When he transitioned from the squared circle to the silver screen, Dwayne Johnson built his Hollywood pedigree playing good guys with a tough exterior and a just as solid moral code. Of course, one has to overlook his villainous early turn as The Scorpion King in “The Mummy Returns” for that narrative to work. Now, Johnson returns to ancient super-villainy, or at least anti-heroism, in DC Film‘s upcoming blockbuster “Black Adam,” and he cannot wait to don the mantle.
But who is Black Adam, exactly? Originally created Fawcett Comics in 1945, DC Comics integrated the character (and his nemesis, Shazam!) into their comics in the ’70s. Think of Black Adam (real name Teth-Adam) as Fawcett’s darker iteration of Superman (seriously, Fawcett lost rights to the character after a lawsuit claimed they ripped off too many of DC’s Superman stories). After the unspeakable happens to Teth-Adam’s family in the fictional ancient land of Kahndaq, he acquires superhuman powers from a wizard to avenge them. But Adam’s new powers go to his head, becoming a brutal tyrant instead of the world’s savior. In the new film, Black Adam returns to Earth after being banished for thousands of years for his misdeeds — and he’s very pissed off about his prolonged absence.
Johnson likens Black Adam’s anti-heroic persona to a darker, more merciless Superman. “Superman won’t kill anybody. There’s a code that he lives by and he honors,” Johnson told Vanity Fair. “Black Adam has a unique code of ethics too. He will not hesitate—and I like to have a little fun when I’m explaining this—to rip somebody in half. Literally, he’ll grab someone by the neck and by the thigh and then rip them up, tear them apart.” That’s something Clark Kent/Superman would never dream of doing. For Black Adam, though, ripping an enemy in half is just another day at the office. So, yeah, Black Adam is a dark character. “The Black in Black Adam refers to his soul,” Johnson joked.
Jaume Collet-Serra, the director of “Black Adam,” sees the character in the vein of the anti-hero persona popular in ’70s US films, like Clint Eastwood‘s cop “Dirty Harry” Callahan. “I talked early on with D.J. about how there were many similar aspects between “Black Adam” and “Dirty Harry,” which is a movie that broke rules in the ’70s,” Collet-Serra told VF. “The systems were corrupt, so you had criminals taking advantage. You needed a cop that would cut through the bullsh*t, and basically do what needs to be done. That’s very much in line with Black Adam and his way of thinking.” But Collet-Serra think that audiences will take to Johnson’s charismatic take on the character. “I think that’s appealing to pretty much everybody,” he continued. “Everybody knows how the world sometimes is not fair, and you need people that break the rules to even out the playing field.”
Still, Black Adam will be, like all anti-heroes, a flawed character. “His view of this world that he is brought back into—the current world, now, after 5,000 years—is very myopic,” Johnson said. “There’s no room or space for him being wrong. There’s no room or space for anyone else’s opinion. There’s only room and space for him justifying anything that he does because of his pain. And he pushes and pushes and pushes and does not see any other way. It’s very black and white.” So, who does Black Adam push back against in the upcoming film? That’d be members of the Justice Society Of America, or JSA for short. DC Comics fans will thrill to hear that several JSA heroes show up in the film, like Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Atom, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher.
Black Adam may not be a well-known DC character, but thanks to Johnson’s star power, “Black Adam” will almost certainly be a smash hit for DC Films. And Warner Bros. needs the film to be as big a hit as it can be, thanks to the recent upheaval in the DCEU. “Black Adam” hits theaters everywhere on October 21. Check out new photos for the movie below.
