Action Comics #351 brought about possibly the most amazing villain in the history of ever:
Yeah, I know. It's a pretty flimsy reference to Captain Marvel, what with how "Shazam" is an anagram for the 7 characters from whom Cap gets his powers. So, you can understand why I was expecting... well, not much.
But this guy's powers are pretty bitchin'.
You've got to admit, that's a lot more entertaining than another guy whose just really strong. And he beats the stuffing out of Supes, and that's always a good time:
And just when I can't believe how awesome it all is, he leaves Superman a "Bite Me" message:
BURN! Yeah! Chew on that, Superham!
You know what? I hear there are two more parts to this story, and I'm not sure I'm going to read them. I kind of like things the way they stand right now. It's like watching that wedding scene that comes on after the closing credits of Napoleon Dynamite. It's better to just leave the story while it's awesome.
Seriously, when Napoleon and Deb are playing tetherball and When in Rome's "The Promise" starts playing... just walk away.
And every bit as awesome is this custom-made Zha-Vam action figure!
Off to the Character Hall of Fame with Zha-Vam, for his sheer, unadulterated, awesomeness! More on him tomorrow! See you then!
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4 comments:
The literature-geek in me is annoyed at the mixing of Greek and Roman names. Most of these are the Latin forms (even with the Greek heroes), then you get Zeus.
I mean, I can't see why they couldn't just have him be Jha-Vam, for Jupiter/Jove, which sounds about the same anyway, and everything else remains the same.
(Using all Greek forms he'd need to be Zha-Hah, for Zeus, Herakles, Achilleus, Hephaestus, Apollon and Hermes - and I can see how that's kinda hard to pronounce.)
I bought part three of this tale (Action Comics #353) back in 1971 (still available on the spinner-racks in Scotland), but it was over 20-odd years before I discovered there were another two parts. If you read part three, although Zha-Vam was referred to as Superman's foe (indicating a previous appearance) there really was nothing to indicate that it was a continued story.
Yael: in all fairness, they did the same thing with the Shazam name, only they also threw Solomon into the mix. (Shazam comes from Solomon (wisdom), Hercules (strength), Atlas (stamina), Zeus (power), Achilles (courage), and Mercury (speed).)
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