Black Adam

Black Adam is a comic book character. He first appeared in Marvel Family #1 (December, 1945). Created by writer Otto Binder, and artist Clarence Charles "C.C." Beck, he was at first a one-shot character but he was revived in Shazam! #28 (March, 1977) and has had semi-regular appearances ever since. Adam was originally the arch-nemesis for Captain Marvel/Shazam and the Marvel Family, but in recent years he's been portrayed more as an antihero, conflicted with which side controls the Black Adam body.

His original backstory is relatively simple. Teth-Adam was born millennia ago in ancient Kahndaq (a fictional Ancient Egypt-like country). Given awesome magical power by the wizard Shazam, "Mighty Adam" became the wizard's first champion and the original Earth's Mightiest Mortal. Unfortunately, drunk with his own power, Adam killed the pharaoh of Kahndaq and set himself upon the throne. Angry at his misuse of the power given to him, Shazam renamed him "Black Adam" and banished him to the “most distant star” in the universe. Not one to take this lying down, Black Adam immediately began flying back to earth, taking 5000 years to do so, and arriving in the 1940s after Shazam had empowered the Marvel family, whom he declared his enemies.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Black Adam's origin and history were (like so many other DC characters) rebooted. Now the son of the pharaoh Ramesses II of Egypt, Teth-Adam's many good deeds impressed the wizard Shazam, who bestowed powers upon him to be a champion. But after centuries of being a hero he was corrupted by Shazam's demonic daughter Blaze; Shazam was forced to magically imprison him. Thousands of years later (in the 1994 Graphic Novel The Power of Shazam!), his descendant Theo Adam absorbed his power through an enchanted scarab and became the new Black Adam, only to be displaced when the original returned to earth to battle Shazam's new champion, Billy Batson.

Later adjustments to the reboot changed Black Adam's homeland back to Kahndaq, and added a time as a warrior under Prince Khufu, one of Hawkman's previous incarnations. His fall was now caused not by corruption or temptation, but his rage at and desire for vengeance against the villains Vandal Savage and Ahk-ton, who conquered Kahndaq and killed Teth-Adam's family. His attempt to take back his country by force resulted in his imprisonment by Shazam; even after his escape thousands of years later, he was still driven by both the need for vengeance and the determination to be a better ruler for Kahndaq.

In the recent Justice Society of America series, Black Adam came to the JSA asking for membership, saying that Theo Adam and Black Adam were not one and the same. He was let in on probation, but was soon brought into some trouble when he wanted to reinvade his homeland of Khandaq. Taking a separatist team of heroes, he invaded his homeland and took over. In the series 52, Adam was one of the protagonists, and one of the leads gaining his own Black Marvel Family. Isis, Osiris, and Sobek, became his Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Tawky Tawny.

However toward the end of 52, they were all slain, and Black Adam became enraged and went on a rampage killing all people in the country of Bialya (another fictional Mid-Eastern nation), starting an actual World War Three. After 52, Black Adam recieved a miniseries where he managed to revive Isis, but the formerly loving and friendly Isis became embittered by her and her brother's murder. Together, they became darker and more evil than before, eventually having their powers taken from them by Shazam and transformed into statues. It's yet to be seen his return.

Adam is somewhat of an alternate company equivalent to Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Marvel Universe's own super-strong, pointy-eared, black hair slick backed, antihero flyer. Both are also Golden Age characters, and both have been members of their World War II equivalent teams, the Invaders and JSA. Adam was originally published in Fawcett Comics stories, before the company closed and DC bought the characters.

A film version of Black Adam's story starring Dwayne Johnson and part of the DC Extended Universe is scheduled for a July 2022 release.


 * Breakout Villain: Originally intended as a one-shot baddy back in the 1940s, Black Adam has come back in force to become the most powerful villain/antihero of not only Captain Marvel mythos, but also one of the most powerful villains in the whole of the DC Universe.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Near the end of the comic book series 52, Black Adam's wife and brother-in-law are killed. As it was the death of his first wife that caused his original fall from grace, it is unsurprising that the death of the second led to him going on on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, wiping out the country that harbored the murderers, and anybody else that stood in his way. It doesn't end well, though, as the nerdy Mad Scientists behind her death soundly kick his ass with SCIENCE. And when he escapes from that, he just declares bloody vengeance on the entire world, leading to the week long World War III.