Seven Deadly Sins
Deep, deep inside the Rock of Eternity, behind ancient stone walls thicker than mountains, in a great chamber lit by torches that never go out, there are seven prisoners.
They have been there for three thousand years.
They are not human. They never were. They are something older and stranger and far more dangerous.
They are the Seven Deadly Sins of Man.
And the most important job Billy Batson has — more important even than fighting villains, more important than saving lives, more important than anything — is making sure they STAY in their prison.
Each of the Seven is a living, breathing creature. They look as terrible as they sound.
PRIDE is tall and golden and arrogant, with a long neck and a crown that should not fit any head. When Pride is loose in the world, it whispers in people's ears that they are better than everyone else, that they need no one, that they are too great to listen.
ENVY is twisted and green and crooked, with eyes like wet glass. When Envy escapes, it makes people want what other people have, until they can think of nothing else.
GREED is bloated and heavy, with arms full of treasures it can never let go of. Greed makes people grasp and grasp until their hands are too full to hold anything that matters.
LUST is a flickering shape that promises everything and gives nothing.
ANGER is red and shaking and roaring, always ready to burn down what it cannot control.
GLUTTONY is enormous, an endless hungry mouth that is never filled.
And SLOTH is a slumped grey shape that whispers, "Don't bother. Don't try. Why even get up?"
Each one of them, if it escaped, could topple a city. ALL of them together could plunge the whole world into a new dark age.
So they are kept in stone. Each one is locked in a great living statue, and the statues stand in a ring around the central chamber of the Rock of Eternity. They glare. They moan. They strain against their bonds, but they cannot break free.
That is, they cannot break free as long as the Champion does his job.
That is Billy.
The Wizard Shazam, before he passed on his power, told Billy a hundred times: "The Sins are clever. The Sins are patient. They have waited three thousand years and they will wait three thousand more. Do not let them out. Not EVER. No matter what they say. No matter what they promise."
And oh, they try to talk.
When Billy walks through the chamber on his rounds, the Sins call out to him in voices like dripping honey and grinding stone. They tell him he is special. They tell him he deserves more. They tell him the world is not fair to him. They tell him they could MAKE it fair, if he would just turn the key in the lock.
Billy does not turn the key.
He pulls his red cape a little tighter and he keeps walking.
He has to be alert for other tricks too. Some of his greatest enemies — Doctor Sivana, with his round glasses and his terrible ambitions, and the mighty Black Adam, who once held the lightning long ago — have tried more than once to break the Sins free for their own purposes. They have crept into the Rock. They have tried to chip away the stone. They have whispered ancient words.
Billy has stopped them every time.
But the battle against the Seven Deadly Sins is not only a fight with fists. It is, even more, a fight with the heart.
The Wizard taught Billy that you cannot DEFEAT the Sins by punching them. You cannot smash them away. They are not really creatures, in the end. They are SHADOWS — shadows cast by the parts of every human heart that wobble and stumble.
To keep them at bay, you have to be their opposite.
The opposite of Pride is HUMILITY — knowing you are not better than anyone else.
The opposite of Envy is GRATITUDE — being glad for what you have.
The opposite of Greed is GENEROSITY — giving freely.
The opposite of Lust is LOVE — real love, kind and patient and true.
The opposite of Anger is PATIENCE — counting to ten and breathing slow.
The opposite of Gluttony is TEMPERANCE — knowing when you have enough.
The opposite of Sloth is DILIGENCE — getting up and trying again, even when it is hard.
Billy practices these every day. Not just as a hero. As a person. When he wants to brag, he hushes his own voice. When he wants something somebody else has, he reminds himself of his own gifts. When he is angry, he breathes. When he is tired, he gets up anyway.
Each small kindness, each small choice, is a tiny chain keeping the Sins locked tight in their stone.
There have been times when the Sins have managed to wiggle a finger free. Times when artifacts have leaked their power into the world. Times when Billy has had to face them in great cosmic battles, his cape snapping in dark winds, his lightning crackling against their shadows. He has always won. Sometimes barely. Sometimes battered and bruised. But always he has herded them back into their prison and sealed the locks again.
His watch is eternal.
As long as there is a Champion at the Rock of Eternity, the Seven will stay where they belong.
And every time you choose kindness — even a little kindness — somewhere deep beneath the world, a small chain tightens, and the Sins moan in frustration, and the world stays just a little bit safer.
The light goes on.