ROWDY SPARKLE

Real Name: Rowdy Sparkle

Class: Parallel Earth (Earth-S) human magic-user

Occupation: Self proclaimed world's toughest guy

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Sunny Sparkle (cousin), unnamed aunt, unnamed uncle

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Fawcett City, Earth-S

First Appearance: Shazam! I #5 (September, 1973)

Powers: Sunny was a tough young man, and briefly possessed superhuman strength after casting a spell from the magic "The How-To-Do-Everything Handbook."

History: (Shazam! I #5) - Rowdy was visiting his cousin Sunny Sparkle, the world's nicest guy, who Rowdy always found annoying because he was a good person and people fawned over him. Sunny's friend Billy Batson was out go door to door to collect old newspapers and books for the new Station WHIZ recycling center, but everyone Billy visited thought he was looking for money and slammed their doors on him. Billy decided to ask Sunny Sparkle to tag along with him, since no one ever turned down a chance to do a favor for him. Sunny was happy to help, and dragged his obnoxious cousin Rowdy along, who constantly complained. Billy's cart was soon full of recyclables, and Sunny noticed an old book called "The How-To-Do-Everything Handbook." The book was blank except for the index and page numbers, but once they identified something they wanted to do, in this case stopping the torrential downpour raining down on them, words started to appear. Billy and Sunny read the words aloud, and the rain stopped. Billy recognized that they definitely had a magic tome on their hands, but once they met Morris at the recycling center Rowdy decided to snag the book for himself, and he cast a spell to make himself the world's toughest guy. WHIZ station manager Sterling Morris was riding a forklift for fun, but it tipped over and Billy turned into his superhero identity Captain Marvel to save him. Rowdy reacted faster, grabbing the forklift with one hand and uprighting it. Rowdy then started mouthing off to Morris, and Marvel decided to put him in his place and take his powers away. He challenged Rowdy to tear up a phone book, and after the brat did so Marvel grabbed the magic handbook and ripped it up. Rowdy started hitting Marvel, but his superstrength was gone, and he knocked himself out giving Marvel a headbutt. Marvel handed the woozy Rowdy over to Sunny telling him to take his cousin home because he'd had more than enough of his presence.

Comments: Created by Elliot S. Maggin & C.C. Beck.