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This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.
The Squadron of Justice is a name used for teams of heroes formerly owned by Fawcett Publications.
History
Earth-S
The Squadron of Justice name was first used when Captain Marvel of Earth-S first worked with his allies, the Lieutenant Marvels. The name soon fell out of use, and the assemblage of Shazam-powered heroes became more commonly known as the Marvel Family. The second Squadron of Justice was gathered together by the god Mercury to save the elder gods and the wizard Shazam from an assault by King Kull of the Beastmen (who had paralyzed them all). Mercury also gathered heroes from the Justice League of Earth-One (Superman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkman and non-member Hawkgirl) and the Justice Society of America of Earth-Two (Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Johnny Thunder) to deal with the situation, as with Shazam's paralysis, he was unable to send out the magic lightning that transformed Billy Batson, Mary Batson and Freddy Freeman into the Marvel Family.
King Kull planned to destroy mankind on all three Earths, so that his subjugated Beast-Men could once again rule over all. Superman, Wonder Woman, Spy Smasher and Green Arrow headed to Earth-Two to battle King Kull's agents there: Queen Clea of Atlantis, the Penguin, Blockbuster and Ibac, as Queen Clea was planning to take over the entire continent of Atlantis (on Earth-Two, Atlantis had recently risen from the depths and was inhabited by two nations ruled by women; the inhabitants also learned to survive without mutating into water-breathers, like the inhabitants of Aquaman's city on Earth-One did). The villains were dispatched with relative ease, but a strange cloud appeared over a nearby island and caused it to sink beneath the waves again, which King Kull planned to have happen to every continent and island on Earth. Superman used his super-breath to freeze the cloud and threw the block of ice into the head of a passing comet, ending the threat. The heroes headed back to Earth-S as Atlantis disappeared beneath the waves again.
On Earth-S, a series of destructive and incredibly strange occurrences were happening all over the world. There was a very odd eclipse occurring that kept one side of the planet in perpetual darkness and the other side in continual light. There was volcanic activity in the Canadian Rockies, as witnessed by Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Bulletman and Bulletgirl, and when Hawkman flew too near to one of the volcanoes, his shoulder began to petrify into stone. Off the coast of Atlantis, an iceberg moved through the water at high speed and transformed anything that came near it into ice (including people). Rock formations came to life in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado and began turning people into stone.
Billy Batson, ace anchor at Station WHIZ in New York City (and the alter-ego of Captain Marvel), also reported that the steel frame of a building being constructed downtown started walking away, after turning all the construction workers on it into iron. Batman, Robin, Mister Scarlet and Pinky were investigating that situation, and Batman had gotten too close to the structure and part of his jaw had turned to iron (making it very difficult for him to talk). They examined the bodies of the transformed workers and found they all had the unique grin usually associated with the effects of the Joker's poison gas. The Joker (from Earth-Two) was, in fact, working with an old enemy of Bulletman known as the Weeper. The two sent more gas into a local jewelry store, which transformed the people inside into living diamonds, and the diamonds and jewels followed the two criminals out of the store to their hideout. Mr. Scarlet noticed the marks on the sidewalk made by the moving gems and the four heroes followed the trail and made quick work of the two villains and their thugs.
The heroes took a sample of the Joker's poison gas to Jim Barr (also known as Bulletman) for analysis, as now Pinky's hair had also turned to diamond during the fight. Unfortunately, the analysis revealed that the gas was nothing by nitrous oxide, which meant there was some other force at work on all the inanimate objects. Bulletgirl and the Hawks caught up with the other heroes and had photographs from a news service of some more super-villains causing trouble on the dark side of the world. The heroes of Earths One and Two were able to identify them as Doctor Light and the Shade. The flying heroes switched partners to hopefully confuse the villains, with Bulletman and Hawkman heading after the Shade, and Bulletgirl and Hawkgirl tackling Doctor Light.
The Shade was at the Louvre Museum, where he was causing all the figures in the classical paintings to become real people and move off their canvasses. Bulletman found that as he got close to any of the figures, his hand began changing, becoming two-dimensional. Hawkman's wings blew the painted people away, and the two heroes went after the Shade. Bulletman was able to use his Gravity Helmet to repel the Shade's darkness cane out of his hands. As Hawkman attempted to use it to stop the darkness (which was being caused by an overhead satellite), even the Shade was surprised that nothing happened. Hawkgirl and Bulletgirl went to face Doctor Light at Yellowstone National Park. After Dr. Light's holographic duplicates tricked them into the paths of some geysers, the two caught up with the villain, who was already petrified into solid stone. Bulletgirl's arm was also turned to stone when she got too close. Light's duplicates were sentient and told them to get Light's weapon to make a satellite "turn day back into night". Bulletgirl retrieved the weapon (apparently with her already petrified arm) and Hawkgirl shot the gun at the satellite in the sky above them, but again nothing happened. As the heroes got together again to discuss their options, they decided to use each a weapon to move the satellites until they crashed together. The destruction of the two devices caused everything to revert to normal, including the transformed body parts of our heroes.
The Green Lanterns, The Flashes, Ibis and Mercury headed to Earth-One, where Mister Atom and Brainiac were attacking a futuristic model city called Tomorrow. A strange black feedback aura prevented the heroes from attacking the giant Mister Atom directly, and the Green Lanterns were able to trace the source of the aura to Brainiac's spaceship, hovering above the domed city. While Ibis and both Green Lanterns went to stop Brainiac, the three speedsters worked overtime repairing the damage and saving the people that Mister Atom's rampage was endangering. The Green Lantern of Earth-Two worked at saving people who were falling through the air (which made the Earth-One Green Lantern believe momentarily that Doctor Destiny, an enemy of the Justice League, was involved), the Green Lantern of Earth-One passed through the side of Brainiac's ship and was subjected to the "Barium Effect", which transformed him into a living skeleton. Ibis showed up in time to stop Brainiac from killing the hero, turning the robot dictator's own weapon against him. Ibis also changed Green Lantern back to normal, and the two heroes destroyed Brainiac's machines, causing the black aura around Mr. Atom to disappear. The two Green Lanterns then went to stop the device that was making gravity act strangely, while Ibis returned to the city of Tomorrow. Ibis was attacked by Mister Atom before he could finish instructing the Ibistick how to contain the robot. Mister Atom attempted to use the Ibistick to send the hero to a distant star, but a fail-safe in the magicks of the Ibistick caused Mr. Atom to suffer the fate he had wished on Ibis.
Soon after, all the heroes headed to the Rock of Eternity, where King Kull had the Elder Gods and Shazam as prisoners. Superman took the lead and flew inside and was surprised to find King Kull in possession of a hunk of Red Kryptonite. The unpredictable element took over Superman's mind, filling him with a rage and a desire to kill. In the meantime, Mercury had sent Johnny Thunder to find the alter-egos of the Marvel Family. After inadvertently saying his magic word "Cei-U", his Thunderbolt appeared and changed the three kids into Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. at long last. The Thunderbolt then took all four heroes to the Rock of Eternity, where Captain Marvel knocked the King of the Beast-Men out, while Junior destroyed the Red Kryptonite, and Mary freed the Elders. Superman was still in a murderous rage; this dose of Red Kryptonite had also made him immune to the deadly effects of Green Kryptonite, which the Green Lanterns had tried to use to stop him (manufacturing it with their power rings). Remembering that Superman was vulnerable to magic, Captain Marvel flew directly at Superman and said his magic word "Shazam" when he was next to the Man of Steel. The magic lightning broke the spell of the Red Kryptonite and Superman returned to normal, saving Billy before he fell. King Kull was imprisoned with magic chains that supposedly even Hercules couldn't break, and the heroes returned to their own worlds.
New Earth
The Squadron of Justice was a sub-division of the World War II-era US Government super team the All-Star Squadron. The heroes from Fawcett City found themselves working together for the All-Star Squadron so often that they came up with their own name for their local group. Like the greater All-Star Squadron, the Squadron of Justice disbanded at the war's conclusion, but the heroes still worked together occasionally.
Prime Earth
Paraphernalia
Equipment:
Notes
- All members of the Squadron are characters formerly owned by Fawcett Publications.
Trivia
- Although named after the wizard Shazam, Shazam had practically nothing to do with the formation or dissolution of this group, having been entrapped for almost the entirety of the story arc.
See Also
- Appearances of Shazam's Squadron of Justice
- Images that include Shazam's Squadron of Justice
- Team Gallery: Shazam's Squadron of Justice
Links and References
Footnotes