Monday, January 4, 2016

Lightning Strikes Thrice

"Shazam 3"
In the winter of 1968 a family of Russian immigrants came to the United States and settled down in called Fawcett City, with them they brought murders, thieves and extortionists, and a seven-year old boy named Ishmael Gregor. Today, that boy is now the owner of Fawcett City's most successful trading export Karnes Transport. It is through Karnas that Fawcett receives it's quality produce, machine parts and electronics, but unknown to the public this company also transfers weapons, assassins and illegal immigrants to cities all over the country. Gregor is reminded of his companies success-and how he toppled his own criminal family to reach this success-by an echoing voice with no appearance. The voice tells Gregor that all his bad karma is catching up to him, that soon-he estimates-Fawcett City's guardian will learn the truth. As Gregor looks over a caged bird-seemingly made of light-he claims that by then, he will be more than a man. Gregor will be a God.
Inside The Rock of Eternity, Billy Batson's adopted siblings Mary and Freddy watch as the magical tiger Tawny finishes sealing the recently captured Sin of Sloth into a totem, along with the other four sealed Sins that The Shazam Family has been hunting. As Freddy puts it, "Sloth was a push-over". Through a magic portal, Billy Batson and an occult magician named John Constantine (who'd have his own show connected to the PBDC) drag a long-legged woman into the Rock of Eternity, claiming she is The Sin of Lust. Tawny seals The Sin of Lust away with the others as Billy gives John $500 dollars cash for his help. John leaves and Mary asks why Billy needed a troublemaker like Constantine for help, Billy's only reply is a blush, "It was Lust, after all". Tawny begins his search for the last Sin while the kids help their foster siblings at a bake sale.
Later that night, Shazam flies to Kahndaq and is targeted by soldiers. Kahndaq's king Theodore Adam/Black Adam (a fellow Champion) welcomes Shazam. The two discuss their mission of capturing the Seven Deadly Sins soon closing up and how Theo and his wife Andrea have been running the country. Theo can't help but be upset that Sloth wasn't the last to be caught, as Pride can be a deadly thing. At this time, Tawny sniffs out the trail of The Sin of Pride to an abandoned church, he walks in to see a satanic circle being drawn by some men. Tawny attacks the men, but is kicked away by Ishmael Gregor. Standing in the center of the pentagram, four horns grow on Gregor's head and then a new horn sprouts. Tawny tries to fight Gregor, but Gregor seems to have some superpowers. He captures Tawny and tells his light bird to send a message for him.
On his flight back home, Shazam gets a distress signal from Black Adam. He flies back to Kahndaq to see a giant version of Tawny destroying the city. Shazam and Black Adam try to fight Tawny, defeating him in the outskirts of the city. The giant Tawny turns into his regular size and a light bird flies out of him. When Tawny awakens, he claims that Sabbac is going to return before a small pentagram on Tawny's head disintegrates the tiger. Racked with sadness, Shazam demands an answer from the bird-which evaporates in his hands. Black Adam tells Shazam that "Sabbac" is actually an anagram for another "Champion".
Using magic, Andrea and Theo tell how in the Egyptian days during Black Adam's time as the only Champion of The Wizard there was a traveller from Europe who came to Kahndaq as a worshipper of Black Adam's power. After he learned The Wizard only chose one Champion, the traveller kidnapped one of Black Adam's slaves and summoned the essence of six demonic figures to lend the slave their power. As the travelled described: The Spite of Sathanus, The Tempt of Asmodeus, The Evasiveness of Belzebub, The Brilliance of Belpegor, The Emptiness of Abaddon, and The Trickery of Anti-Christ were infused into the slave creating-with a letter from each demon-Sabbac. Sabbac killed the European and tried to burn Kahndaq to the ground. He defeated Black Adam, and it took all of The Wizard's might to split Sabbac into six unobtainable pieces and spread them across the planet.
With Mary's knowledge of history and Theo's knowing of Sabbac's lore, Billy learns whoever corrupted and killed Tawny has been searching for Sabbac's pieces. Each piece-coincidently-had been placed on the grounds of a church and could only be infused into a body via mysticism. Against his friends' advice, Billy finds John Constantine in a bar and becomes Shazam to interrogate him. John claims he had nothing to do with it, that anyone trying to obtain Sabbac's power is a fool as no mortal soul can survive or control that much demonic power. John agrees to help Billy look for the real culprit...for another $500, of course.
While Mary and Freddy are at the city Library researching Sabbac's individual pieces, they find that the demons came from the same mythology as the Seven Deadly Sins. While there, a group of students begin becoming ill and passing out. The police who shows up later claim they were all poisoned from a Japanese soda they were all drinking. Mary checks recent police reports and finds that cases of people being injured and/or killed by foreign objects has been escalating, while some delivery trucks have even be speculated to be tampered or implanted with drugs and weapons. Freddy point out that The Karnas Transport organization has been thought to be slimy for decades, but the CEO is so rich and powerful the cops can't touch him.
Constantine and Shazam enter a church they believe to hold the last piece of Sabbac. As they investigate, John becomes savage and attacks Shazam. Though he knows John can't hurt him, Shazam is angered by John and throws him through a podium. Shazam is shocked to have done something so violent as Gregor and some henchmen run in to fight Shazam. Shazam easily defeats the men, but is sidetracked by a magic cannon Gregor fires at him. Gregor claims before Doctor Sivana was arrested with the rest of Checkmate, he left Gregor a few friendly gifts. Gregor gives the cannon to John-who keeps blasting Shazam-and Gregor uses a ritual to gain the final piece of Sabbac. He then retreats the church when he is notified of a break-in at his company. Shazam overcomes the cannon and impales John Constantine's chest with a punch.
Mary and Freddy are seen sneaking into Gregor's office at Karnas Transport and files show Gregor has been researching Sabbac and planning illegal transports. The bodiless voice from before scares the kids, but they are even more scared when Gregor shows up with henchmen. Mary claims she called the cops beforehand and that the building will be surrounded soon. Gregor yells "Sabbac" and turns into a devil-like monster before claiming "I'm counting on it".
Billy becomes human again as he cries over the corpse of Constantine. He can't believe that he killed him, Black Adam appears at the church claiming Sabbac has returned and that they need to repair. When Billy yells at Black Adam over John's death, Adam reveals the dead John to be an illusion cast over a puppet, that all of Gregor's minions where just possessed puppets. John is still knocked out behind the podium.
As Sabbac stands on the roof of Karnas Transport, he holds the children over the police. Sabbac demands for The Champions to appear, and Black Adam and Isis (Andrea) show up. Sabbac claims to be the descendent of the European traveller, to be worthy of such power and escalate the evil he as already committed. Black Adam shares his power with the kids, turning them into Mary Shazam and Shazam Kid. The four of them fight Sabbac, but the demon's powers are in effect: Sathanus' Spite allows Sabbac to never tire out, Asmodeus' Tempt allows Sabbac to instigate his foes until they are feral, Belzebub's Evasiveness allows Sabbac to turn into a swarm of flies and avoid grasp, Belpegor's Brilliance makes Sabbac a tactical genius, Abaddon's Emptiness allows Sabbac to simply swallow anything launched at him, and Anti-Christ's Trickery allows Sabbac to transform into whatever he pleases.
Shazam and Constantine go to Billy's foster home where his Uncle Dudley and foster siblings (Eugene,  Darla and Pedro) wait for his arrival. Shazam claims they have a big fight on their hands and Constantine uses a spell to allow Shazam to share his powers without weakening himself. So, Shazam shares his power turning Dudley, Eugene, Darla, Pedro, and even John Constantine into Champions.
With their combined might, the ten Champions battle Sabbac. In Karnas Transport HQ, Gregor has a baby crocodile from Egypt as his pet. Sabbac shares a portion of power with Sobek The Crocodile and turns him into a giant monster. Eugene, Pedro, Darla and Freddy battle Sobek-who rampages through the city like Godzilla-while Isis, Mary and Dudley get civilians to safety and Shazam, John and Black Adam fight Sabbac-who has also grown giant. Sobek is defeated, but the battle with the crocodile has expended John's spell, leaving Shazam weaker. Black Adam tries to help Shazam, but Shazam refuses his hand, claiming he doesn't need his or anyone's help. Through another spell from John, they learn the bird of light has been inside of Shazam this whole time, driving him more and more aggressive and stubborn. John removes the bird and pieces it together than the bird is The Sin of Pride, helping Gregor manipulate these events. The Sin of Pride infuses into Sabbac-who has devoured the body of Sobek to become even more powerful.
Black Adam realizes it took The Wizard to stop Sabbac. He convinces Billy to "become The Wizard". The nine other Champions gather around Billy and as they all yell "Shazam" and target their lightning at Billy. The other Champions return to human form while Billy has become "The Wizard", dressed in a white version of the Shazam costume and sporting long white hair. With all portions of The Wizard's power inside him, Shazam is now more powerful than ever and upon flying into Sabbac, the two of them appear in a black emptiness. A world Shazam created to suit an even battle. Inside this empty world, Shazam defeats Sabbac and rips each demon out of the pentagram on his chest, sending them back to The Underworld. When Shazam returns to the normal world, he holds Gregor in his arms. Gregor claims it was not his idea, none of it. In The Karnas Transport building's secret lab, a talking caterpillar (Mister Mind) inches towards a miniature rocket ship, bragging about his conquest over Shazam yet again and how he will escape to defeat him again. A few inches away from his escape, Mister Mind sees the shadow of a foot come down as John Constantine squashes the evil bug and lights a cigarette.
The ten of them meet in The Rock of Eternity as Andrea seals the last Sin in a totem. Billy isn't sure what to do next, but Theo claims with Tawny gone there needs to be a new watcher of The Rock, someone to take The Wizard's place. Uncle Dudley volunteers. Billy is upset, but Dudley claims Billy is still a kid and has his whole life ahead of him. And so, Uncle Dudley becomes The New Wizard and selects his pet rabbit Hoppy to be his "Tawny". The Vasquez Family know the kids had fun, but they suggest Billy be the only Shazam in this house, to which the kids agree. Theo and Andrea give up their power to Dudley so that when Billy becomes Shazam, he'll be at his strongest. Constantine takes $500 from Billy-and an extra $100 from Dudley-and leaves, claiming he has a team of his own to get back to (referring to the Shadowpact HBO tie-in). Billy continues to work for Fawcett News, doing an article on the buyout of Karnas Transport by Wayne Industries and the trusted business to come from it. Billy gets word of an award nomination before heading out as Shazam yet again.
After the credits, Wizard Dudley and Hoppy are watching the stars. Dudley falls asleep just as a blue light fires from Earth into the stars. From where the beam targeted, an ominous blue light flashes back. Dudley wakes up to Hoppy's reaction, but claims it was probably nothing. Probably.
Thanks for reading.
It's back to the future in "Booster Gold Beyond" coming up next!

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