What are his powers?
What's up with the bad guy?
Do superheroes have a group chat or what?
Riding on the high of the mischievous, hilarious, and sometimes touching film, we want to clear
up a couple questions about Billy Batson and his bigger, better self.
Shazam! opens with the creation of the villain, Thaddeus Sivana.
Bullied and belittled by his family, he is naturally tempted by the voices of the Seven
Deadly Sins, who promise power and respect.
He fails the wizard's test and is forever scarred.
The wizard casts a spell to seek the pure of heart and find someone worthy of his name.
When Billy Batson takes the test, things go differently.
"Billy Batson.
I choose you."
The Sins aren't there to tempt him, and the wizard chooses him as Champion.
Sivana's research indicates that hundreds of people had been found before Billy, and
each had in some way failed.
Were they all sinners at their core?
Why was the wizard so picky in the first place?
The wizard had been burned before, bequeathing his power to Teth-Adam, who became a tyrant
and unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins.
Originally, Black Adam, as portrayed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson himself, was set to appear
in the film.
Perhaps we'll see exactly what happens when a wizard gives power to someone not so pure
of heart in the Black Adam solo film.
There are rarely hard and fast rules for magic, which makes its implementation confusing.
In Shazam!, Sivana, Billy, and countless other people are spirited away to a cave-like lair
known as the Rock of Eternity.
There, the wizard resides surrounded by empty thrones.
The Seven Deadly Sins are imprisoned in stone.
This place isn't on any map, much to the frustration of Sivana, who dedicates his life to finding
it.
It's in a kind of limbo that can only be accessed through magic.
According to the comics, the Rock of Eternity resides within multiple dimensions at once.
This helps explain a thoroughly confusing sequence during which Billy and his new family
run around the maze-like rock and discover a collection of doors straight out of Monsters
Inc.
Behind each one, there's some kind of strange other world.
The movie's explanation of all this is basically just, "Because magic."
People typically don't fund mad scientists.
They are forced to work in abandoned castles and basement labs, their only friend a typically
inept and malformed crony, but not Dr. Sivana.
He has a couple dozen scientists working under him in a busy lab.
Only when you walk into his personal office does his lifetime obsession with the mystical
Rock of Eternity and Seven Deadly Sins begin to show.
Sivana has been especially smart to hide his desperate search into the realm of unknowable
magic as a study of "mass hallucination."
Sivana Industries seems to be a lucrative business, on par with Wayne Enterprises and
Lexcorp.
It is also a "family company," as emphasized from the patronizing video that plays in the
building's elevator.
Maybe Sivana Industries is involved with mental health or behavioral studies in the DC Extended
Universe, which would have allowed Sivana to inconspicuously study magic under his alibi.
Plus, if there have really been so many wizard abductions, that seems like a worthy phenomena
to look into.
The Seven Deadly Sins are evil, powerful, and seriously ugly.
The rest of the details are fuzzy.
Are they demons?
The actual Seven Deadly Sins?
According to the film, they are manifestations of the worst of mankind.
In the comics they were known as the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, which de-emphasizes
the Judeo-Christian connection.
The comics also explain exactly how they carry out their chaotic plans, which seems to involve
causing as much misery as possible.
Envy, Greed, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, and Pride speak sweet nothings to their victims,
promising that they'll give them whatever their hearts’ desire.
They do give power, but at a cost.
The Sins possess their victims, so Sivana's own evil tendencies were amplified.
"Demon" might not be the most correct terminology, but they sure look the part.
In the world of Shazam, just about anything seems possible.
Superheroes can be spotted flying.
There are secret kingdoms beneath the waves.
Superman sometimes shows up in high school cafeterias.
And according to the lore artfully detailed in Wonder Woman, the Greek pantheon was very
real and very powerful.
They were all killed by Ares, except for Zeus, who created the Amazonians to protect humanity
from the god of war's wrath.
Shazam's powers are derived from and equivalent to some of the most famous names in mythology,
which suggests that perhaps they themselves had been involved with the wizards on the
Rock of Eternity.
When Billy grasps the staff of the wizard - which yes, um..
Phrasing?
Is that still a thing?... he is gifted with the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules,
the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury,
who goes by his Roman name.
The first letters of their names spell out SHAZAM.
"Shazam."
"Are you for real?"
"Say it!"
"Okay!
Shazam?"
Billy doesn't seem to be too wise when it comes to handling his powers responsibly,
but his lightning hands are certainly Zeus-like.
The first scenes of the film have the Sins lined up conveniently in the Rock of Eternity.
They're just as terrible in stone as they are in the flesh, when Sivana absorbs them
and takes them into the mortal plane.
When he confronts the board of his father's company, the sleek conference room quickly
crowds when seven demonic entities crash the meeting.
Even though they exist in smoke and dust in Sivana's evil eye, they are solid when they
unceremoniously rip into the board members.
Lust has tentacles, Greed an extra set of arms, Gluttony a huge mouth with big teeth,
Envy a goblin-like appearance, Sloth has sloth arms, and Pride has huge bat wings and horns.
The comics mention that Pride might be the most dangerous of all the Seven Deadly Sins,
but the winged nightmare seems content to give center stage to its buddies.
It isn't a surprise when Freddie's YouTube videos of "Captain Sparklefingers" or the
"Red Cyclone" go viral.
In the DCEU, YouTube must be filled with quick moments of superheroes caught on tape.
What's surprising is that people in the movie aren't all that enthralled with a new hero
whose powers seem to rival those of Superman's.
Remember that this is in the same universe where Superman was compared to a god.
Shazam only manages to gather a small crowd of admirers when he's showing off his lightning
hands.
The tone of Shazam! marks a notable departure from the very serious, dark, and gritty films
of the DCEU.
Instead of digging into the international uproar from the appearance of another superhuman,
the movie focuses on the kids in the cast.
Director David F. Sandberg has said that he mined the Spielberg-directed adventures of
his childhood and the expertise of the kids on set for a more fun tone.
Shazam! is a family film, so there are Fortnite references instead of bloody death scenes.
Shazam is one of very few superhero characters that is genuinely stoked to be a superhero.”
Is Shazam overpowered?
The twist that saved everyone's bacon when things looked darkest was that Billy, as Champion,
could share his power with his family.
With the shout of "Shazam!" and a burst of lightning, all the kids get a superhero makeover:
all adult, athletic, and ultra-powerful.
They each seem to have a particularly strong dose of one of Shazam's signature powers,
whether that's speed for Darla, flight for Freddie, or strength for Pedro.
Though it seems all of Shazam's powers have been split among the kids, Billy still has
his full arsenal.
This suggests that Billy could have made a whole army of superheroes before he snapped
the wizard's magical staff in half.
This may have been part of the wizard's grand scheme, considering the empty thrones on the
Rock of Eternity.
It would be up to the new Champion to fill them, and Billy expedites the process by creating
five new Shazams.
The kids in the Vasquez house are pretty smart.
Eugene, for example, is a next-level computer whiz who manages to track down Billy's birth
mother.
They think fast and are incredibly perceptive.
They adjust relatively well to being introduced to a world of supervillains and smoke monsters.
They seem to instantly recognize the ugly monsters in Sivana's eye as Sins.
Mary realizes that they are somehow connected to how strong Sivana is.
Did we miss the part where they were given an explanation?
They've proven time and again to be quick studies.
Freddie is a superhero expert.
"You're the only person I know who knows anything about this caped crusader stuff."
Mary did everything she could to get into her dream college.
Even quiet Pedro was the one to find Billy's book full of leads on the location of his
mom.
As it turns out, Envy is actually one of the more dangerous Sins.
It stays cozied up in Sivana's evil eye for as long as possible, until Billy manages to
finally provoke it out of hiding.
Why Envy?
The Sins work by preying on base instincts and feelings.
Envy's the most powerful feeling for Sivana, because he envies Billy for having been chosen
as Shazam's Champion.
Envious and bitter, he makes himself into the Sins' Champion to spite the wizard who
said he wasn't good enough.
Envy eats him up inside and without it, he was powerless.
The end credit scenes after superhero movies are often clues for what's to come.
Usually only the most ardent of comics fans know exactly what's happening in these brief
snatches of exposition.
In the mid-credits scene from Shazam!, when Sivana is seen madly scribbling graffiti on
his prison cell, we start to understand the importance of that little caterpillar seen
at the Rock of Eternity.
His name is Mister Mind, and he's one of the most diabolical creatures in the DC Universe.
As his name suggests, he's super smart, and he uses his incredible intellect for evil.
In the comics, this little worm had the plan to assemble the Monster Society of Evil.
Sivana is likely the first recruit, having teamed up with Mister Mind in the comics many
times before.
Mister Mind also has mind control powers, which probably come in handy when trying to
take over the world.
We've yet to see exactly what his plans are in the DCEU, but they are not good.
It's easy to assume that most superheroes know each other, or are at least aware of
each other.
Powerful figures like Superman or personalities like Aquaman's are hard to miss.
Justice League allowed them to really get to know each other.
For Billy, these are still legendary figures akin to celebrities.
He's probably just as excited as Freddie to meet Superman for the first time.
In the comics, Supes and Billy go way back.
Black Adam, the aforementioned Champion-gone-bad, is powerful enough to make even the almighty
Superman balk.
It takes the combined might of Shazam and Superman to take him down in the 2010 animated
movie Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam.
With a Black Adam film on the way, presumably with a slightly grittier feel than Shazam!,
the Superman cameo might be connected with Black Adam's return.
Maybe Superman needed information from Shazam about a similarly powered villain on the rise.
Or maybe he's something of a welcoming committee for new superheroes.
At least he would have felt the need to check out a new, ultra-powerful hero just to make
sure he doesn't have any villainous tendencies.
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