" Who am I? I am the thrown-away daughter. I am the girl who was given a second chance at family and love... the planner, the over-achiever... the defender of the weak... the new champion of the lost and the left behind! I... am... Shazam!"
A four-issue series published by DC Comics in 2022-23, written by Josie Campbell, with art by Evan 'Doc' Shaner.— Mary Bromfield/Shazam
Mary Bromfield (aka Mary Marvel/Lady Shazam) is starting as a freshman at Vassar College, New York, seeking to leave behind her old life with the Marvel Family and begin afresh (even going as far as telling her new roommates that her name is Marina). However, Hoppy, the pet rabbit of one of her roommates, is given power by Billy Batson, who is stuck on the rock of eternity, to tell her that he has chosen her to become the new Champion of Shazam. Mary tries to refuse, even after an initial fight as the new Shazam against a seemingly super-powered bank robber. However, she is forced to return to Philadelphia when police inform her that her adoptive parents have gone missing. She's then drawn into the mystery of how they, and hundreds of others, have disappeared and of other strange goings-on around the city, a mystery she's determined to solve in both her identities.
The New Champion Of Shazam contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Mary can obviously kick ass in her super-powered form; but she's no less determined in her normal form.
- Addictive Magic: Averted. While Mary has previously seemed to suffer from an addiction to her powers, at the start of this series she seems to want nothing to do with them.
- And the Adventure Continues: The series ends with Mary seeing a strange vision of Billy, before transforming and flying off with Hoppy to Washington DC to figure out what's going on; this serves as a lead-in to Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods, where the story continues.
- Big Bad: Dr Georgia Sivana, daughter of the original Dr Sivana, is the one behind the missing people and general weirdness that Mary finds herself drawn into.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Disaster Master, a minor villain who hadn't been seen since 1952, appears as the Starter Villain of the run.
- Georgia Sivana who, barring a minor appearance during The Multiversity returns to the main comics as the Big Bad of the story after being absent since before Flashpoint.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Shazam!", of course. It comes in useful when she's escaping from a potentially deadly trap in issue 4.
- Call-Back: Towards the end of episode 2, after being involved in two fights, Mary is taken by surprise by a TV news reporter, who asks her who she is: Mary, surprised by the encounter, flies away. In episode 4, after Mary, now Shazam, defeats Dr G and rescues those trapped in the collapsing college, Darla is interviewed by the same reporter; Darla cuts short the reporter's attempts to call Mary "Miss Marvel" by saying "she's Shazam!".
- Likewise, earlier in episode 4, the Big Bad asks Mary almost the same question, "Who are you to stop me?" Mary replies with the Badass Boast in the page quote.
- Canon Character All Along: Dr G turns out to be Georgia Sivana.
- Character Development: Mary goes from trying to run away from her superhero identity at the beginning to fully embracing it at the end.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted/subverted. In her first battle as Shazam, Mary is almost literally blown away when an energy blast she fires is much stronger than she expected. Hoppy explains that now that the power of Shazam isn't split between the entire family, she is 5 times more powerful than before. Mary uses this to her advantage in order to defeat Disaster Master.
- Continuity Cameo: Uncle Dudley/Marv returns in issues 3 and 4 as the one leading the search for the missing homeless people.
- The Hero: Mary herself.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Mary's reason for going to Vassar College and trying to reject Billy's call to become the new champion of Shazam at the start of the story.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: After Mary flies away from a reporter trying to discover her identity, she wakes the next morning to find videos and memes of her all over the internet (and not in a good way).
- Mad Scientist: Dr Georgia Sivana, daughter of Dr Sivana and the main antagonist.
- Modesty Shorts: The magic of Shazam helpfully provides a pair for Mary under her skirt.
- Mythology Gag: While Fawcett City still doesn't exist, the Shazamily's Earth Prime home of Philadelphia has Fawcett Community College. The student radio station is even W.H.I.Z.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Hoppy, the current incarnation of Marvel Bunny, who serves as Mary's sidekick throughout the series. As well as being able to talk, he has some limited powers, being able to teleport himself and Mary to different places, and to sense magic (or 'non-magic') in people. He also plays a crucial role in defeating Dr Sivana at the climax.
- Title Drop: Several times in issue 1, as Hoppy the bunny tells her that Billy has chosen her to be the new champion.
- Transformation Sequence: Most of the time, Mary's transformations happen instantaneously when she shouts "Shazam!". However, her climatic transformation in issue 4 has a longer lead-up, as lightning forms around her before she says the word, building up to her fully claiming the title Shazam.
- Her transformations back to her normal form are normally shown as well.
