I'm sure everyone has forgotten that there's one crucial person who hasn't appeared yet.
He is the culprit behind the widespread Doomsday outbreak in the World.
When the mother box randomly teleported everyone away, he was lucky enough to land in an uninhabited place.
When Savage discovered that he and his Base had been teleported to this desolate place, he quickly took action.
He killed all eyewitnesses in the Base, attempting to eliminate his tracks.
As an ancient man who had lived for tens of thousands of years, Vandal Savage knew many things. For example, he knew there was a magic called a tracking spell that could allow Shazam to find him regardless of distance.
But as long as no one knew any information about him, even a powerful god like Shazam couldn't do anything to him.
Because he was certain that Shazam had never seen him.
But when he walked out of his Base, he was met by an uninvited guest.
It was a guy dressed like a detective, with a trench coat, a fedora, and a face where no features could be seen.
These features combined to form an identity that made Savage's face darken.
"The Question!"
The Question, in the DC World, has also undergone reboots and changes in origin.
This Question belongs to the New 52 version of The Question, one of the legendary Trinity of Sin.
In the prosperous era of the Wizard Council, he, along with Judas (the Phantom Stranger's predecessor) and Pandora, were collectively identified as the three most sinful individuals in human history.
Because he was unrepentant and even spoke disrespectfully and threatened the Wizard Council to their faces, the Wizard Council stripped him of his face and made him forget his name.
He was condemned to wander the Earth forever, constantly searching for his identity and name.
"Vandal Savage." The Question raised his head, "Didn't expect to see me here? You should be held responsible for this disaster."
"Then I should be judged by the gods," Savage looked contemptuously at the man in front of him, "not by another villain who messed up the World!"
"This time is different from anything you've done before."
The Question ignored Savage's attitude and continued to speak to himself.
"In the past, due to the existence of the seven deadly sins, we had to admit they were reasonable, and thus were powerless against any evil.
But today, the seven deadly sins have been trapped in Hell by Shazam, and this place should have returned to the era of Eden, and an ambitious person like you will become the most dangerous evil force in Eden."
Savage felt utterly absurd upon hearing his words.
"You've wandered the World for so long and came up with such bullshit? Shifting human Sin onto a group of demons who thrive on it?"
Savage scoffed at The Question: "That's wrong. It's because humans are born this way. The seven deadly sins only amplify the evil within human hearts, but they are not the root of evil.
You've got it all wrong. Humans are the source of the seven deadly sins, just like those so-called gods; humans are the root of all this!"
It was precisely because of this that Vandal Savage had always wanted to become the King of Humanity.
Essentially, he and Lex Luthor were the same; they were both human supremacists.
"Perhaps." Faced with Savage's statement, The Question did not refute, for it did not shake his will.
"Even if everything you say is true, you are still responsible for this disaster."
There was no doubt about this. It was precisely because of the help Savage provided that the difficulty of this Steppenwolf instance increased so much.
Otherwise, at the intensity shown in the movie, any one of Shazam or Superman could have simply steamrolled through it.
Parademons were no different from oversized flies to those with the man of steel.
If it weren't for Savage, this planetary traitor, helping with guidance and planning, Steppenwolf would probably have been struck dead by a bolt of lightning from Shazam on the very first day he arrived.
However, Savage's original intention was actually to make the alien invaders and metahumans perish together; it was just that the plan went awry and didn't succeed.
But even so, Savage still looked arrogant.
"Even if it's true as you say, what can you do to me?"
No matter who The Question was before he became this monstrous appearance, after he became The Question, he was just a freak with eternal life and no facial features.
As for any powers he might have possessed before, they had been forgotten along with the removal of his face.
Although Savage also had no superpowers, he possessed tens of thousands of years of accumulated powerful physique and combat skills, believing that dealing with a mere Question would not be a problem.
The Question was also well aware of Savage's difficult nature, but he was as confident as his opponent.
Although he was not as ancient as Savage, he had also lived for tens of thousands of years and was equally skilled in martial arts.
So the two confronted each other for a moment, then simultaneously chose to make their move.
They were both typical pragmatists, so every move was very simple and unadorned. Although they fought empty-handed, they would always randomly pick up surrounding objects to attack their opponent during the fight.
Later in the fight, both of them had weapons in hand.
The character of The Question is the prototype for Rorschach in "Watchmen," so they are not only similar in attire but also somewhat similar in personality.
Because he had completely forgotten his past, The Question was forced to investigate using detective methods, which led him to develop a tenacious personality of pursuing problems to the end.
He was also a very stubborn person, and this was reflected in his battle with Savage.
Savage quickly realized that unless he could completely kill The Question, the other party would never let him go; he would pursue him to the ends of the World.
"You're a goddamn lunatic!" Savage cursed. He didn't have time to get entangled with a madman like this now.
So he quietly reached into his belt area, preparing to pull out a gun.
He practiced martial arts to kill opponents, not to compete with them, so the martial art that could kill the opponent was the strongest martial art.
American Iaido is also Iaido!
But before he could demonstrate his quick-draw skills, the teleportation light brought Dane to the scene.
Having never seen Dane's God of Death state, neither The Question nor Savage saw through Dane's identity.
"Who are you?" The Question asked him.
Savage, on the other hand, had no interest in knowing this person's identity; his American Iaido was already poised and ready.
So, when he saw Dane, in his incarnation as God of Death, appear, he immediately turned his gun and aimed it at Dane.
The sounds of "bang bang bang" were incessant, but Savage was astonished to find that the bullets he fired passed through Dane's body as if they hadn't hit any obstacle at all, landing on the empty ground behind him.
Savage turned and ran without a word!
All he knew was hand-to-hand combat, and he could never defeat a magic-user.
Moreover, his high-tech equipment wasn't brought along because he was in the wilderness, so fleeing was the wisest choice.
But Dane proved with facts that his efforts were futile.
With a sweep of his hand, without any visible magic gestures or incantations, he simply flicked his wrist and pulled Savage in front of him.
Actually, Dane didn't know who this person was at the time; he had no deep impression of Vandal Savage, and the man himself didn't have any particularly obvious distinguishing features.
But the Doomsday cultivation Base was here, so even if Dane didn't recognize this person, he was an insider, and he couldn't let him go.
After grabbing Savage, without waiting for him to speak, Dane directly cast a magic spell on his forehead, making Savage drowsy, but before he fell unconscious, the man suddenly bit down hard on his teeth.
Dane knew exactly what this action meant, so he immediately pried open the other's mouth, intending to use magic to clear the poison.
But there was no poison sac inside, only a signal emitter, whose electromagnetic waves had already propagated at the speed of light.
At this moment, Cortana suddenly reported to him: "Dane, I've detected an unequal number of nuclear missiles launched from the nuclear missile silos in Murmansk, Vladivostok, and the North Pole!"
Dane frowned slightly: "Targets?"
"630 targets across the entire United States! And what's worse, global nuclear retaliation systems have been activated. If atmospheric nuclear radiation levels reach the alert line, all nuclear missiles in the World will launch simultaneously, destroying this World!"
This crazy?
"Cortana, send me all the locations of those activated nuclear weapons!"
Cortana complied.
Dane closed his eyes and directly communicated with the power of the Demon God in Hell.
The sky suddenly plunged into darkness, a faintly glowing moon ring blocked the Sun's light, and the Earth was pitch Black.
People across the globe felt it, looking up at the eerie sky.
Missiles rising from various locations resembled a series of fiery meteors; they flew into the high sky, then were captured by the moon ring's gravity, and finally disappeared into it without even a ripple.
Only when the last missile vanished did the moon ring disperse, and the Sun once again cast its light upon the Earth.
Dane flung the corpse in his hand away; using the power of Hell comes with a price, after all, he had promised Heaven not to bring the Demon God's power to this World.
However, he could summon a portion of the Demon God's power through a ritual of summoning demons, using life sacrifice, which was in line with Hell's rules.
Fortunately, the life quality of the person in his hand was very high; he was actually able to summon the Demon God's Eye. He didn't know who he was... But for him, Death was not the end. This soul had just been sent to Hell by Dane, and he believed he would soon figure out the identity of this person.
After completing these tasks, he turned his attention to the other person present, whose recognition factor was much higher.
That face without features, that attire highly similar to Rorschach's.
"The Question?"
The Question's expression changed upon hearing this... though it was hard to tell.
He retorted, "Who are you?"
Dane thought for a moment, silently uttered "Shazam," and returned to his divine form.
Only then did The Question drop his hostility, but he still watched Shazam warily.
"So, it's you, Shazam!"
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