thunder. Why DC even created the character when they controlled the original is beyond me. Why a story that doesn't even feature Captain Marvel ended up in this book is even more puzzling. Another of the "greatest" stories included is a Superman Team Up Annual where Captain Marvel spends most of the 40-page story stuck under a rock while Superman battles the bad guy.Then we have a battle with Lobo which has Captain Marvel portrayed as a total dork and his appearance and disappearance go completely unexplained to the uninitiated.The best of the modern stories is Jerry Ordway's, "Yeah-This is a Face Only a Mother Could Love," which at least had some heart to it even if it seemed a little angsty for Captain Marvel. The book then wraps up with a forgettable 12-page story about Captain Marvel's powers malfunctioning.The bottom line is that if you can pick the book up from an Interlibary Loan, you can find six worthwhile golden age Captain Marvel stories to read. Unfortunately, the rest of the book is marred by poor editorial decisions which makes its title much more of a farce than a reality

Certainly NOT the Greatest Shazam Stories Ever Told. A collection of mostly mediocre tales spanning the decades of the comics. Even my current reading material of collected 'Superman Vs Shazam' boasts far better stories. A poor selection, and certainly one that doesn't deserve the title 'Greatest Stories...'.

V good

Dieser Band ermöglicht dem Leser eine überaus unterhaltsame Zeitreisedurch die lange und bewegte Geschichte Captain Marvels. Von den Anfangstagen als(überaus erfolgreicher) Superman-Rip-Off in den 40ern und 50ern bei Whiz-Comics über das(extrem witzige) 70er Reboot bei DC bishin zur (hochgelobten) 90er DC-Serie von Ordwaysind alle Epochen abgedeckt. Dabei werden der jeweils eigene Charme und das Flair dereinzelnen Jahrzehnte sehr deutlich und man lernt die so phantastische wie einzigartige Weltvon Shazam kennen und schätzen. Empfehlenswert sowohl für Neulinge als auch für Cap-Fans,wobei letztere allerdings vor dem Kauf ihre Sammlung mit dem Inhalt des Sammelbandesabgleichen sollten.