Comic of the Week - Shazam! #2

The Shazam! comic of the week is Shazam! #2 which published on February 15, 1973 and had a cover date of April 1973.

This comic featured two new Captain Marvel adventures, a golden-age Captain Marvel adventure, and an article on the Marvel Family.

The first story is "The Astonishing Arch Enemy" and featured the return of Mr. Mind!  There's also appearances from Mr. Tawny and Herkimer, who was one of Mr. Mind's evil henchmen in Cap's golden-age comics.

Next we have the story, "The Nicest Guy in the World" which introduces us to the character of Sunny Sparkle.

The comic has a one-page article that gives a brief history of the Marvel Family from the golden-age of comics.  The article is entitled "Shazam and Family."  It's a good brief article, but I noted that it omits Freckles Marvel.

The final story is a reprint from Captain Marvel Adventures 139 (published October 3, 1952) entitled "The Original Captain Marvel Fights Niatpac Levram!"  (The title from Captain Marvel Adventures was "Captain Marvel Fights Captain Marvel!")

This was the second issue in a row that reprinted a golden-age Captain Marvel adventure as well as an article that gives a summary of Cap and friends from the golden-age.  It seems DC was doing that to show the continuity from Captain Marvel's original Whiz and Captain Marvel Adventures comics and his stories that were beginning in the new Shazam! series.  It refreshed the memory of Cap's original fans and gave history to Cap's new fans.