Marvel/DC Thor/Shazam!

Published

November 12, 2025

Cover Artist

Martin Coccolo

Writer

Al Ewing

Penciller

Jethro Morales

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And then my grubs will grow fat on creation’s corpse!

As mentioned in my Unbagging of DC’s digital offering, I was given a free month’s trial of Marvel Unlimited so that I could read their digital exclusive crossover comic.

In that post I focused a lot on the format of the comic, and as the format of this comic is much the same, everything I said there applies here, including the clever use – in this case by Jethro Morales – of the vertical format as part of the storytelling.

Specifically, the long shot of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man.

Our story begins “many years ago” with a confused Dr. Donald Blake trying to remember something important about his cane while he’s in a subway station.

A voice calls to him and urgers him to get onto a strange subway car and he finds himself at the Rock of Eternity where Captain Marvel – I like that they went with that name in this story rather than Shazam – and the wizard await him.

The wizard reminds Blake that he is actually Thor, son of Odin, but that the enchantment that would restore him to his true form and power upon striking his cane on the ground is not working because his power has somehow been stolen.

However, the wizard reckons that a different kind of lightning might restore him, and so the Big Red Cheese puts his hand on Blake’s shoulder and says the magic word.

With a crack of thunder, Blake is replaced by Thor and Captain Marvel is replaced by Billy Batson. However, Mjolnir is still a cane.

Thor worries that, per the terms of the enchantment, he will turn back into Blake after going more than sixty seconds without holding his hammer, though the wizard points out that time does not pass at the Rock of Eternity.

As he speaks, he’s interrupted by the culprit behind the theft of Thor’s power: the evil Mister Mind, who has found a way to steal the powers of ten gods and demons whose names can spell out “MISTER MIND,” including Thor.

Thor alone is no match for Mister Mind, but can Captain Marvel even the odds?

No, he can’t, because once Billy shouts “SHAZAM!” Thor turns back into Donald Blake and the power of Thor flows back into Mister Mind, making him even stronger than he was when facing off against Thor.

However, after Captain Marvel says the word again and turns Blake back into Thor, the Odinson thinks of a way that Captain Marvel can join the fray – if the enchantment that changes Billy Batson into Captain Marvel can turn Donald Blake into Thor, maybe the enchantment that turns Donald Blake into Thor can change Billy Batson into Captain Marvel.

Thus, we learn that along with Wonder Woman and Superman, there is another resident of the DCU who is worthy of wielding Mjolnir.

Still, even with both heroes and the hammer in play, Mister Mind retains a mathematic advantage in terms of the number of gods and demons powering him.

However, the, er, worm turns once Mister Mind gets too greedy and tries to wrest Mjolnir out of Captain Marvel’s grasp. Thor’s warning about the enchantment of Odin gives the Captain an idea, thanks to the wisdom of Solomon, and he lets go.

Mister Mind isn’t worthy to hold Mjolnir, but he claims he doesn’t have to be, as all he has to do is let it hit the ground, and he will once again have the power of Thor at his disposal.

Of course, that’s not how things work – hitting the hammer against the ground turns Thor back into Donald Blake and turns Mjolnir back into a walking stick.

The hammer turns into a stick and Mister Mind is turned back into the worm that he is. Before he can speak the word that will restore his stolen power, the little radio he wears that allows him to speak is snatched away.

The wizard intends to let the beings that Mister Mind stole power from deal with him, in alphabetical order, starting with Darkseid.

With that taken care of, the mixed-up powers can be sorted out, but there is one thing that Donald Blake wants to check out first.

That’s…interesting, considering what’s happened with Donald Blake in the decades since that transformation aspect stopped being a part of Thor’s status quo and what Blake is up to now in Al Ewing’s current run on The Mortal Thor.

I think I liked this one more than the Flash/FF crossover. The story was even simpler, and was, somewhat ironically, even more fast-paced, but there were some clever ideas in it.

But it is odd that, like that crossover, this one is driven entirely by a DC villain, though at least here we do get a mention of some Mavel villains as entities contributing to Mister Mind’s power.

Mister Mind is always fun, but I would have liked to have seen a Thor villain. I mean, this was the sort of situation that was right up Loki’s alley. Why not a Loki/Mister Mind team-up?

I suppose it boils down to these digital exclusives being short, quick stories that don’t really have the space for anything too complex, but the effect in both cases makes these feel like diet crossovers. Even the short crossover stories featured in the two print crossovers that have come out this year – come back tomorrow for a Short Box about Batman/Deadpool – feel like they have more calories.

Wanting to check out this crossover did lead me to sign up for a free month of Marvel Unlimited, so it does have that going for it. I’m not sure that subscription will continue past the free month, though, as I can’t really afford any extra expenses right now and I’m still too much of an old fogey to make effective use of a digital comic subscription.

Speaking of affording things, I’m on a mandatory furlough from my day job this week. I have enough PTO to cover three of the four unpaid days – I get paid for Thanksgiving – but am still losing one day’s wages.

If you’re actually here reading this, maybe take a look at a few – or a few dozen, or few hundred – of the other posts I have here (without an ad blocker), encourage others to do the same, and maybe think about taking a look at those buttons for donating and becoming a patron over on the right…

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