#steve hamaker

Bone Vol. 7 - Ghost Circles

Trigger Warning: A Strangers in Paradise Story (one-shot) (2025)

Bone: Rose -August 2009- Scholastic Graphix

cover art by Jeff Smith

cover colors by Steve Hamaker

written by Jeff Smith

Bone #3 - Phoney Bone (March 1, 1996)

Rasl #1 (March 2008)

Cover by Jeff Smith with Steve Hamaker

SHAZAM!: THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL #1-4 APRIL - SEPTEMBER 2007 BY JEFF SMITH AND STEVE HAMAKER

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

Billy Batson is a young boy living on the streets of Fawcett City. A grimy street urchin named Lagreen attempts to steal Billy's money, but the young boy flees and takes comfort in the company of an old man named Talky. In the middle of the conversation, Billy sees a man who looks like his father and takes off in hot pursuit.

The shadowy figure leads him down into the city's subway system and onto a shiny red and yellow subway car that takes him to a cave of an aging wizard named Shazam. Shazam informs Billy that he has been chosen to become the new Captain Marvel. After touching the wizard's hand and saying the wizard's name, Billy transforms into Captain Marvel.

Shazam informs Marvel that he has a new host body, and that his time on this mortal plane is up. He tells Marvel how to contact him should his advice be needed, and dies.

Billy returns to his apartment and Marvel protects him from Lagreen. After seeing the way Billy lives, Marvel decides to return to Shazam and attempt to get better lodging for the boy. He carries Billy through time and space to reach the wizard's cave on the Rock of Eternity Once they arrive, Marvel warns Billy that he must never attempt to reach the peak of the mountain. After a short conversation with the wizard, in which Billy almost learns that he has a baby sister, he steps outside to give Marvel and Shazam some privacy- and climbs to the top of the Rock.

After Marvel pulls him down from the peak of the Rock, Billy wakes in his hole. Every alarm in the city is going off because strange alligator men are attacking humans. After transforming into Captain Marvel and fighting several of them off, the alligators show him a grassy field that boasts over-sized giant shoe-prints he recognizes as Billy's. The crocodile-men warn Captain Marvel of the coming of Mr. Mind.

Billy Batson wakes up back in the derelict building after dreaming about her unknown sister, who was revealed to him by The Wizard. Billy turns on his TV and learns about the crop circles shaped as footprints at the park and he realizes that he is responsible for those marks after he walked to the top of the Rock of Eternity. After the news ends, there is an advertisement about a circus and Billy thinks that he could enter that business using his new powers.

Billy decides to go to the circus, but on his way there he witnesses a speech by attorney general Dr. Sivana, in which he tells the people his determination to find the responsible behind the crop circles at the park. Billy then gets distracted by a large row of ants walking towards the same direction when he is taken by surprise by Lagreen and another bully. They want to steal Billy's money and the kid runs towards the circus' tent, where he manages to get inside. Billy sneaks below the seats at the circus and he witnesses a beast tamer being torn apart by reptile-men and how the monsters threatened the audience and snatched the children away from the crowd. Billy notices that one of the kids that is captured is his own sister and he speaks the magic word "SHAZAM!", transforming once again into Captain Marvel. The monsters try to eat the children, but Captain Marvel stops them and saves the kids including his sister. Soon, a tiger joins the fight and helps Captain Marvel against the monsters, but when the monsters retreat, the tiger and Billy's sister also disappear.

Captain Marvel goes outside the circus to warn a police officer about the missing girl, but everybody in the city is in shock after a gigantic monstruosity has appeared in the park at the same spot as the crop marks. The monster speaks and talks directly to Captain Marvel, who decides to approach the thing, who reveals himself as Mister Mind and his ultimate intentions of eliminating mankind and turn them into monsters. Captain Marvel tries to fight Mr. Mind, but it is much too strong and Marvel's attacks have no effect. Before leaving, Mind tells Captain Marvel that he would return with a companion and as Marvel leaves the scene, he is watched closely by Dr. Sivana.

When Mr. Mind leaves, Captain Marvel resumes his search for Billy's sister and when he finds her, he realizes that she has been with the tiger all along. The tiger reveals his identity as Talky Tawny, the homeless man who used to spend time with Billy. Captain Marvel says the magic word and Billy returns and reveals the truth to his sister. Mary in turn tells Billy that she ran away from her foster home to join the circus and she is ashamed to admit it. Billy and Mary soon make a connection and she asks her brother to let her stay with him. The moment Billy agrees to take Mary to his building, Mr. Mind returns with a twin creature and Billy has to change back into Captain Marvel. During his transformation, lightning strikes Mary and pushes her into a vehicle. When Captain Marvel and Talky go to see if Mary is fine, she comes ouf of the wreckage of a vehicle unscathed and transformed into a small version of Captain Marvel. Mary Marvel starts flying around and demonstrating how faster than Captain Marvel she is, despite the fact that she is not as strong as him.

Moments later, Mary Marvel flies away on her own while Captain Marvel goes alone to face Mr. Mind and his clone.

Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel fly towards the two gigantic monsters who are Mister Mind. Mary gets there first and she tells Captain that the giants are not actually living beings, since she can't sense their vibrations. Marvel realizes that Mary has the power of the Godgess Athena and she comes to the conclusion that the giants must be robots and that Mister Mind is in fact inside them. Both Mary and Captain are forced to retreat when some helicopters from the Department of Heartland Security start shooting at them.

Captain Marvel flies off as fast as he can and takes Mary with him to his derelict apartment, where they say the magic word and return to their normal appearances. Once inside, Billy notices that all the cockroaches from his place have vanished and when Mary turns on the TV, they learn that all the bugs from Fawcett City have disappeared as well. Billy then remembers that he saw many ants walking away in the city, but before he could think of what's happening, Mary opens the door after listening some sounds and a couple of agents enter the place and grab the two kids, covering their mouths to prevent them from saying the magic word. Then, Dr. Sivana enters the place along with Lagreen and his bully friend, and he thanks them for letting him know the location of Billy Batson, who they also revealed as Captain Marvel. Sivana interrogates Billy and forces him to write his answers, to prevent him from speaking and Sivana pretends to be worried about Marvel's involvement with the monster. When he learns that the monster might be a robot, Sivana realizes that he could learn more from such technology to incite war and gain profit. Sivana orders his men to take Mary to a secret location, while he takes Billy to the place where the giants are standing.

Once in the park, Sivana approaches the giants along with Billy, Lagreen and the bully. When a weird machine comes out of the giant, Sivana orders Lagreen and his friend to get the strange object, but as they approach it, they are transformed into monsters who attack Sivana and Billy. Before running away, Sivana tries to free Billy, which gives the kid the chance to say "Shazam" right before the monsters reach him. Once transformed into Captain Marvel, more monsters appear and they introduce themselves as The Monster Society of Evil, but they are all defeated by Captain Marvel. When the cries for help of Sivana are heard by the police, they release tear gas in the area, which allows Captain Marvel to escape unnoticed.

Hours later, Billy is sitting alone at the harbor, defeated after searching for his sister across the city when suddenly Talky appears and offers his help to find Mary. Billy comes up with the idea that maybe he could find Mary going to the media and Talky decides to investigate at the park, near to the giants.

Billy goes to the SNN offices and tries to talk with the president, but his efforts are futile. He then decides to turn into Captain Marvel and he is suddenly granted access to talk with Mr. Morris. Marvel informs him about Sivana's evil plan and the missing girl. Morris promises to help him find the girl, but in order to make a case against Sivana, they're going to need proof, so Marvel sets out to find Talky.

In the meantime, Talky is watching the giants from a very close place and he notices that two agents come from inside the robots. When Billy joins him, Talky informs him about the agents and Billy recognizes them as Sivana's men, the ones who took Mary. Talky tries to come up with a plan to break inside the robot, but Billy gets impatient and speaks the magic word without listening to Talky's warnings.

Captain Marvel flies off to rescue Mary. Talky Tawny trails behind him until they come to one of Mister Mind's twin robots. Captain Marvel is too large to enter the structure, and can only gain egress as Billy Batson. Tawny warns him that the rules that prevent him from transforming back and forth at the Rock of Eternity also applies to the giant robots. If Marvel changes into Billy, he won't be able to change back if he gets into trouble. Marvel changes into Billy and begins scouring the dark interior of the robot.

Outside, Sterling Morris and Helen Fidelity maintain radio contact with Billy. Billy tells them that the robots are filled with cockroaches, but he has yet to find Mary. Sterling and Helen can see Doctor Sivana with Mary on the outside of one of the robots. At the top of the robot is a cockpit. Mister Mind communicates with Sivana and tells him to strap Mary into the cockpit. Billy gets to the top of his robot, and discovers that he is inside the wrong one. Desperate to save Mary, Billy ignores Tawky Tawny's warning and speaks the name "Shazam". The mystic lightning interacts with the mystical properties of Mister Mind's robots, transforming Billy into a giant-sized Captain Marvel. The resulting backlash of power creates a quantum singularity in the sky above them. Captain Marvel batters the robots and they are drawn inside the rift. The singularity also siphons away Captain Marvel's power, transforming him back into Billy Batson before closing.

With Mister Mind and the threat of his Monster Society abated, Billy reunites with Tawky Tawny. He jumps on Doctor Sivana and begins beating him up. Mary arrives, revealing that she still maintains the power of Shazam. She was a safe distance from the singularity and didn't lose her powers. She speaks the magic word and bequeathes a portion of her power to Billy. Sterling Morris is so impressed with Billy Batson's heroism that he invites him to become a member of the Morris Company family as an employee of WHIZ Radio.

REVIEW

At the time this story was published, there was a maxi-series called “Trials of Shazam” where Freddy was becoming the new Captain Marvel (as Billy had to take the place of the Wizard). Then this came out to confuse readers a bit more.

This mini is non-canon. Just a mere exercise to see Jeff Smith tackling Captain Marvel. You also have to have in mind that comics were pretty dark and gory in 2007, so something like this was refreshing.

Marv Wolfman was supposed to publish “Man and Superman” through Superman: Confidential around this time (and didn’t see light until 2019). The distance may be good, because this mini also took terrorism and the patriot act as part of one of the plots. Dr Sivana is some kind of Donald Rumsfeld, more interested in making wars than peace (as long as it is profitable). Don’t worry, the story works whether you know this or not.

I like Billy’s reactions, he really looks like a small child, and Mary is even more cuter. The monsters are perhaps Jeff Smith’s best characters. But I am also not convinced about this monster society of evil. I think there was something that got lost in the way of publishing. Because Mr. Mind’s plan could work without them.

The change done to Mr. Mind feels a bit unnecessary (his original, and current, look would work here).

Also at the time of publication, there was a decoder at dccomics.com (i am not sure it can be still be found there). This would help readers translate the titles. The decoder was added to the last issue.

Bone #3 - Phoney Bone (March 1, 1996)