The Wizard Shazam
9703 BCE - 23-year-old Jebediah first begins apprenticing with the wise men, studying the control and trapping of demons.
9666 BCE - 60-year-old Jebediah's settlement is destroyed in the great Upheaval as Darkworld begins to awaken. He begins adapting the techniques used to trap demons to collect and store magical energy.
9579 BCE - 147-year-old Jebediah assists Atlan in the awakening of the Lords of Chaos & Order. He channels the release of magic into an extra-dimensional nexus, creating the Rock of Eternity.
9518 BCE - 208-year-old Jebediah participates in the first Shadowpact, using the Rock of Eternity to absorb the ambient magic threatening to destroy the world. He first becomes Shazam.
7980 BCE - 1,746-year-old Shazam hunts the Seven Enemies of Man, a cadre of escaped demons tormenting mankind. When they are successfully trapped, he imprisons them inside the Rock of Eternity, stemming their influence over humanity and using them as an infinite supply of magical energy.
6510 BCE - 3,216-year-old Shazam constructs the magic allowing him to forge the Power of Shazam; to collect the power of heroes and gods, and to bestow them on a champion.
4080 BCE - 5,646-year-old Shazam makes the first of the covenants to forge the Power of Shazam, taking the wisdom of Zehuti and the power of Atum, both early Egyptian Gods.
3880 BCE - 5846-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Shu, the primordial Egyptian God of the wind, to add his stamina to the Power of Shazam
3565 BCE - 6161-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Amun, the Egyptian God of creation, to add his strength to the Power of Shazam
3100 BCE - 6626-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Horus, the Egyptian God of the sky, to add his swiftness to the Power of Shazam
2656 BCE - 7070-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Mehen, the Egyptian Snake Goddess, to add her courage to the Power of Shazam
2220 BCE - 7506-year-old Shazam selects a Khandaqi slave, Teth-Adam, to wield the Power of Shazam and become the champion, Mighty Adam.
2140 BCE - 7586-year-old Shazam's champion Teth-Adam violates his covenant, stealing the powers for himself to become Black Adam, the new ruler of Khandaq.
2137 BCE - 7589-year-old Shazam's magic, the Power of Shazam, is lost when Teth-Adam is killed by the Reach Scarab.
1550 BCE - 8176-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with the Egyptian Goddess Isis. She uses his magic to craft the Amulet of Isis, granting her champion, Hatshepsut, the power of her goddess.
1300 BCE - 8426-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Hercules, the Grecian Demigod, to add his strength as he recreates the Power of Shazam.
1145 BCE - 8581-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Achilles, the Grecian Demigod and hero of the Trojan War, to add his courage to the Power of Shazam.
963 BCE - 8763-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Solomon, the King of Israel, to add his wisdom to the Power of Shazam, the first fully human hero within the spell.
704 BCE - 9022-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Zeus, the King of the Grecian Gods, to add his power to the Power of Shazam.
582 BCE - 9144-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Atlas, the ancient Lybian God charged by Zeus to hold up the Celestial Spheres, to add his Stamina to the Power of Shazam.
332 BCE - 9394-year-old Shazam makes a covenant with Mercury, the Roman Messenger God, to add his Speed to the Power of Shazam.
221 - 9947-year-old Shazam first connects with his familiar, the magical tiger Tawky Tawny, allowing him to remain within the Rock of Eternity while he observes mankind, looking for an opportunity to create a new Champion
1775 - 11,501-year-old Shazam reaches out to fallen Revolutionary War Soldier Samuel Augustus Adams, offering him a chance to become his Champion. Samuel declines, asking to instead become the avatar of his new nation. This decision, Shazam believes, shows that he was the right choice.
52 years ago - Shazam sees that Teth-Adam has been reincarnated in his descendant, Theo Adam… potentially heralding the return of Black Adam.
11 years ago - Shazam first encounters Billy Batson when his parents are killed by Theo Adam to steal an amulet worn by Teth-Adam.
8 years ago - Shazam reaches out to Billy Batson, using his father’s ghost to lead him back to the Rock of Eternity where bestows upon him the Power of Shazam, making him his champion Captain Marvel. Theo Adam’s memories of his past life are awakened, allowing him to use the same magic his ancestor used to summon his alter ego, Black Adam.
3 years ago - Shazam is confronted by Clark Kent for exploiting Billy Batson when he discovers his age.
The Wizard Shazam is, of course, intrinsically tied in with the origins of classic comic character Captain Marvel, which means that trying to explain his first appearances is actually weirdly complicated. Technically, Captain Marvel's origins are told in his first appearance in the Thrill Comics #1 ashcan, which is a now obsolete practice of making a comic not intended for sale, just to establish a copyright. The story from Thrill Comics was later reproduced in Whiz Comics #2, which is, effectively, issue #1?
Doing Captain Marvel's story really necessitates doing the Wizard Shazam in some capacity, but we were frankly amazed at just how complex this timeline wound up becoming. We hope it all makes sense, and we would absolutely welcome any feedback you might have!
Doing Captain Marvel's story really necessitates doing the Wizard Shazam in some capacity, but we were frankly amazed at just how complex this timeline wound up becoming. We hope it all makes sense, and we would absolutely welcome any feedback you might have!
The Wizard Shazam's Comic HistoryTelling the story of the Origin of Captain Marvel is always fun, because this character really is one of the most enduring characters in comics, and the image of young Billy Batson being summoned into the Rock of Eternity is one of those truly indelible images, like the rocket escaping the destruction of Krypton...
But of course the character, despite being so mythic, really just isn't as well known. The visuals at play here, as important as they are, aren't as widely explored. For example, while I'd always seen the visual of the large block hanging ominously over the Wizard, what I never realized was that this was a deliberate visual indication that his time was running out before granting Billy his power and that, in his very first appearance, that rock actually fell and crushed the Wizard as Billy departed! |
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Given that the Wizard was introduced entirely as just an element of Billy's origin that was clearly not meant to come back, it's actually pretty surprising how often he would actually appear moving forward. Usually it would just be in quick flashbacks to catch up new readers, but Captain Marvel existed in a perpetual state of being vaguely-aware-of-the-fourth-wall, and so these flashbacks would often serve as ways for Billy to interact with the Wizard again, always with that looming rock over his head. Soon, the Wizard was fully interacting with Billy in regular issues as though he hadn't been killed at all.
Later reinventions of Captain Marvel's story, most notably Dan Jurgens Power of Shazam, imagined the Wizard as still being in the Rock of Eternity to serve as his scolding and often disapproving mentor figure. He was actually killed (again) by Eclipso in the Day of Vengeance crossover leading up the Infinite Crisis, and in the aftermath in a very innovative but ultimately overlooked comic Trials of Shazam!, Billy himself actually became the new guardian of the Rock of Eternity as Freddy became the new Champion. Even later, In the post-Flashpoint re-imagining of the story of Captain Marvel (now Shazam), an entirely new design for the Wizard was introduced, making him a dark-skinned one-time resident of Khandaq. |
Our Wizard Shazam StoryWe really do think its important to lean into the VISUALS of Captain Marvel's origins with the Wizard, but we got a little creative with some of the story details... just fine tuning it into a shape we like. We've also used the Wizard for several major story beats, having him around all the way back to participate in the original Shadowpact spell, making the Rock of Eternity part of the epic magic event that prevented the end of the world thousands of years ago. as well as create a few other major events tied in with a few other characters.
The big thing we've done here is invent our own version of how the Power of Shazam functions. It's very much the magic that defines Captain Marvel's powers, so we wanted to make it a big deal here. Even after the Wizard concocts the magic it takes him thousands of years to make the necessary covenants with the various gods and heroes to make the original version of the Power, which is lost to him when Black Adam breaks their connection, forcing him to create it all over again, which takes another several thousand years! This version of the Wizard remains pretty solidly a background character, but just by virtue of having been around for so long winds up appearing all over our timeline. Which is just how he should be. |
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