Bright Lights, Big City
The Power of SHAZAM! #35 - Lightning and Stars Part Two Bite The Bullet! continues the Lightning And Stars storyline from Starman 39, also available the same week. The two issues are like a yin and yang, flipsides of the same coin. Almost like a new version of The World's Finest. Jack's Starman as a modern version of The Dark Knight; with the world's mightiest mortal cast as The Man of Steel. Right from the start, the differences between the two books are obvious. Tony Harris has a darker color scheme to Starman. James Robinson has things happen at night. Here in Power of Shazam, Ordway and Krause open with The Captain and Mary foiling a daytime jewelry store robbery. They notice a news report about Bulletman, James Barr, and the newsreel footage that supposedly shows him as a traitor. In his office, Barr grimaces as he remembers February 9th, 1942. As the All-Star Squadron was on-hand fighting Nazi Rocket Men sinking the Normandie, supposedly led by Barr, the real Bulletman and Ted Knight were fighting Nazi Rocket Men in Alaska!
Government agents come to Barr's office and arrest him in front of his daughter and staff. Elsewhere, Edouard Laslo is released from prison and is escorted by Wolf Krieger to a Nazi compound. Doing their homework, Billy and Mary study the history of the Normandie sinking. After Sarge Steel confronts Barr, his daughter Deanna visits. She brings her father his Bulletman equipment so he can escape. He does, and heads to Opal City and Ted Knight. Billy is quickly summoned by Sarge Steel to go after Barr, and The Captain ultimately confronts Jack in the sky above Opal.
The Good
This is a really gripping mystery. How can James Barr be in two places at once? Can he undo or wiggle out of his national security secrecy oath and say where he really was and what he a Ted were really doing?
The story here is an awful lot like a story set in Metropolis. All bright and hopeful and optimistic.
The Bad
It's a shame that there's no scene showing Sarge Steel actually telling Billy to go after Barr. Billy just gets a summons through his JLA signal device and goes. Then we see him flying from DC to Opal. He seems so eager to follow directions and instructions, there's no question or inner conflict. Of course, there's no love lost between him and Barr over Barr's daughter Deanna. Otherwise, this is a solid second act.
The Skinny
Ordway's Power of Shazam is probably the best version of the character other than Shazam! The Power of Hope by Paul Dini and Alex Ross. This was where the characters really shined, and everything hit on all cylinders. This is also a fantastic crossover with Starman, and an excellent sequel to "Sand And Stars" the Starman team-up with Wesley Dodds. This could have developed even further into a new World's Finest partnership.
Five stars for possibilities.