The upcoming DC movie Black Adam stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the titular anti-hero, but he’s not making his big-screen debut alone. He’ll be rubbing elbows (and trading blows) with the members of the Justice Society of America aka the JSA. But what is Black Adam’s origin, and what’s his relationship to this storied DC superhero team?
Let's dig into the comic books to find out. And for more on the movie, check out all our DC FanDome coverage!
Black Adam’s Origin: Is Black Adam a Villain?
The character Black Adam started out as an evil nemesis to the red-and-gold superhero Captain Marvel, who we now know as Shazam. But he evolved over the years since his first comic appearance back in 1945’s The Marvel Family #1 as writers began to show a new side to the character. The modern incarnation of Black Adam isn’t your standard cackling, power-mad, lunatic supervillain but a complex anti-hero who dishes out his own brand of brutal justice.
The first teaser for the Black Adam movie showed that it will follow the modern version of his origin story, largely pulled from Geoff Johns and David Goyer’s JSA comics and Johns’ New 52 Shazam! run with Gary Frank.
It all starts with a man named Teth Adam who lived 5000 years ago. He was a slave in the fictional country of Kahndaq, a bustling nation brimming with wealth and magic. Thanks to the wizard Shazam choosing him as a worthy champion, he was able to rise up to destroy his oppressors, free his people, and name himself the new ruler of Kahndaq.
Taking the name Black Adam and wielding the powers of Shazam (including the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury), he was loved by those he liberated but was also feared for how he used violence and death to dole out justice to those he deemed to be wrongdoers. This dichotomy is the very core of Black Adam’s character and why he’s seen as an anti-hero.
While you might empathize with Black Adam to a certain extent, the wizard Shazam felt he went too far and misused the power he was given (freeing slaves is one thing but taking over a country is probably crossing a line), so he banished Black Adam. But 5000 years later, Black Adam is somehow released from his prison. He awakens in the modern DC Universe–a world filled with superheroes, and it’s the superteam known as the JSA that responds to the return of this ancient powerhouse. We’ll have to watch the movie to see where the story goes from there, but thankfully, until then we can turn to the comics for some info on the JSA’s members, how Black Adam joins their team, and why he stormed out.
Meet the JSA
The JSA is a classic Golden Age comic book superhero team. They first debuted in 1941's All-Star Comics #3 — predating the Justice League by almost two decades. Today, the JSA in the comics is a team of older heroes who recruit new, younger heroes and teach them the wisdom of their older generation.
In the Black Adam movie, the JSA will feature Hawman (Aldis Hodge) and Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan) as senior team members training fresh recruits Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). Nothing like tackling an angry godlike being who just woke up from a 5000 year nap for your first assignment! While the teaser for the JSA shows that soldiers see Black Adam as a threat after he awakens, the JSA see him as a lost and confused man in pain who needs guidance and so they set out to help him find his place in our modern world. Good luck with that!
Here’s a quick rundown on the four JSA members in the movie.
Hawkman
Carter Hall is an Indiana Jones-style archeologist by day and the magical winged warrior Hawkman by night. Carter has the power of reincarnation and it turns out he’s an ancient Egyptian royal named Khufu who has been reborn numerous times over the centuries. There’s also a version where Hawkman is actually an alien Thanagarian cop named Katar Hol who hails from a planet of bird-warriors. If we had to guess, we’d say the movie is going with the reincarnation angle because that would mean both Carter and Black Adam have origins going back to ancient times. In the comics, Khufu was even served by Teth Adam before he became Black Adam. But don’t expect these two to reminisce about old times–Hawkman and Black Adam developed a heated rivalry in the comics, so you can probably expect to see Big Bird introduce his magical Nth metal mace to the side of Black Adam’s noggin.
Doctor Fate
Doctor Fate is a powerful sorcerer who wields the magical power of Nabu by donning the Helmet of Fate. Think of him as DC’s Doctor Strange, except his civilian alter ego Kent Nelson isn’t as much of a jerk. The origin of Doctor Fate’s helmet goes all the way back to ancient times, as well, which provides yet another natural tie to Black Adam’s beginnings.
Atom Smasher
Albert Rothstein aka Atom Smasher gained his size-changing powers from the maniacal villain Cyclotron, who just happened to be his grandfather.
In the comics, Atom Smasher joined the JSA at the same time as Black Adam, and though the two initially butted heads given that they’re both hot-headed men who prefer to solve problems with their fists, they quickly found a kinship in their shared views. Atom Smasher was frustrated with the JSA’s rules and was dwelling on his decision to kill a villain, but Black Adam encouraged taking extreme action and made him feel it was the right thing to do. The two eventually came to see each other as brothers, and Atom Smasher went so far as to turn his back on the JSA to help Black Adam retake his home country of Kahndaq. (More on that in a minute!)
Cyclone
The final member of the JSA is Cyclone, civilian name Maxine Hunkel. As her superhero name implies, she has the power to manipulate the winds to conjure tornadoes and fly through the air. In the comics, Maxine is the granddaughter of the original hero Red Tornado and received similar powers after being experimented on by the mad scientist T. O. Morrow. When she joins the JSA in the comics it’s to get training for her unwieldy new powers, not to mention learn some much-needed social skills.
Black Adam and the JSA
Now let’s take a look at Black Adam’s relationship to the JSA.
It was a shock to the comic book superhero world when Black Adam asked to join the JSA–and was granted probationary membership. Black Adam claimed he was reformed and had great respect for the senior members on the team, although his “eye for an eye” sense of justice often had him at odds with the heroes. Black Adam became a polarizing figure on the team, often pushing boundaries or just bulldozing right over them. It’s during this time that we learned about Black Adam’s updated, tragic origin and saw that he was a good-hearted man before his country was conquered, his wife and children murdered, and he was enslaved.
Even though Black Adam served on the team for some time, his desire to retake Kahndaq eventually put him at odds with the JSA, and in the end he broke from the team in order to achieve victory. When the dust settled, the JSA decided to let Black Adam control Khandaq so long as he did not leave its borders and try to conquer the world, forcing him to prove he can still be a good man, after all.
Black Adam and the Future of the DCEU
Introducing a character like Black Adam will undoubtedly have a huge effect on the DC movie universe. He’s a character powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with Superman, so how could he not? Dwayne Johnson let it be known that “The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change.” But given the anti-hero nature of Black Adam, will it be for better… or for worse? We’ll have to find out together when Black Adam strikes theaters in July 2022.