Billy Batson

Billy Batson: 1996 - 2003
Billy Batson was the son of Marilyn Batson, a drug addict who was found to be an unfit parent. Without any familiar able to take custody of Marilyn’s newborn child, Billy was placed into the care of the child protective service of Iowa Department of Human Services. Billy drifted between a couple foster homes until he landed in the care of Jose and Maria Vasquez of Fawcett City. It was in this home that Billy would meet his five other foster siblings: Mary Bromfield, Freddy Freeman, Eugene Choi, Pedro Peña, and Darla Dudley.

At first, Blilly found this home to be too crowded for him and decided to run away to take his chances with living on the street. Fortunately for Billy, he was whisked away to the magical realm called the “Rock of Eternity” where he encountered a dark robe man calling himself “The Wizard”, For some reason, this sorcerer saw Billy fit enough to teach him how to summon the living lightning with a single word. Armed with the Wizard’s enchantment, Billy was returned to the mortal realm as if it were all a dream. Urged by an unknown compulsion, Billy woke up and decided to return to the care of the Vasquez family and forget about the “weird dream” he had the night he ran away.

The experience was almost forgotten entirely until months later when Billy was walking home from school with his foster siblings, Freddie and Mary. Their idyllic stroll was interrupted when armed men came running out of the Fawcett City Bank, knocking over Freddy and his wheel chair en route to their getaway car. As Mary screamed and alarms blared around him, Billy recklessly tried to chase the car down. He ran a block or two before he thought back on his weird dream and half-heartedly whispered the word “Shazam”. With that, Billy was struck by a lightning bolt, knocking him into a nearby alley. Moments later, a grown man flew out from that alleyway with the appearance of Billy’s idealized mental image of the father he never knew; and the combined powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. Easy to say, after putting the bad guys away, Billy was gonna have some fun… and did he ever.

Captain Marvel: 2003 - Present
Upon the debut of this magical hero, Fawcett City was pleased that their small city had its own “Superman”, but they needed something to call him, Billy had given himself the name “Captain Thunder”, but in never stuck. It was in news interview with The Flash that field reporter Iris West asked the speedster for his thoughts on the similarity of the two heroes’ emblems, to which The Flash mistakenly referred to Earth’s Mightiest Mortal as “Captain Marvel… or whatever”; and when that interview went viral, the hero finally had a name that caught on.

As the Captain, Billy was one of the first non-founding members the Justice League of America. For years, Billy managed to keep his identity as a much younger child a secret even among the League. It was not until 2009, when the League was being rebooted under the ARGUS Initiative, that Batman outed Billy at a Founders Meeting. After a discussion, it was decided by the Founding Seven to allow Billy to stay within the League if he spent a year with the Titans as a resident “mentor”. Due to this, Billy became quite close with the third generation of the Titans. Billy still retains a very close friendship with Wally West and is currently dating Courtney Whitmore. Another thing that Billy did, that many of us other cape-wearing types found odd, was tell his family about his alter-ego… pretty much from the start. This decision paid off when the Wizard that had bestowed Billy with the power of Shazam was killed off in 2010 by Billy’s nemesis, Black Adam. The death of his benefactor caused all the excess magic energy contained in the Wizard to flood into Captain Marvel and Black Adam. The magic appeared to have vaporized Black Adam but overcharged Captain Marvel to the point of making him ill, even when he shifted back into Billy.

Worried, Billy called upon Zatanna to help him find a cure. The cure she found was through using magical “anchors” for Billy using people with a close connection to him. But the Titans hadn’t know Billy long enough to establish the necessary bond, so it was Billy’s foster siblings (Mary, Freddie, Darla, Eugene, and Pedro) that stepped up to save their brother.

Powers and Abilities
Missing Data

Trivia

 * Captain Marvel joined the Justice League of America in 2006 nominated by The Flash.
 * Billy is studying Broadcasting at Fawcett County Community College.

Links and References

 * Appearances of Billy Batson
 * Character Gallery: Billy Batson