COUNTING DOWN TO COUNTDOWN, V: MARY MARVEL, TRICKSTER, PIED PIPER

[MattBrady]

The Innocent and the Guilty: Mary Marvel, The Trickster and the Pied Piper

Mary Marvel at Fawcett Comics
by Lucas Siegel

In 1942, Otto Binder and Marc Swayze took two popular male characters who appeared regularly in Captain Marvel Adventures, and used the template to create a female version. Thanks to the slightly sexist Selena for grace, Hippolyta for strength, Ariadne for skill Zephyrus for fleetness, Aurora for (snicker) beauty, and Minerva for wisdom, Mary (Batson) Bromfield summoned the power of the mighty wizard, Shazam, becoming Mary Marvel. She joined her brother Billy, Captain Marvel, and their friend Freddy Freeman, Captain Marvel Jr., in fighting crime and protecting the world.

One month after her first appearance, with WOW Comics #9, Mary became the feature character in that book. She remained as such for over 4 years, through issue #58. Halfway through her run in WOW Comics, she also gained her own title, Mary Marvel Comics, and appeared in Marvel Family Comics alongside the other Marvels. She enjoyed moderate success, and while she never moved into the extreme popularity of her brother, she did have her own fan club! In 1947 and 1948, respectively, WOW stopped featuring the Marvels at all, and Mary Marvel was cancelled, leaving Mary only to appearances in the Family title.

1953 saw the demise of Fawcett Comics due to a long copyright lawsuit against them by National, and with it the demise of all things Shazam, Mary included.

Revival 1: DC brings back the Marvel Family, 1973

Dr. Sivana, the fiend that he was, used “suspendium” to place the Marvel family (and their entire supporting cast, including the Sivana family, natch) into- wait for it- suspended animation. About 20 years later, when the suspendium got too close to the sun, it melted away, freeing the Marvels and their friends.

The Marvel Family is featured back in action in Shazam! for only 35 issues this time out, despite having a mildly popular cartoon series at the same time. At this point, DC had to pay by-the-appearance for the use of the Marvels. Thus, when they weren’t making enough money on the agents of Shazam, DC decided to relegate them to the occasional back-up story in World’s Finest. In this first Revival, DC opted to keep the origin of the Marvels from the 40s: Captain Marvel, then Jr., then Mary. The alternate deities also still powered Mary. This time again being featured in a group comic, it was hard for Mary to break off from her brother and gain any real identity of her own.

In 1980, DC bought the Marvel family outright, and established their world as Earth-S, part of the growing Multi-verse. The Marvels finally had some cross over adventures with familiar DC standbys, including the “infringed” Superman. They played only a minor role in Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 1985 DC mega-event that combined all the worlds of the Multi-verse into one. This ostensibly left the Marvel Family on the same Earth as the other familiar DC Heroes, but they (the extended family) were unheard from for nearly a decade afterward.

Revival 2: Post-Crisis: Mary Marvel gets a new origin, 1994

Continuing the “let’s try to revive the Fawcett characters every 20 years” theme, Jerry Ordway reintroduced the world to Captain Marvel in the 1994 Graphic Novel, The Power of Shazam!. The story included mention of Mary Batson, Billy’s sister who is lost to him when their parent’s are murdered (by none other than Theo Adam, or Teth-Adam, or Black Adam). After Billy becomes Captain Marvel, he and the Wizard Shazam try unsuccessfully to find Billy’s sister, Mary, whom he knows is still alive.
The graphic novel did will enough to spawn a monthly ongoing series of the same name. in issue #3, we have the first appearance of Mary Bromfield. She attends a Spelling Bee emceed by Billy Batson, and he feels like he recognizes her, though he isn’t sure. This is also the first full modern (post-crisis) appearance of Freddy Freeman.

Through some wheeling and dealing with an undercover cop, Billy uncovers the false adoption papers for Mary Bromfield. In addition, he re-discovers an old stuffed animal of hers named “Tawky Tawny,” who transforms into a full sized, English speaking anthropomorphic tiger and begs Billy to take him to Mary. Here, her new origin simultaneously diverges and converges with her Golden Age origin.

Billy Batson is kidnapped when he goes to deliver the package of adoption papers and Tawky Tawny to Mary Bromfield. After she reads the adoption papers, discovering the truth, Tawky tells her to speak the magic word, and she becomes… Captain Marvel! Mary saves her brother, but her nanny Sarah Primm is killed. Sarah reveals that she is in fact Black Adam’s sister before her death, further keeping it in the family. It is of note that Mary now receives the same powers from the same 6 benefactors (Solomon for Wisdom, Hercules for Strength, Atlas for Stamina, Zeus for Power, Achilles for Courage, and Mercury for Speed) as Billy in this new origin. Also, they share a finite amount of power that the Wizard Shazam can give to them.

The Captains Marvel (Mary insisted she be called Captain Marvel, as well) decided to share their power with Freddy Freeman after an injury caused by Captain Nazi, now dividing Shazam’s limited power in three. However, their power increased exponentially soon after, when Ibis the Invincible took over the magical task of guarding the Seven Deadly Sins of Man, allowing Shazam to divvy up his full strength.

Mary appeared in every issue of Power of Shazam! thereafter, continuing to hold onto the name Captain Marvel. She changed into the current white costume in issue #28 of the series. During this series, while she battled the standard Marvel villains, she did not break away much from her brother Billy.

The female Captain Marvel started going by Mary Marvel as soon as she was out of Jerry Ordway’s hands, after the conclusion of Power of Shazam! in 1999. She finally started becoming her own entity, going toe to toe with that time’s Supergirl, and guest starring in several books, before joining up with the Super Buddies.

The Super Buddies, who starred in Formerly Known as the Justice League, included Mary in place of her brother Billy. Oddly enough, this and the resulting sequel story establishes two big changes in Mary’s character: 1) She’s crazy powerful, nearly beating Captain Atom and Fire to death; 2) She (and by extension, her twin brother Billy) is now established as being 16 years old in her plain-old-human form. However, the stories still maintain Mary as a largely naïve and innocent, pure girl.

Mary’s next major appearance was in the lead-up to Infinite Crisis, in which she, along with the other “Super Buddies,” tried unsuccessfully to avenge Ted Kord’s death. She is depicted in multiple forms in the Infinite Crisis mini-series itself, but has little to no real purpose in the series.

Revival 3: The Modern History of Mary Marvel and the Marvel Family

In the Infinite Crisis one-shot Days of Vengeance, the Rock of Eternity was destroyed, and the Wizard Shazam was killed, seemingly cutting off the power source to the Marvel Family. Billy was still able to access Shazam’s power before falling to his death, and after re-building the Rock of Eternity, took the wizard’s place as its guardian. The events of 52 continue to unravel and build on the Marvel Family, both good and bad. Mary is shown here in good health, fighting alongside her fellow Marvels.

In the “Brave New World” maxi-series Trials of Shazam, it was revealed that the Wizard’s powers were re-absorbed from those “pure of heart,” and all sent into Billy Batson, who now goes by the moniker “Marvel” and looks like a hybrid of Shazam and Captain Marvel, in Mary’s updated costume! Mary was fighting a demon high above the Earth when the powers were absorbed from her, and she remains in a coma now, after her fall. Freddy Freeman is currently conducting tests with each of the gods whom bestow their power upon this group of heroes, earning abilities from them one by one. The books of magic have been re-written, and the distribution of the Wizard Shazam’s immense power has already changed drastically. How and IF Mary is going to be empowered once more by Shazam’s power, or even brought out of her coma is yet to be revealed. If the covers and solicitations of Countdown have anything to say about it, big things are in store for innocent Mary Batson, and she’s hardly Down for the Count


Trickster: A Man With the Ego of a God
by Kevin Huxford

Ask five people to explain who the Trickster is and you’ll get at least six different descriptions. With many characters, that would be a negative. With the Trickster? It’s just perfect.

I’ll start you off with a few of the undeniable facts. Giovanni Giuseppe is an acrobat who was the youngest member of the Flying Jesses. James Jesse was his stage name. A fear of heights led James to create his first gadget: the Airwalker Boots. If he fell during a performance (or the Zucco Family got confused and put a hit out on the wrong “Flying” team), he would be able to gently “walk” his way back down to the ground.

James decided to pursue a life of crime for the thrill of it. He took his ability to slap together some really effective, extremely wacky gadgets and started off on his path.

James has been many things to many people. Some have labeled him a Joker riff, used to mimic the popularity of the Batman rogue in order to add to the popularity of the Flash. Over time, he developed more. While his off-the-wall devices were often very deadly, his aim was never really to kill people. His design was to incapacitate those directly in his way and, with the most dangerous items, distract and confuse the hero in his way.

In many ways, Mr. Jesse is like Frank Abagnale Jr., a con man who had the story of his life released as the major motion picture, Catch Me If You Can. James has been shown the sort of con man that could convince you that he didn’t steal your money after you just watched him take $100 right out of your wallet. Despite his track record and reputation, he has occasionally been able to pull one over on even super-heroes, like the Flash family and Blue Devil.

Like Mr. Abagnale, Jr., Trickster has even had gone legit a few times. One of his encounters with Blue Devil centered around James attacking a businessman who was trying to get rich off of some of the Trickster’s creations. If I recall correctly, this led to his first attempt to walk the straight and narrow path, with him doing special effects work in the film industry.

The next landmark moment in the history of the Trickster wouldn’t occur until the Mark Waid-penned DC event, Underworld Unleashed. In a story that covered every corner of the DC Universe and served as a device to revamp many characters, James would share center stage with Captain Marvel & Blue Devil for the grand finale. Truth be told, he stole the show by conning the biggest con man the world has ever known: Neron, Lord of the Underworld. His only lament? That no one got to see him pull off the feat.

Trickster would spend some time sort of walking between two worlds; never quite a villain, but not truly a hero. He became mindful of his “karma”, because he didn’t want to wind up in Neron’s realm one day. In a one-shot for the New Year’s Evil fifth week event, he would use his crafty abilities to try to help an ex-girlfriend save her son. This required him manipulating the other Flash rogues into helping him and, amazingly, resulted in him managing to best the demon Neron once more.

James next showed up in the pages of Catwoman, where he wound up playing a fairly entertaining game of cat and mouse with Selina. Though you’re left to think he’s gone back to the dark side most of the arc, you find that he’s still doing his Robin-Hood-as-conman thing.

More recent history (and, therefore, likely much better known by the masses) has seen the Trickster become FBI Agent Jesse, with his most notable action in that capacity having been leading a team in the Rogue War. Not long after, James become another one of the rehabilitated Rogues who found out that the Top had “fixed” him so that he would “turn good”. Once this change was wiped out at the end of the Geoff Johns run on Flash, he went back to a life of crime, with a bit more of a mean streak than he had shown before.

Trickster is many things to many people. He’s a goofy character that best a hero with a whoopee cushion. He’s a slick talker who can beat a god on the strength of his way with words. He’s a modern day Robin Hood. He’s an agent of the law who knows it takes a thief to catch a thief. He’s a man who leads a dangerous life simply for the thrill of it.

When Countdown opens, whatever Trickster appears to be about…don’t be so quick to buy into it…and definitely don’t underestimate him.


The Pied Piper

by Koben Kelly

Hartley Rathaway was born without the ability to hear. An ironic beginning to his story, but true, none the less. His parents were wealthy socialites, and his father took it upon himself to spend ungodly amounts of money, a pittance compared to the millions he actually was worth, on research and development of a cure for Hartley’s condition. It seems that money may not be able to buy love, but it did buy Hartley a cure for his deafness.

At an early age, Hartley developed an unusual obsession with the world of sonics. With nothing to do as a teen but spend money on this focus, he began spending the majority of his time experimenting and developing cutting-edge innovations of sonic technologies. After mastering the intricacies of yet another hollow pursuit, young Hartley found himself bored, yet again. But, what does one do as an almost-adult with no direction, an inexhaustible source of funding, and an as yet unutilized total command of the possibilities offered by manipulation of sound? You guessed it. He turned to exploration of illegal and criminal activities.

Using his very own technology, Hartley found a way to incorporate the sonic innovations he, himself, had come up with to create a hybrid of machine and wind instrument. His weapon of choice would be a highly amplified flute, with which he could hypnotize anyone in hearing range into doing his bidding. Much like the character from classic fable literature, he rechristened himself The Pied Piper.

His first appearance was in The Flash #106. The tale was written by John Broome, and was titled The Pied Piper of Peril! (Yes, back then nearly every other story featured an exclamation mark.) Of course, the Flash in question was none other than the late, great Barry Allen. The Piper became quite the fixture in Barry’s series, often appearing more than once a year. If that point doesn’t seem terribly relevant, keep in mind that in the days of that title, years ago, the majority of the stories featured were done-in-ones. The Piper was firmly established as one of Barry’s Rogues.

Hartley experienced a major attitude adjustment and change of heart in the 1980s. After Barry Allen’s death in the landmark DC-wide crossover series, things just weren’t all fun and games anymore. The Piper had a serious re-evaluation of his priorities, and realized that he could actually make his own life matter. Giving up his life as a costumed criminal, he decided to dedicate his life and time to being a champion of the poor and underprivileged. Over time, Hartley became a close friend of Wally West, who took up the Flash mantle after Barry. The Piper and the Flash began to work together, with Hartley providing assistance with technological problems to the man who wore the uniform of his former nemesis.

Sadly, the Races, his parents, were both murdered, and it appeared that Hartley was the killer. Even though he was framed by Mirror Master, an active member of the Rogues, Piper acted as if though he was truly to blame. Truth be told, he actually believed that he was the guilty party. With no argument to his committing the crime being offered, Hartley was found guilty, and placed in meta-penitentiary, Iron Heights. While inside, he developed a relationship with the rats that infested the place, making his ties to the original pied piper of olde all the more concrete. Convinced of his own guilt and the bleakness of his future, Hartley broke out of Iron Heights, and went on the run.

After a merry chase across the nation, caught between a rock and a hard place, Piper finally gave himself up to the FBI. In a bit of odd luck, the original Trickster was putting together a team, in co-operation with the feds, and offered him a position. Without much of an alternate choice, Hartley signed up.

When they had been working together, Piper had come to know Wally pretty well. After a sad end result of Wally’s battle with the villainous speedster, Zoom, the Spectre had granted the Flash’s wish to have his secret identity be a reality again. Under the influence of The Top (or without the influence of the Top… long story), Piper joined with the Rogues during the Rogue War storyline in Geoff Johns’ The Flash. In a move of desperation and inspiration, Wally revealed himself to Piper to be the Flash. Upon seeing the face of his truly close friend, a tidal wave of memory and emotion washed over Hartley, restoring his original and dominant altruistic personality. Piper was himself again.

The charges of murder against him have been dropped, and Hartley currently lives the life of a free citizen.

Of note is the fact that Hartley was one of DC’s first openly homosexual characters. This was never a focal point in his history, nor was it ever anything that defined him as a person. If nothing else, it simply makes him a pioneering figure in the history of the DCU.


And there we go, kids. From the Fourth World to the Great Disaster, from the pals of heroes to the scions of Gods, from young women powered by lightning and a pair of Rogues, the big DCU event for the next 12 months starts here. Accordingly, members of the Best Shots team will be checking in every week in a new feature, Down for the Count. We’ll include recaps, reviews, and appropriate bits of history, trivia, and, when we get together, tag-team coverage. We hope you’ll join us soon. And as it was said by Major Tom . . . the Countdown is on.

Lucas Siegel is a regular contributor to the Best Shots column here at Newsarama, as well as the ShotgunReviews.com parent site of Best Shots. Along with a MARVELous team of cohorts, he recently launched an all new geek culture podcast called Shots in the Dark.

Kevin Huxford and Koben Kelly are wanted in seventeen states, and were politely asked to leave in fifteen more. The remaining eighteen have yet to decide.

Editor's Note: According to advance interviews and information, the Trickster in "Countdown" will indeed be the classic Trickster, James Jesse.

[nikoli29]

These have been really informative

[bcondray]

All these have been excellent Primers on Countdown.

Thanks for all the great work.

[dantebk]

All these articles have been really interesting, and the promo ads for Countdown have been really intriguing... but I just don't know if I'm ready for another weekly series immediately after 52, with a creative team I don't have a history with.

What to do!?

[vbartilucci]

Isn't that the NEW Trickster's glove in the Villains Defiant pic? The teenager who stole all of Jesse's tricks and set himself up as the new Trickster?

Great histories on all these pieces, BTW

[rwe1138]

I'm glad Piper's still (sort of) on the side of angels. Unlike others, such as Heatwave, I liked him being reformed. Trickster, on the other hand...we'll see. I really liked the idea of James wanting to go straight on his own volition after Underworld Unleashed, and was a little disappointed in the Top reveal. Still, I have faith.

[Korvac]

Originally Posted by vbartilucci

Isn't that the NEW Trickster's glove in the Villains Defiant pic? The teenager who stole all of Jesse's tricks and set himself up as the new Trickster?

Great histories on all these pieces, BTW

I was thinking the same thing re: Trickster. AFAIK the new one hasn't been killed off or given up the name.

[rwe1138]

Originally Posted by Korvac

I was thinking the same thing re: Trickster. AFAIK the new one hasn't been killed off or given up the name.

Has he been seen since James threatened to kill him if he put on the outfit again during Rogue War?

[Ace]

I sincerely hate the decision to make a lot of the logical character changes to the Rogues because of the Top.

Johns' worst move.

[Unknown]

Yeah, there was another Trickster, and Piper is seen in Flash #11 on the side of the Rogues, suggestiong his reform is no longer in continuity.

[gwangung]

Originally Posted by rwe1138

I'm glad Piper's still (sort of) on the side of angels. Unlike others, such as Heatwave, I liked him being reformed. Trickster, on the other hand...we'll see. I really liked the idea of James wanting to go straight on his own volition after Underworld Unleashed, and was a little disappointed in the Top reveal. Still, I have faith.

I like him being more of a con man, frankly....Being in the gray area suits him (and with the younger Trickster, you COULD have both...)

[rwe1138]

Originally Posted by Unknown

Yeah, there was another Trickster, and Piper is seen in Flash #11 on the side of the Rogues, suggestiong his reform is no longer in continuity.

Or the other Rogues don't know he's switched sides, and he's a mole.

[Rob S.]

I agree, Ace -- and Piper's presence in Flash #11 disappointed me, as well, Unknown.

[dave36chicago]

Another helpful summary. One addition/clarification. Mary Marvel languished for a decade after Crisis on Infinite Earths before being reintroduced. Billy was active immediately in Legends, his own mini-series and the relaunched Justice League.

[larkinja]

Well done. It's great to have these backstories. Can't wait for Countdown to start.

BTW, DC really needs to collect Power of Shazam! Great series. Beautiful covers.

[Kolimar]

More interesting articles. Thank you, guys.

[Shazam888]

Really like these, really informative and learned more on the Trickster and Pied Piper and can't wait to see there parts in Countdown.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by dave36chicago

Another helpful summary. One addition/clarification. Mary Marvel languished for a decade after Crisis on Infinite Earths before being reintroduced. Billy was active immediately in Legends, his own mini-series and the relaunched Justice League.

Correct. The mini was "Shazam: A New Beginning" by Roy Thomas and Tom Mandrake, iirc.

[Zach Adams]

I donno if the article's author has been watching 1970s NWA wrestling or something, but I'm pretty sure the Piper's name is Hartley Rathaway, not Race.

[Duke Jupiter]

It's apparent that DC really needs to do away with anything Shazam related in the standard DC Universe,let the good Captain set up shop in his own universe and start over. This Trial nonsense is dumb and inappropriate.

If I were running the show, I'd develop a series of age-appropriate graphic novels for young kids using the Shazam characters to get kids interested in superheroes.

- DJ

[FatFreeMilk]

Wow. Now I know about The Pied Piper! I just asked about him the otehr day!

[FatFreeMilk]

Other. (I was too excited)

[apoehler]

Originally Posted by Zach Adams

I donno if the article's author has been watching 1970s NWA wrestling or something, but I'm pretty sure the Piper's name is Hartley Rathaway, not Race.

Yeah, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the Mary Marvel part but the Flash villains part is entirely wrong, profiling the wrong Trickster and not getting Piper's name right. Quality control!

[know_access]

Originally Posted by rwe1138

Has he been seen since James threatened to kill him if he put on the outfit again during Rogue War?

He showed up in Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp #1

[aceatkins]

Originally Posted by Ace

I sincerely hate the decision to make a lot of the logical character changes to the Rogues because of the Top.

Johns' worst move.

I'll third that. Generally I think Johns is a master at creating tales that explain away character changes that don't work, but The Top explanation in Flash seemed really weak to me. Especially since I think that's when all the JLA mindwiping BS was coming out in Identity Crisis, and they revealed that Selina Kyle only turned good because the League decided that she --- out of all the hundreds of bad guys in the world --- absolutely needed to be "fixed." I got real sick of the mindwipings real fast...