WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Future State: Shazam #2, by Tim Sheridan, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Marcelo Maiolo and Rob Leigh, on sale now.
For the longest time, Shazam was considered to be the most pure-hearted and innocent of all the superheroes in the DC Universe, owing to the Earth's Mightiest Mortal secretly possessing a human host in the form of a young boy named Billy Batson. Shazam's soul was so pure that the demon Neron initiated the entire 1995 crossover event Underworld Unleashed, by Mark Waid and Howard Porter, to obtain it for himself, though he was ultimately tricked at his own game by the hero formerly known as Captain Marvel and defeated. However, in the dark timeline of Future State, Neron may have succeeded in corrupting Shazam without the superhero even realizing it.
Shazam had succeeded in imprisoning all of the Seven Deadly Sins within the Rock of Eternity, with the mythical headquarters for the Shazam Family now located in the depths of Hell. Realizing that funneling his magical powers back to the Rock every time he wanted to transform back into Billy could potentially empower the prisoners, Shazam made a deal with Neron to separate himself and Billy into two separate individuals to stay Shazam all the time while Billy looked after the Rock.
While the schism was successful, the separation brought about lethal consequences to Shazam when he returned to Earth, and Future State: Shazam #2 shows just how far Earth's Mightiest Mortal has fallen.
Without a human host to tether him, Shazam descended into violence and paranoia, lashing out at both the superhero community and the general populace. Any hero that Shazam identified as a threat to his hellish secret was summarily executed, with victims ranging from the Question to the Martian Manhunter, while Jakeem Thunder was similarly disposed of, since Shazam perceived that the magical electricity that fueled Jakeem as a potential challenge to his own power over the lightning. And while Shazam kept these murders a secret, his murderous urges began to grow more uncontrollable and spread to him targeting innocent bystanders.
Though Shazam had locked away the Seven Deadly Sins even before his split with Billy, he began to hallucinate seeing the personified sins roaming around the world. Obsessed with keeping the world safe from the monsters at any cost, Shazam murders anyone that he sees coming into contact with the imagined sins, using a magical dagger to commit the murders. Eventually, the death toll becomes high enough for the Spectre to finally intervene, though the Spirit of Vengeance quickly finds himself on the wrong end of Shazam's blade.
And as Shazam's mind continues to fray, the Earth's Mightiest Mortal finds himself confronting his own team, who cannot ignore all the warning signs any longer that their fearless leader has become a remorseless serial killer.
Neron has coveted Billy Batson's soul for quite a while. While having the boy with him in Hell at the mercy of his demons is a great prize, the devil still wants the power of Shazam to boot. And while it has taken a bit of time for Shazam to violently lose his way without a human host to ground him, Neron has patiently played the long game for the Earth's Mightiest Mortal. Shazam has wreaked havoc on his fellow heroes and any poor soul that crosses his path before he tacitly comes to collect, and his former allies unwittingly just gave the devil exactly what he wants.