Trials of Shazam! #6
	Story: 'Hard Time' Writer: Judd Winnick Art (& Cover): Howard Porter Letterer: Rob Leigh Asso. Editor: Tom Palmer Jr. Editor: Mark Carlin Published by: DC Comics
	Reviewed by: Bruce Logan

Having gotten the power of (near) invulnerability in his last trial, Freddie touches base with Marvel i.e. Billy before getting on with the next one. Billy tells Freddie more about the changes that have/will come about with the power of Shazam and how it is wielded in this new age of magic. At the same time we have Sabina doing the same on her side, only seeing as hers is the evil side her reporting has the usual yelling, table thumping and near strangling that we expect from villainous, uh, villains.

As shown by the cover (with the tattooed fingers), after Achilles it is the turn of the god of strength, Hercules. As with the others before Hercules too is in a guise different from his traditional one and not only that he is in a prison for multiple murders. To get him out is Freddie’s trial. However, before Freddie can get started on even making a ghost of a plan for accomplishing this trial trouble comes knocking (literally) in the form of Sabina.

The reason why Herc is in a federal prison i.e. the murders he committed were done against Medusa and her underlings (who were masquerading as humans). In a nod back to stories of myth, it seems here to Hercules beheaded Medusa. It is with the same head that Sabina stuns the (currently) mortal god and steals his power. Why seeing Medusa’s face only stuns him and not turns him into stone is something that confused me, nevertheless even in his near knocked out state Hercules is able to do what we all knew would happen. He bestows his power (minus the part that Sabina stole) to the person it was intended for i.e. Freddie.

The issue ends with the two wannabe acolytes facing of against each other. Oh, and one more thing. We get to see Freddie in his Shazam minus, although without any cape. Maybe I am wrong but the absence of the cape is possibly due to Freddie’s not having completed all the trials and not having all the powers of the gods making up the word Shazam.

Howard Porter’s artwork is as excellent as ever with my favorite for this issue being Hercules’s fight with Medusa and her cronies. Moreover, as with the other gods, I liked the side by side (sort of) placement of Hercules’s real/original self his current one.

Conclusion: Given that it is working towards an ending is that can be predicted rather safely (and has been from the second issue itself), Judd Winnick’s Trials of Shazam! is nevertheless coming along quite well, both to bring the mythos of Shazam into the 21^st century as well as introduce a new champion(s) for it.

RATING: 8/10