Black Adam – Comics vs Movie

By now, a lot of people must know about Black Adam. It was only a few months ago that the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe was about to change…and it did. With the arrival of the long-awaited Black Adam movie, starring Dwayne Johnson, who was cast in 2007, we finally got to see what The Rock was cooking with this one. As with every superhero movie, especially from Marvel and DC, there were a lot of liberties taken with the source material when it came to adapting it for the big screen. While some have updated some minor aspects to have them fit in well enough for a good movie, there have been others that have perverted the origins so much that it is beyond recognition. Fortunately, Black Adam found a way to tell its story in a fairly accurate way, but with some questionable twists and reimaginings. This article will explore the differences that the Black Adam movie had with the source material.

1. How he was freed

Due to the numerous reboots that the DC Universe in the comics has gone through, it is impossible to point out just one deviation when it comes to this point, but we will do the most we can to simplify the explanation. In the source material, the very first version of Black Adam’s freedom from his imprisonment following his scuffle with the wizard Shazam was that after the scuffle, Shazam banished him to the furthest star in the universe. He spent the next 5000 years travelling back to Earth, and when he arrived, he faced off against his replacement: Captain Marvel. In the New 52, he was freed accidentally when Dr. Sivana (the bad guy from the first Shazam movie) was reading the history of Black Adam. He accidentally freed him from a tomb and he was free to wreak havoc. After being defeated by Billy Batson, he was revived once more by Kahndaqi revolutionaries who want to revive him so that he can set them free from their oppressors. One of them: Amon, was meant to read a scroll with the enchantment to bring him back, but after they are attacked by militants, his sister: Adrianna frees Adam, and he goes on to free Kahndaq. The movie shows something else, that’s a bit similar to the latter version. The movie has him freed by Adrianna, who was actually looking for the Crown of Sabacc in order to fight against Intergang, who had taken over the country of Kahndaq. She ended up freeing the imprisoned Black Adam after reading an incantation.

2. Who Rules Kahndaq

This is one of those times that a change was made in order to accommodate for the conditions of the movie being made. It was not made in the same context as the story that it was based on. This movie was based on the Forever Evil storyline, which involves a lot of context carried over from previous stories set in the DC Universe. Basically, the Justice League and a lot of the heroes were presumed dead by the general public, their evil counterparts from an alternate Earth traveled to the main one and sought to conquer it…and they did…for the most part. Since the DCEU barely has any context to draw from, and the Black Adam movie is in its own corner of the universe, kind of isolated from everything else, it would be a little hard to get the villains from the comic storyline that it is based on. The people who were brought in to be the rulers of Kahndaq that the citizens want to be free from are Intergang. They are (at least in the comics) an organization of gangsters who have been given weapons by Darkseid and his forces in order to wreak havoc on Earth. They use apokaliptan technology and square off against Superman regularly. That’s right. They’re Superman enemies. In this movie, they are enemies of Kahndaq. It’s a bit weird, but given the context of the universe that has been set up, it is the best that they could do.

3. His Personality

This, we’re sure, has a lot to do with what the actor wanted more than anything else. Black Adam, in the comics, is a rogue, a completely unpredictable individual who will do anything he feels like, as long as it means getting what he wants, the way he wants it. He goes against Billy Batson and they share a rivalry for decades, with Black Adam constantly being shown wanting to destroy him, even after finding out that he’s just a little boy with superpowers. It doesn’t matter to him. What we get in the movie is a different case altogether. In the movie, he seems very conflicted. Although he has no problem with killing people, the movie gives off the impression that he only kills if he is provoked. Not a bad way to go about things, considering how powerful he is, compared to everyone else, and how the movie would go if he did act in a more comic accurate way, but there are indications that he would rather not be doing these things and only does them if he absolutely has to. He doesn’t have a god complex like he does in the source material. He’s just put into situations where people annoy him and he has to kill them so he can continue to think about the powers which he feels he doesn’t deserve. The comics version believed that he was worthy of his powers so much that he outwardly, explicitly disagreed with everything the wizard Shazam said, which is pretty much what made them enemies. His fierce and uncontrollable personality was what made him an enemy of Shazam. Even the Shazam movie alluded to how rebellious he was when it explained the story of the fallen champion, but the movie took a different route.

4. How he got his Powers

Remember how the different route was mentioned in regards to what they did with his personality? Well, this was one of the most egregious things they did. In the source material, he was a slave and was given his powers by Shazam, and used them to make things work the way he saw fit, going against what the wizard had envisioned, thereby prompting the wizard to banish him. In a rebooted reality, he killed the actual champion in order to get his powers because he felt like he could do a better job than him with them. He did it out of selfishness, as the actual chosen champion had used some of his power in order to heal Adam from mortal wounds. Adam wanted to use the power for vengeance. That’s what led to him killing the chosen champion. He wanted the full power to himself. In the movie, the chosen champion was his son, and he gave his power to Adam and was killed by someone else, so Adam avenged his son and killed the evil king. The wizards then entombed him. It may be a good story, but it is not a good adaptation, as it completely bends over the impression we are supposed to have of Black Adam if he were comic accurate.

5. Adrianna and Amon

The movie has its leading lady with Adrianna; a Kahndaqi naitve who wants to free her country from Intergang, since no one else will. She took it upon herself to lead the expedition which led to Black Adam being freed. She had a son as well, who was Amon; a superhero fan who spent the whole movie trying to teach Black Adam how to be cool. Black Adam follows what he says throughout the whole and they form a…sibling(?)/father-son(?) relationship. Either way, it’s a fun(?) dynamic that they have and humanizes Black Adam in a sense. That is not what the difference is from the source material, though. The difference that these characters have with the comics is that Adrianna and Amon are siblings in the comics, and Adrianna is Black Adam’s love interest. Nothing in the movie indicated that they would fall in love at some point, as Black Adam doesn’t really do anything for her. Everything he does is for himself or for Amon, the teenage boy who probably reminds him of his son.

Is there anything we missed? Is there anything we got wrong? Let us know in the comments below: