Special #1: “Sons of their Fathers”

Fawcett Park was a popular spot for afternoon strolls and for yuppie joggers that chose to flirt-and-run before and after their long days at the office. People congregated there, people came to live and love and have fun. Children played in the park, picnics were had, and police officers chatted casually with people with queries. It was a place of peace in Fawcett, and nothing, if ever, bad happened here. Captain Marvel soared over head on occasion, waving at those who spotted him, and then he vanished somewhere, lightning flashing in the skies for a split second before a small boy in red and blue hurried about his own business.

Timothy Karnes hadn’t spoken for decades. He suffered from-- the doctor’s claimed-- an intense form of catatonia that resembled Alzheimer’s, except it had apparently hit hard and it hit sudden. There were no good days. Merely... quiet moments. On occasion, he’d mumble something, dribble and drool, and his carers would wipe up the spittle and continue on about their day. He’d always enjoyed Fawcett Park, in the days of his youth. It was here he’d fought his good fight against the sentinel of justice, Captain Marvel.

“Sbrrrccc,” he’d stutter, and his nurse smiled, and patted him on the shoulder. Locking on the brakes on his wheelchair and pulling out a tissue from the back-pouch of the chair, she dabbed at his lips, his empty, dull eyes focusing on nothing. “Sbbbbbbh.”

“It is a lovely day, yes, Mister Karnes,” said the nurse.

She’d been his carer for eighteen months now. She enjoyed the work, enjoyed looking after someone who had seen so much. It was a shame he wasn’t more talkative, couldn’t share with her the wonders he’d witnessed over his years. No one knew his age. He was found on the steps of Fawcett General Hospital, his name stitched into his jacket. They’d taken him in, diagnosed him, put him in a home. And no one else thought much about it.

“Miss?” said a voice behind the nurse, and she turned and smiled. “Miss, I am thinking you dropped this?” The man, large and sturdy and with a grin that was not obscured by his thick beard, held her handbag. She checked her back, and yes, her bag was missing.

“Oh! Thank you, thank you so much,” she said, smiling.

“No problem, is nothing,” said the man. “Is beautiful day, yes?”

“I was just saying to Mister Karnes here, it is indeed.” She nodded, and then stroked Karnes shoulder comfortingly. “Your accent... is that Russian?”

“Is indeed!” exclaimed the man. “Beautiful and smart, indeed. Good combination.”

She blushed, and shook her head. “You’re too kind.”

The man nodded, his grin ever-present. “No, you deserve it, yes? You have not much more to look forward to.”

“What? I’m sorry--?” She blinked, and another man walked behind her unnoticed, pushing a syringe into her back and then quickly withdrawing. “What? Ohh...” She fell to the floor, and the Russian man quickly caught her as she drifted into unconsciousness.

“Help!” he cried, attracting the attention of a police officer. His accent was gone, from Russian to American without missing a beat. “Help her, Officer! Something is-- I don’t know what happened! She just collapsed!”

A uniformed officer hurried over, speaking into his radio as he approached. “What’s happened?”

“The heat? I don’t know, man, I don’t even know the woman,” said the Russian. “Call a paramedic!”

“Paramedics are on the way,” said the officer, tapping his radio. “You caught her?”

“I was just walking my uncle round the park. She just... I don’t know, she was going to hit the ground, I just...” He shook his head, “I have to go.”

“Friend, can I take your name--?” asked the officer.

“Look, I’m just visiting my uncle. I have to go, if he’s out for too long he suffers for it, sorry.” The Russian wheeled Karnes away from the crowd, and a black van pulled up as he neared the road. He carried Karnes inside, and closed the doors behind him, leaving the wheelchair in the road.

The police officer, meanwhile, was too busy checking to see if Karnes’s nurse was responsive. “I know that woman,” said someone in the crowd, pushing his way to the front. “That’s Abbie Henderson, she’s a nurse-- She walks a man around-- Where’s Mister Karnes?”

“...What?” asked the officer, his eyes darting to where the Russian and Karnes had gone. The chair was by the side of the road, no one sitting in it. “Oh, no.”

The black van turned off 87th, and Ishmael Gregor smiled as Karnes groaned on the small gurney they had waiting for him. “Hello, Timothy..”



The great wizard’s hand drifted over the Historama, a shimmering pool of light that allowed him to oversee the world, and watched as the ripples went outward... and came back dark and twisted, an unnatural occurence somehow affecting his view of the world.

“What could this be?” he asked himself, before a wave of nausea-- something he hadn’t truly felt for thousands of years since he lost his physical body-- struck him, and he doubled backwards into his throne. “No...” he started, realisation moving through his ethereal form. “No,” he said, as a memory came to the forefront of his mind, a memory of an event fifty years ago that he had tried to forget. He clenched his ghostly fist, and then brought his hand up, his fingers outstretched, “Billy Batson!” he cried, “come to me, my champion! Say the word, and journey to the Rock of Eternity!”

“Huh?” Billy Batson’s ears piqued. That familiar whisper at the back of head that told him that the wizard needed him. He was sat on a park bench, watching the world as it went by, contemplating the past few months... but he put that behind him as soon as he heard the call. He pulled his jacket around his body, a chill in the air catching him, and headed for an empty part of the park. With a look to his left and a look to his right, the young boy whispered the magic word with a smile: “Shazam.”

The lightning erupted from clear skies, shooting down like a jagged dagger of pure light, and it exploded on contact with Billy Batson’s small frame, a plume of smoke obscuring the child for a split second-- before it cleared and Captain Marvel was alive once more!

The Big Red Cheese shot into the sky, up to where the lightning had arrived from, through the hole in the clouds that the lightning had created, and with a push of speed, he pierced the dimensional barriers that separated the Rock of Eternity from the rest of reality... He landed on the craggy outcrop that led into the wizard’s lair, and proceeded quietly, until he was stood before the ghostly figure of his mentor and giver of lightning.

“What is it, Wizard? What’s happened?”

The wizard was leaning forward out of his throne, his thin, wirey fingers grasping the arms of the chair tightly. “A shadow moves over the Earth. A great threat has returned, one I thought defeated by your father half a century ago.”

“My... father?” uttered Marvel.

Billy Batson had been stolen away from his parents as a child, stepping through time like it was a door, and emerging in the 21st century. It was Doctor Sivana’s temporal cannon, a gift from the devious Per Degaton, that had sent Billy to the present day... The effect didn’t hurt, but the aftermath... it would haunt the Batsons for the rest of their lives. For Billy, it was but a moment, but his father CC Batson and his mother Marilyn, they’d walked the long road of history-- She had passed away, and his father, when Billy had held him... he was an old man, frail and far from what the young boy remembered mere hours before that moment.

“The man known as Timothy Karnes was chosen by a dark force, a black counterpoint to my own, to become the champion of darkness, and thusly... the villain of light. Just as you are infused with the aspects of six legendary figures, this ‘man’ is empowered by six demon lords, Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Crateis.”

“And he roams the Earth once more?” asked Captain Marvel.

The wizard shook his head. “No, my champion, not yet, but soon... There are signs in the air, electricity running through the spirits of all those that are sensitive to such magical upheavals... You must stop the ritual that will return Sabbac to this plane of existence!”

“Where is he?” said Marvel.

“The Wisdom of Solomon will lead you there-- you are both beings of magic. The vibrations in the air will draw you together like magnets. Understand-- there is a champion of light and a champion of darkness and there always will be. That’s the way the universe works. A careful balance. Deadly magicks are involved, my champion.”

“How do I stop him? What if I fail?”

“Pray you don’t--” said the wizard, “and if that does happen... know that sometimes lightning much strike simultaneously, Billy.”

“I don’t understand,” said Marvel, contemplating the words with the full force of the Wisdom of Solomon at his disposal, “but I can feel him, on the fringe of my being-- I’ll stop him!”



Timothy Karnes lay motionless on the bed as archaic-looking machines hissed life into his limp, near-lifeless lungs. He twitched, and the man who was sat beside him, reading a newspaper, peeked over the headlines and smiled.

“What do you think then, friend?” asked Ishmael, his accent back and hinting at his origins in the old country. He folded up the newspaper, and patted Karnes on the hand.

“You’ve done well, Ishmael,” said a seductive woman, standing behind him. She was beautiful in the most devilish of ways. Her hair was sleek and black, going down to the base of her spine, and she wore a long, obsidian dress that clung tightly to her pale flesh, a parting at her leg revealing enough to get pulses racing and. if that failed, then the low-cut nature of the dress would finish the job. She was pure sex on legs, and she slowly moved her hand down Timothy Karnes’s arm, her fingers tracing his veins as they bulged up against his paper-thin skin.

“Your time is coming, Timothy,” she whispered, pitch lips pouting as she leaned over to speak in his ear. “Soon, the time of Sabbac shall begin anew.”

“I have done what you have asked,” said the bearded man, nodding. “All the rituals, all the sacrifices. And yes, that is nothing new to me; I do not mind the blood on my hands, but I would want to know how this ends, mistress.” He bowed, well-aware of his abrasive words, and how she might react.

Her eyes flashed red-- he could swear that he saw flames crackling behind them, but she blinked, and crimson faded to grey, and she smiled. “Ishmael, do not fear, your role in this is still coming to its ever-eventual conclusion, and you shall be rewarded with greatness.

“My lady, I thank you,” said Ishmael bowing.

The woman placed her hand on Karnes’s chest, and her smile vanished. “There is a certain irony to this moment, Timothy. Awaken”

Timothy Karnes’s eyes burst open, crimson light erupting out from his skin. “GGAAHHHH!” His body creaked under the effort-- Ishmael nearly cringed at the sound of his flesh and bone seizing up-- Karnes was an ancient, old man, his body ravaged by time and the damage he’d inflicted upon himself with his way of life decades ago.

“Do it,” hissed Ishmael. “Do it!”

“The wizard. My bastard father. He brought this upon himself. His champion will pay for what they have done to me,” growled the lady, her beautiful pale skin peeling off to reveal charred, black, stone-hard flesh. Horns pushed their way out of her forehead, her eyes were taken completely by the inferno Ishmael had witnessed before, and when all was said and done, instead of the once insanely-beautiful woman who had walked in, there stood a demoness, covered in hell-smitten armour. “What they have done to my brother!”

Timothy Karnes pulled himself up, the demon’s hand still on his chest. “I... am...”

“Not yet, Timothy--” said the woman, grinning from ear to ear with fanged teeth. “Give praise! Give thanks!”

Timothy nodded in recognition of who this woman was. “Satan,” he started, his grip tightening on the bed sheets, “Aym,” there was a crackle of black energy over his skin, but he ignored it. Ishmael did not. “Belial, Beelzebub,” he tilted his head back, the entire room shaking as something began to churn in the atmosphere, “Asmodeus, Crateis,” he finished, and then his head swung forward, a look of pure evil in his eye.

“Say the name now, Timothy, champion of darkness, champion of evil, say the name that will hollow out the souls of your enemies-- Say it!”

“I. Am--!”

Captain Marvel erupted through the wall of the warehouse and clamped his hand around Timothy Karnes’s mouth. With the immediate threat over, he pointed a finger at Ishmael Gregor. “Don’t move, sir.”

Even if he wasn’t a magical entity, Captain Marvel would have been able to sense the dark vibrations a hundred miles off. The Wisdom of Solomon had verified his fears-- the black maelstrom that had formed over Fawcett City in a matter of minutes was due to the nigh-revival of Sabbac, and if he hadn’t acted fast, all would have been lost. The speed of Mercury had taken him to the eye of the magical storm, and with the strength of Hercules and the power of Zeus he had done what needed to be done.

“It’s over,” he said slowly. Ishmael considered going for his gun, but against Captain Marvel? As if he could hear his thoughts, Marvel shook his head. “Don’t even think about it.” Gregor put up his hands, and then looked around the room. The demon was gone. What did that mean? Had he imagined it? The fact that Karnes was wriggling under Marvel’s grip seemed to suggest not, but she had simply just vanished...

Meanwhile, Timothy Karnes’s eyes darted up and down. This was the first time he’d been aware for how many years now? He looked down at his hands, and then realised that he wasn’t the man he remembered. His heart thundered. He was old. He was ancient. He needed to say the word. His heart pounded. He needed to say the word and then he’d never say it again, he’d stay as Sabbac for the rest of his life. He blinked hard, tears welling up in his eyes. His heart burned. He mumbled under Marvel’s hand, and then gasped, his last breath leaving his body.

Karnes exploded in light. All that dark energy building up in him, all that power and evil that had been fermenting over the last half century, it erupted out of him and destroyed the warehouse. The walls came caving in, and Marvel went to protect Ishmael from the destruction, but the energy leaped out of Karnes and struck Gregor squarely in the chest, burning a hexagram of golden light where it landed. Marvel was flung away from the thrashing light, and the warehouse crumbled down.

Ishmael screamed under the weight of the world. He was being buried alive. Then her voice filled his head. “It was always about you, Ishmael. Say the name.”

“Sabbac!”

Lightning shot up through the ground, from some place deep below, and racked Gregor’s frame. The rubble exploded upward in a torrent, and then all was quiet. Marvel clambered out from where he had been thrown, and brushed himself down. “What was that?”

“What was that?” repeated a voice like an avalanche. “That was destiny. That was fate.” Ishmael Gregor emerged, from where he had fallen, a changed man. Bulked up and with crimson flesh covering rippling muscles, the hexagon on his chest burning bright. “Captain Marvel, we meet at last. Again. For the first time.”

Captain Marvel readied himself. “You don’t understand what you’ve done.”

“Understand?” scoffed Sabbac. “I am power! I am all! I have strived for this metamorphosis my entire life!”

“Then I’m afraid it’s going to be short-lived,” said Marvel, careening toward Sabbac with all his force. He punched the demon-lord straight in the jaw, but the monster barely faltered. “Holy Moley.”

“Your blows barely faze me, Marvel!” Sabbac returned the favour, the ground shaking on impact. Marvel took a step back, his eyes wide. Sure, he felt that, but the blow didn’t exactly hurt-- more surprised him than anything. It didn’t hurt. “Well, this is interesting, is it not?”

“That it is,” said Marvel, grabbing Sabbac by the ankles and flinging him up into the sky. Sabbac let out a growl as he was suddenly afloat, and Marvel followed him up, punch after punch sending him higher and higher. Sabbac tried to right himself in mid-air but found himself unable to fly-- unlike Marvel, who zipped around his foe with the Speed of Mercury. When he did land a blow, Marvel winced, but continued his onslaught, until they were high over the plains on the west of Fawcett, and with an almighty crash they landed amongst the plains, the ground parting on impact.

“You are nothing! Nothing!”

Marvel smiled as he pulled himself up through the dust. “You say that, but it looks like we’re at a bit of an impasse-- Neither of us are doing much damage to each other, just to the world around. Let’s take a step back and talk about this.”

Sabbac let out a low laugh. “Words. You would use words against me, I am sure of that. Ours is a world of powerful spells and words of strength. I would not waste my time on you with words.”

“Now you’re just being mean,” said Captain Marvel, slowly, “but you can’t just walk away from this. Let’s talk.”

“I shall be the one doing all the talking!” Sabbac moved impossibly fast, and grabbed Marvel by the waist and slammed him to the ground. “Sabbac!”

“What?” Marvel was about to break free when lightning erupted from the ground below, causing him to scream in pain. His cape was smouldering, his uniform blackened by the mystical bolt from beneath the world. “Ggghhhh...”

“Did that hurt, Big. Red. Cheese?”

“Don’t call me that,” said Marvel, throwing his leg up behind Sabbac and catching him in the small of the back, throwing him forward, “it’s rude.” Marvel stood back up, his knees weak. Now he knew how others felt when on the receiving end of his own barrage of lightning. He would have to think about that in the future. He swayed from side to side, and Sabbac grinned, all sharp-toothed, as he began to charge toward the Captain. He careened into Marvel full pelt, and sent him skittering across the dusty wasteland. Sabbac roared up toward the sky, and then turned as a flash of bright light illuminated the world behind him.

“Get away from him!” came a voice that could command legions, and Sabbac smiled as figures began to take shape from within the light. “Or you’ll feel the wrath of Black Adam himself!”

Black Adam, Mary Marvel and Isis stood on the plains outside of Fawcett, Captain Marvel hunched over unconscious in the dust, Sabbac breathing in and out with a smile on his horrifically-changed face. “Oh, well, this isn’t fair at all,” he growled. “The bitter, traitorous former champion of the wizard! What, you’re coming to the rescue of your former enemy? And who is this? All dressed in white?”

“The name’s Mary Marvel, creep! Now get away from Captain Marvel before we make you!”

“Ha! Don’t make me laugh. You have no role in this. You’re not part of this.”

“I make myself a part of this!” howled Black Adam, as he leaped toward his foe. Instead of landing a punch, there was a crackle of energy, and Adam bounced off some sort of invisible forcefield, and vanished from sight.

Isis’s eyes lit up in anger. “What did you do?!”

“Black Adam holds no right to play a role in these proceedings! He has long since forfeited any right to fight in this game of ours. He is no Champion of Shazam!”

“I don’t think I care enough to play by your rules!” Roots burst through the cratered ground of the plain, and began to wrap themselves around Sabbac’s limbs. The thick vines constricted, and Sabbac looked confused. “Now stand down or suffer the consequences!”

“‘Suffer the consequences’? Ha! You can’t follow through on your threats! All your bravado... you’re terrified! You don’t know where your darling Adam is!”

“You need to stop being such a--” Mary drew back her fist and threw it against Sabbac’s jaw, “--meanie!--” only for a flash of light to fill her being and the whole world to twist upside down. She blinked and then realised that the entire world had fallen silent-- and Black Adam was stood in front of her, looking around. Their eyes met, and he motioned down at the grey craters beneath their feet, and then up into the sky-- where the Earth floated like a bauble high above.

We’re on the moon? asked Mary in sign language.

What do you think? replied Adam, shaking his head.

Well, don’t just stand there looking all broody! Mary lifted up off the dusty rocks, and then flew up toward the Earth.

Black Adam shook his head, and then allowed himself a smile, before following her back toward Earth.

Sabbac inhaled, and then an inferno erupted from his mouth, engulfing the vines shrouding his body. They drifted off him as ash, and then he trudged toward his new opponent. Isis didn’t hesitate, and she prayed to Mother Nature to help her-- and a geyser erupted up beneath Sabbac’s feet. “Stop!”

“Make me,” seethed Sabbac, as he began to pick up speed.

“Don’t be rude,” said Captain Marvel, sending Sabbac careening back once again. Marvel was scorched, battered, but the determination on his face was clear. He turned to Isis. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve been better, Captain,” admitted Isis.

“Run. This is between him and me-- He’s too powerful-- warn the JSA, have them on standby, I’ll do my best, but if I fail--”

“I understand,” said Isis. She conjured the winds beneath her and shot toward Fawcett.

“Now,” said Captain Marvel, turning back to Sabbac. “Enough of this back and forth. If you think you can finish me, finish me... but if we’re going to have to trade blows again and again like this, I hope you could do it with a little less banality!”

Sabbac’s laugh bellowed about the plains. “And you call me rude? Ha, I’ll be more than rude in the future of your life, Marvel! I shall extinguish you! I shall end your life! I am the almighty! The world will fear the name Ishmael Gregor!”

“Really?” Marvel took a punch to the gut, and staggered backwards, before leaning into a punch to the jaw. “Ishmael Gregor? Like anyone would care. Like anyone would cower at that name.”

Sabbac growled and continued to punch Marvel, all the while the Captain taking the blows, swaying in front of the demon champion with a mocking smile on his face.

“Sabbac - now that’s a name to be wary of. You’re a villain, through-and-through, but with a name like Ishmael, you’ll be the laughing stock of the Rogue community. I’m just thinking that it’s not in your best interest to go by that, eh?”

“You would hear my true name again, Marvel?” Ishmael sneered, fangs bared. “I’ll carve it into your soul!” He slammed Marvel down into the dirt, the crater they were battling within shaking with every blow exchanged. Sabbac had Captain Marvel pinned, his crimson claws digging into the Fawcett hero’s shoulders. “SABBAC!”

Marvel smiled triumphantly, and Ishmael’s eyes opened wide. With a flex of his muscles, the claws of Sabbac were dislodged, and then, “SHAZAM!” Captain Marvel rolled forward, and punched Ishmael back to where the lightning would strike-- incandescent white lightning and obsidian thunder met with Sabbac in the centre, and a massive explosion sent Captain Marvel flying up into the sky. He bounced to a stop outside the crater, and hurried to the epicentre-- Sabbac was gone, and Marvel could see no sign of his foe.

“Lightning must strike simultaneously,” said Captain Marvel, taking a seat at the rim of the crater. “I get it now.”

Black Adam and Mary Marvel landed nearby, concern on their faces-- Adam for Isis, who smiled as he approached, and Mary for Captain Marvel, who she embraced tightly. “Are you alright, Captain?”

“I will be,” he said, “I need to find Sabbac-- I need to return to the Rock of Eternity!”



Sabbac howled in agony as his skin smouldered and burned. His head lifted heavily, and he saw that he was at the seat of a dark throne, and that fires roared to attention all around. “Where...?”

“My champion, my poor, poor champion,” the beautiful demon pouted sympathetically, “you failed the first trial, as all have done before. But do not fear, you have a chance, many chances ahead, to end the to-and-fro that tips the balance in the favour of ‘good’.”

“My mistress,” said Sabbac slowly, “who are you?”

“I am the Lady Blaze,” said the demoness, rising up from her throne in all her infernal glory. “My father is the wizard, the one who shares out the power of Shazam with those he deems worthy. And his champion has imprisoned my brother in the Rock of Finality! My brother, Satanus, reduced to a spirit in one world and a statue in another! That will not stand. My brother shall rise again, without the chains of the wizard holding him down. But first, you, Ishmael Gregor, you must learn control. You must learn the ways of the world.”

“How do you suggest I do that?” asked Gregor, a hint of attitude behind his words. “Lady Blaze, I have lived for half a century, I know the world. I know what must be done.”

“Your claims would ring true if you had defeated Captain Marvel, eh, Ishmael? You had to brag, didn’t you? You had to toy. For this, you will not have access to your word of power. I have wiped from your mind the ability to speak the word. You are now, forever, Sabbac. The shape of Ishmael Gregor is one you will never return to.”

Sabbac blinked. “What? Why would... Ssaa. Ssss. Gods.” The demon paced the cold stone ground of the cavern, contemplating his fate. And then he looked at his master, and grinned. “Forever? Entombed in a nigh-invincible body, with all the demonic power I could want for? You bless me once again.”

Blaze smiled sinisterly. “And you will not go into battle alone next time. You will have allies. You must raise an army to wage a war.”

“For you, I would.”

“As you always have, my champion. Just as Captain Marvel calls the Justice Society of America his army, you will call a Society yours. A great darkness looms, and you will be at the forefront. Do you understand me, Ishmael? You will drag the world into the ichor-ridden depths that shadows dwell within! You will tip the scales in favour of darkness! You will be my ultimate revenge! Captain Marvel must pay for what he did!”

“Willingly, I am yours,” said Ishmael, grimly set in his determination. “Captain Marvel will die.”



“The threat of Sabbac is over, for now. You defeated him as your father did, all that time ago,” said the wizard triumphantly.

Marvel blinked. “Timothy Karnes?”

“Yes, Karnes was your father’s dark counterpoint, as Ishmael Gregor is yours. Theirs is a right transferred through blood. Father to son.”

“What?! Karnes was-?”

“Indeed,” intoned the wizard.

“I need to know, Wizard-- Adam and Mary, they couldn’t land a blow on Sabbac-- even trying they landed on the moon! What does it all mean?”

“There is a balance in the world, and with Sabbac rising the first of many trials was started. You were victorious, Billy... and I believe you will be when the next trial arises. But until then, return to your life away from the Rock of Eternity, Billy. Spend time with your friends. Sabbac shall rise again, but we will know when.”

“Alright, I’ll keep my eyes open for him... and like you said, I can feel him coming, can’t I?”

“Precisely. Be well, my champion.” The wizard watched Captain Marvel shoot away to drive the magic subway carriage back to Fawcett City, and then reclined upon his throne. “My daughter Blaze rises.” He latticed his fingers and leaned forward. “This cannot end well.”


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