Shazam (AKA Billy Batson) ​ ​ When young William Joseph (Billy) Batson's parents were killed by their treacherous assistant Theo Adam (who was revealed to be the ancient villain Teth-Adam - better known as the nefarious Black Adam), he was separated from his sister Mary and sent to live with their Uncle. Unfortunately, his uncle soon kicked Billy out and stole his inheritance. Living on the streets, Billy survived by selling newspapers until one day a strange, cloaked man lead him to a part of the subway which he had never seen before. A marvelous train awaited them, covered in hieroglyphs and runes. Billy and the stranger boarded and rode the train deep into the bowels of the Earth eventually stopping in a long cavern which housed statues of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. There Billy met the ancient wizard Shazam who had protected mankind from the Seven Deadly Enemies for thousands of years. Shazam had observed Billy as he dealt with and endured the trials and hardships of his young life. Shazam was impressed with Billy's irrepressible altruism and optimism. He determined Billy was the worthy and proper recipient of the power of the Elders, and it was thus that Billy was chosen to become Shazam's latest champion and granted the powers the Elders; Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury whenever he spoke the wizard's name (SHAZAM!) aloud. *All information used can be found at https://comicvine.gamespot.com/ Green Lantern (AKA Hal Jordan) ​ ​ Hal Jordan was born into a military family. His father, Martin Jordan, flew in the war and, during Hal's childhood, was occupied as a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft. Hal had an especially close bond with his father, both of them sharing a love of flying (Hal often skipping school to watch his father fly). Martin was killed during a test-flight gone awry, with both Hal and Carol Ferris watching. As a result, Hal's mother forbade him from frequenting air fields or having anything whatsoever to do with the world of aviation which had taken her husband. In accordance with this ultimatum, Hal promised not to join the Air Force. At the age of 18, however, Hal joined the Air Force anyway, and was considered one of the best young pilots. His first combat deployment was in the Korean War. Years later when Hal's mother was dying, Hal planned on visiting her. However, his brother Jack said his mom had no interest in seeing her son. Knowing that the reason his mother refused to see him was due to his being in the Air Force, he enacted a plan to get discharged as quickly as possible- punching his commanding officer. He was summarily dishonorably discharged and went immediately see his mother, but she passed away just before he arrived at the hospital. Much later, while testing a flight simulator, an energy field surrounded him and took him to Abin Sur, a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic peace keeping force, who patrolled Space Sector 2814. On the verge of death, Abin Sur, with his power ring, sought out the most worthy successor on Earth. The ring actually found two Earthlings, Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner. Hal happened to be closer to the crash site so he was chosen. Despite some character flaws, Hal Jordan was given the power ring and its power battery. He journeyed to the planet Oa, home world of the Green Lantern Corps, and trained with Sinestro, a Corps member that would later become one of Hal's deadliest enemies. He became the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 (the location of Earth) and formed many relationships among the superhero community. Hal is considered the greatest Green Lantern of them all. *All information used can be found at https://comicvine.gamespot.com/ Iron Man (AKA Tony Stark) ​ ​ Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark was born in Long Island, New York, to Howard Anthony Stark and Maria Collins Carbonell Stark. In his youth, Tony Stark was a precociously intelligent young boy. When Tony was 7 he was sent to a boarding school, and during this experience he found people difficult to relate to. This was when he became fascinated by machines. By the age of 15 Tony had enrolled in MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated at the top of his class at age 19 with double masters in physics and engineering. At the age of 21, his parents were tragically killed in a car accident. Afterwards, Tony inherited Stark Industries, an unparalleled mega-conglomerate that mostly manufactured weapons for the United States military. One of his first projects as the new CEO was to purchase the manufacturer who designed his parents' car and have the faulty brake system, which was seemingly the cause of their deaths, redesigned in order to prevent any further incidents, thus saving lives. Unknown to Stark, the true architect of his parents' deaths was a business move by Republic Oil (later renamed Roxxon Oil). Lacking in business skills, Tony promoted secretary Pepper Potts to be his executive assistant and left the majority of his workload on her so that he could avoid what he saw as a burden. During the war in Afghanistan, Stark was at one of his munitions plants testing new technology for the military when he was injured by his own land mine that lodged shrapnel near his heart. Tony was then captured by a local warlord named Wong-Chu (a lackey of the Mandarin) and forced under threat of death to create a doomsday weapon for him with another captive, the famed Nobel award-winning physicist, Yin Sen. The shrapnel was going to enter his heart and kill him, but he and the physicist created an arc reactor which kept the sharpnel away from his heart. In response, Tony built a suit of armor to help himself escape captivity. In the suit, Stark took on the warlord and his men and avenged Yin Sen's death, thus Iron Man was born. *All information used can be found at https://comicvine.gamespot.com/ Green Arrow (AKA Oliver Queen) ​ ​ As a young child Oliver Queen idolized his hero Robin Hood and was said to be a natural archer, frequently practicing with his bow and arrows. He was mildly traumatized the first time he accidentally killed an animal, but when his mother and father were mauled by lions in a tragic safari accident his hesitation to shoot cost them their lives. Afterwards he was raised by his uncle and eventually inherited the family fortune and business. Queen grew into a rich, thrill-seeking, and drunken playboy with no real sense of responsibility or direction in his life. Everything changed when he fell off his boat in the middle of the ocean and washed ashore on the remote isolated Starfish Island, clutching a bow – a memento from a Robin Hood movie – which he had used to keep himself afloat, where he was completely stranded. During this time spent without food or shelter Queen developed his skills as a hunter to survive and gained mastery over his bow. Having previously taken everything in his life for granted, this experience taught him self-reliance and made him into a man. His second test of new character was the discovery of drug smugglers on the island run by the ruthless international crime lord China White. Using his new skills, he attacked and destroyed their heroin operation, then delivered them to the authorities before returning home. Realizing that he had found his destiny, he chose to use his abilities and resources as a crime-fighter. With a nickname coined by the press, he made it his mission to protect Star City. *All information used can be found at https://comicvine.gamespot.com/ ​ Wolverine (AKA James Howlett Hudson/Logan) ​ ​ The man who would be known as the superhero named Wolverine was born as James Howlett Hudson in the mid 1880s in Alberta, Canada. He was the second and sickly child to Elizabeth and John Howlett Sr. His mother was ill and, in the early 1900s, a young Irish girl named Rose O'Hara was brought to the Howlett estate to be a friend and a caretaker to young James. Together they befriended a young boy named Dog, son of the grounds keeper, Thomas Logan. Dog tried to form a normal bond between the two, but due to his father’s resentment and drunken abuse, he grew to resent his station in life; so much so that one day he makes undue advances on Rose, which are reported by young James to his father. This whole chain of events leads to Thomas Logan being sacked from his position as groundskeeper, following which he goes seeking for Elizabeth Howlett, trying to convince her to leave with him. This leads to an altercation that results in the death of John Howlett. The shock of seeing his father murdered in front of him leads to the manifestation of young James’ powers and he stabs Thomas with his newly drawn claws, also slashing Dog across the face before fainting. He and Rose flee the house and make their way through the harsh Canadian wilderness with James near-catatonic and Rose having to facilitate their transportation, while Dog tells the police that Rose was the killer. They arrive at a mine where Rose gives false names, calling James incorrectly as “Logan.” The other workers dub the revived Logan “the wolverine” because of his penchant for tenaciously digging and begin to accept him as one of their own due to his incredible work ethic.