I’m thinking about what a concept for an Absolute Billy Batson could be like, based on my understanding of the Absolute approach from the books I’ve read so far.
One part of the character’s origin story that hasn’t already been inverted is that the Wizard Shazam is an ancient being that has to pass on his powers because he’s about to die. And usually he’s calmly resigned to this. I would say that the imagery of the large rock hanging above the Wizard’s head by a small string that he knows is about to break, but he just sits there because he accepts that it’s his time, is an iconic part of the Billy’s lore.
Connected to that, there’s overall a sense of fate in the character’s stories.
Pre-Crisis, in Mary’s first appearance, where it was revealed that Billy has a long lost twin sister he was separated from when they were babies, the Wizard Shazam says that he knew about Mary’s existence all along, but didn’t say anything because he also knew that they would eventually reunite at this time.
Post-Crisis, the Wizard Shazam actually wanted C.C. Batson, then already an adult, to become his champion, as opposed to a child like he was himself when he was chosen. However, we know that that was never going to happen because Billy is an established character. After meeting C.C., the Wizard got hit in the head and developed amnesia. A decade later, when C.C. then had children, a chance reunion with C.C. restored the Wizard’s memory. The Wizard then went to the Rock of Eternity to learn about what had happened during the past decade, and then he was done with that and tuned back into what was going on with C.C., it just so happened to be right before C.C. got murdered and it was too late for the Wizard to save him. So Billy, and then Mary, got the powers, still with it being because they were worthy of them, but also now with an aspect of family inheritance, as well. And the champion was once again a child, like the Wizard was himself.
New 52, the Wizard tested many people over years in search of someone worthy of his powers and never found one. When he was finally right about to die, the last person he tested just so happened to be Billy. Billy convinced him that nobody actually existed that fit his high, pure standard, which didn’t necessarily mean that Billy was the best choice. And then the Wizard gave Billy his powers because he was literally about to die and it was that or have no one with the magic to fight Black Adam. And then it does seem like Billy was specifically the right choice to defeat Black Adam because it seemed like Billy would have a unique understanding of him based on their similar histories. But then Black Adam ended up not being who they thought he was, so that wasn’t the case and someone else could have been the champion and it would have been fine. Except for that, again, of course it was Billy that was chosen.
And, connected to that sense of fate, Billy’s origin story usually has an overview of his history up to that point. Originally it was through the Historama, which the Wizard used to show Billy, as well as the audience, his perspective of Billy’s past. In the New 52 the Wizard uses an unnamed spell to show him and us Billy’s bad and good deeds. In Billy’s first ever appearance, the Wizard was just demonstrating that Billy had already been through a lot of bad things in his young life and yet was still good. But by the time of DC’s revival of the Marvel Family characters, it was portrayed as that the Wizard was aware of Billy when he was born and said, about infant Billy, that if he remained good despite whatever happened in his childhood then he would be worthy of the powers.
So, one unique inversion to the character’s concept would be to have the Wizard Shazam give Billy his powers not because he’s about to die, but because Billy is worthy or at least good enough now, as a child, but isn’t necessarily going to remain that way with whatever would have happened to him as a powerless teenager or adult. So Billy being given the powers when he’s a kid, before he’s negatively changed by the world, is changing or just ensuring his fate, ensuring that he is a good champion. And, also, the Wizard is motivated by feeling that he is no longer worthy. And the Wizard actually became the champion when he was an adult and feels that his life experiences before he got powers contributed to his problems, as opposed to the more typical concept of power corrupting, so he’s trying to do something different by choosing Billy as a child.
The concept of the Wizard misjudging and choosing the wrong person, someone good who turns bad after getting the powers, has been prominent ever since the first Crisis. Pre-Crisis Black Adam was a minor character who appeared in only one issue published by Fawcett Comics, which wasn’t Billy’s first appearance, so he wasn’t originally a part of the Wizard’s history or Billy’s origin story. (Though Pre-Crisis Black Adam did appear again when DC started published the character.) After that, Black Adam is obviously on the Wizard’s mind when he chooses Billy as Black Adam is the main villain of both Billy’s Post-Crisis and New 52 origin stories. And Black Adam was kept as a recurring character after those stories.
This concept was already inverted in the New 52, where it turns out that the Wizard did actually choose right, Amon was a good person and the powers didn’t change that, but Amon was too trusting and shared his powers with his Uncle Adam, who killed him and took all of the power for himself.
Obviously the Wizard is typically dead after Billy’s origin story. Pre-Crisis, Billy could visit the Rock of Eternity and light a brazer and speak with the Wizard’s ghost when he needed his specific counsel, but that happened rarely because Billy didn’t need him often. Post-Crisis, just thinking about the 90s, the Wizard was more involved. He was actively watching Billy and could speak to him through mirrors or as a cloud of smoke or in his dreams. He could instantly teleport Billy to the Rock of Eternity when he wanted to speak to him in person. There was even a storyline where the Wizard was very involved in Billy’s life, when Ibis the Invincible took the Wizard’s place at the Rock of Eternity and magically gave him a physical body so that the Wizard could spend time on Earth and the Wizard moved in with Billy. And later on there was a storyline where the Wizard went away to New Genesis and Billy had to deal with not being able to talk to him at all.
And in the New 52 origin story, while Billy feels out of his depth fighting Black Adam and wants to run away, it’s not a specific conflict that if only the Wizard were here to guide Billy, then he’d know what to do, just that with the Wizard being dead Billy being given the powers is irrevocable and Billy can’t give away the powers and responsibility to someone better-suited, or at least more willing to fight Black Adam, and then run away. And later, when the Wizard comes back, he and Billy have an antagonistic relationship where the Wizard is judgmental and rude and thinks choosing Billy was a mistake.
The Wizard deeming Billy unworthy and then taking the powers back isn’t totally unique. It briefly happens in the opening issues of The Power of Shazam! (1995). It’s otherwise a part of the concept in the New 52 that Billy has to have good intentions when he says the magic world or else it won’t work.
For the Wizard’s involvement post-Billy’s origin story, what I think would be the most unique and in-line with the Absolute spirit would be for the Wizard to be alive, either as an active mentor to Billy or in secret because he faked his death with the falling rock in order to watch Billy from behind the scenes. The Wizard can’t take Billy’s powers away now, but instead of the Wizard judging Billy as worthy and having that be the end of it, he’s trying to influence Billy and/or the events around him to ensure that he stays good, but Billy is unaware of this and thinks that he’s simply been judged worthy and given the powers and everything’s fine. This works if Black Adam is kept as a part of the history or not.
For his backstory, what I think would be best is for Billy to have had a mostly normal upbringing with his parents and twin sister, but a little bit of strife of some kind, which Billy incorrectly believes is all of the trouble he had to go through and remain a good person to be determined to be uniquely worthy of the powers for forever. This is in comparison to Billy’s Pre-Crisis backstory, which, lacking the family inheritance element of his worthiness, is fantastical in how tragic it is. And, rather than showing the audience the overview of his history at the beginning, it could only shown to Billy, so it’s a surprise to the audience later that it was only something mundane and common, like his parents getting a divorce.
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