Squadron of Justice

Squadron of Justice
Squadron of Justice Art by Ernie Chan.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Whiz Comics #21
Created by	Paul Levitz
In-story information
Base(s)	Rock of Eternity
Member(s)	Captain Marvel Lieutenant Marvels Bulletman Bulletgirl Ibis The Invincible Mister Scarlet Pinky, The Whiz Kid.

The Squadron of Justice was a name used by two superhero teams of characters who originated from Fawcett Comics. Each team only made one appearance in a single story.

First Version

In Whiz Comics #21, the name had been applied to the somewhat obscure Marvel Family members known as the Lieutenant Marvels. Three young men from different areas of the country (Texas, the Ozarks and Brooklyn) all named Billy Batson were reading Captain Marvel’s comic book adventures and happened to wonder if saying “Shazam” would work for them as well. As it happened, Tall Billy, Hill Billy, and Fat Billy all said the word at the same time and were each transformed into one of the Lieutenant Marvels, having powers akin to Captain Marvel. They could only change if all three said the magic word at the same time along with real Billy(in later appearances of the Lieutenant Marvels such as Shazam #30, this limitation was ignored, though none of them operated singly as a Marvel).

Second Version

The "modern" Squadron of Justice appeared in one storyline, in Justice League of America #135-137 in the 1970s. Though the team was never was called "Squadron of Justice" formally, it was referred to as "Shazam's Squadron of Justice" on the cover of Justice League of America #135.

The Squadron, which was based on the parallel Earth known as Earth-S, was made up of the following super-heroes:

• Bulletman and Bulletgirl: Jim Barr was a police scientist who had invented the Gravity Helmet, which enabled him and his wife Susan to fly through the air as literal human projectiles and a formula which put his strength to humanity's peak.

• Ibis The Invincible: Prince Amentep was the son of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh who had been resurrected in modern times, along with his wife Princess Taia after they both went into suspended animation, as Taia needed to recover from a poisoned arrow, and Ibis wanted to wake up with her. Ibis used the mystical Ibistick he had been given by the Egyptian god of wisdom Thoth and its incredible powers in his fight against crime and sorcerous menaces.

• Mister Scarlet and Pinky, The Whiz Kid: Attorney Brian Butler and his adopted son used their ace acrobatic skills and strange weaponry against all varieties of crime.

• Spy Smasher: Alan Armstrong was a Virginia sportsman who battled crime and enemies of America with his superb fighting abilities and technical know-how.

A summary of this storyline is as follows:

The team was gathered together by the god Mercury to save the elder gods, goddesses and the wizard Shazam from an assault by King Kull of the Beastmen (who had paralyzed them all) using a ray that slowed down their impulses after getting to the Rock of Eternity in a ship that travelled faster then light, although Shazam was able to telepathically contact Mercury. Mercury also gathered heroes from the Justice League of Earth-One (Superman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Hawkgirl) and the Justice Society 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 completely destroy Mankind on all three Earths, so that his subjugated Beast-Men could once again rule over all, as humanity had rebelled and killed most of then. 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, Spy Smasher tricking Ibac into saying 'I back down from no-one' tiggering the transformation, while Superman easily defeated Blockbuster, but a strange cloud appeared over a nearby island and caused it to sink beneath the waves again in a very destructive fashion, 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 was moving through the water at high speed and transforming 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 (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, Mr. 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 first acted as laughing gas then 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, with Mr Scarlet being immune to the Weeper's tear gas due to his goggles.

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”. One of the satellites is revealed to be acting as a second sun. 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 weapon to move the satellites until they crashed together. The destruction of the two devices caused everything to revert back to normal, including the transformed body parts of our heroes.

The Green Lanterns, The Flashes, Ibis and Mercury headed to Earth-One, where an enlarged Mister Atom and Brainiac were attacking a futuristic model city called Tomorrow. A strange black feedback aura prevented the heroes from attacking the giant Mr. 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, with Ibis creating an aura around himself and other heroes to protect them, the three speedsters worked overtime repairing the damage and saving the people that Mr. 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. It was revealed the increased rotation of the Earth was being increased by the continued motion of the three speedsters. 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 a blast from Mr. Atom and stunned before he could finish instructing the Ibistick how to contain the robot. Mr. 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 of 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, though they were first worried he would reveal their identities. After Johnny inadvertently said his magic word “Cei-U”, his Thunderbolt appeared and transformed the three kids into Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. The Thunderbolt then took all four heroes to the Rock of Eternity, where Captain Marvel knocked the King of the Beast-Men out, 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” as he approached 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.