Just like his nemesis Shazam, Black Adam has endured a fun history of retcons and publishers
that the character has called home.
First created in 1945 for Fawcett comics in The Marvel Family issue 1, he would later
return when DC bought out Fawcett and their properties, gracing their panels in 1973.
While he’s always been a particularly brutal antagonist, Adam has dabbled in some heroics
in more recent times.
But he’s also got a whole lot of blood on his hands.
Like, a whole lot.
So today, we’re counting down the top 10 scary Black Adam Facts you need to know.
Let’s get to it.
10 His Origin When Black Adam first debuted under Fawcett
Comics, he only appeared once in that entire run of Shazam’s comics, who was known as
Captain Marvel back in those days.
He was an ancient Egyptian man back in his initial origin, named Teth-Adam, which, fun
fact, translates into mighty human.
Anyway, he was chosen by the wizard Shazam to be his successor, who believed Teth-Adam
to be morally pure.
Oh how he was incorrect about that one.
Teth-Adam is soon corrupted by his newly granted powers, deciding he should rule over the world,
so he overthrows and kills a Pharaoh, assuming the Egyptian throne.
This doesn’t bode well with Shazam the Wizard, who renames him Black Adam and banishes him
to a distant star in the universe.
Black Adam spent the next 5000 years flying back to Earth, arriving in the year of 1945
to discover that Shazam has appointed new champions; Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and
Captain Marvel Jr.
So of course, there’s a kerfuffle.
9 Ripped a Dude in Half Black Adam LOVES violence.
The things he can do with his hands are mind blowing people.
Not in a good way, more in a ‘he’ll rip you in half’ kind of way.
And that’s something that actually happened in 52, the series written by Geoff Johns,
Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid that featured 52 issues, one a week for a year
between 2006 and 2007, depicting the events that took place during the missing year after
Infinite Crisis.Black Adam at this point has taken on the role of ‘hero’.
I use quotations because dude has a much more hardened perspective on how criminals and
crime should be approached.
In issue 3 of the series, he gathers press in front of the Kahndaq embassy (a fictional
middle eastern country the DC universe btw) and then flies over head, declaring his dissatisfaction
for the ways heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have dealt with crime in
the past.
To prove his point, he grabs Terra-Man, a small time DC villain who is a hard core environmentalist,
and rips him in half, his limbs thrown in different directions.
Black Adam’s point?
Criminals like him don’t deserve to live.
This is a running theme with Black Adam; he stands by his extremist opinions, and he’s
very, very committed to them.
https://www.cbr.com/black-adams-15-most-brutal-kills/ - 10
8 Aman Black Adam has his fair share of retconning
over the years, as we mentioned previously.
His origin story was revisited during the new 52, in which Billy Batson witnesses the
beginnings of his foe’s origins, which follows the story of Aman, a Kahndaqi boy who lived
of a life of slavery and buse in ancient times.
His uncle was Black Adam, who was just Adam back then.
Adam would help the boy escape slavery, and they would encounter the wizard Shazam.
It was revealed that the wizard had selected Aman instead, and during the escape, Adam
had been badly injured, so Aman used his powers to heal his uncle.
Aman wanted to use his powers to help others and cure his former slave masters of their
evil ways, but Adam wanted vengeance instead.
Adam killed Aman when Aman attempted to summon the lightning the transform himself, with
his death off panel, but Adam calling it the boy’s sacrifice, with Adam telling Billy
that he’d go to any lengths to free this world from those who enslave it.
7 Killed a Yeti In 2007, we got a tie in story from the 52
series titled World War 3.
It was a four issue mini series that explored what 52 was initially intended to focus own
(that series was stated to evolve in a different direction than DC initially anticipated).
In World War 3, the focus is Black Adam and his uncontrollable rage towards humanity after
his family was murdered, with the superhero community rallying together to try to stop
him.
We’ll be talking more about some of the actions he takes during that story later on
our list, but for the purpose of this number, spoiler time.
Adam ends up being de--powered by Zatanna and Captain Marvel aka Shazam.
When he’s in the Himalayas, now beared with long hair, he finds himself crossing paths
with a Yeti.
And what does Adam do?
He beats it up, yanks out its intestines, and then uses those intestines to rappel down
a mountain side.
Talk about resourceful.
6Killed up Death During World War 3, Adam, while in a state
of blinding rage, seeks the horseman of Death in order to get his vengeance.
When he finds Death, who has been endowed by the deaths of every human being on the
planet, the two duke it out.
But even Death isn’t strong enough to deal with Black Adam’s powers, and his sheer
will power and determination.
Black Adam beats the crap out of him, interrogates him, and smashes his skull into the ground
all while squeezing his fingers into his brain.
He also knows how to pillow talk real good; he tells death he is going to spend the rest
of the night slowly ending his life.
5 Psycho Pirate Okay, I think we can all agree that jabbing
your fingers into someone’s eye sockets is a really crappy move.
Think about iot; obviously you’re screwing up your victim’s eyes, but you also are
the one sticking your fingers into someones eye balls.
That’s a texture I’d rather avoid.
But Black Adam don’t give a crap.
In Infinite Crisis issue 6, villain Psycho-Pirate, who was working with Lex Luthor at the time,
comes across Black Adam who had just been freed from captivity.
He had previously manipulated Adam into using his powers.
Adam doesn’t like being manipulated.
So what did he do?
Mid way through Psycho-Pirate’s attempts to reason with Adam, Adam shoves his fingers
into the villains eyes, straight through his head, to the extent that his mask goes right
through the villain’s skull.
When Power Girl asks Adam if that was really necessary, he responds with “Absolutely.”
4 Punched a hole through Terra We’re talking the character, not the planet.
Adam has a thing for punching holes through people.
Like, this is a recurring trend, people.
During the World War 3 story event, Black Adam had wiped out an entire nation (more
on that later) so naturally, a couple of superheroes had some beef with the magical villain.
One of those heroes was Terra, who, despite having a whole lot of confidence in standing
up to Black Adam, found herself probably filled with regret in doing so when Adam slammed
his fist right through her chest.
Or, rather, filled with fist.
And ruptured organs.
Fun.
3 Ordered the death of a Back when Black Adam was working with the
Justice Society of America, they ventured in Kahndaq in an attempt to help liberate
the country.
The country is being ruled over by a called Asim Muhunnad.
After ravaging the infrastructure of Muhunnad’s regime, they find the dictator himself.
So what does Adam do?
In JLA issue 56, he edges on his teammate Atom Smasher to murder the dictator, tossing
him underneath him and telling him to execute him.
It’s worth noting the in the new 52 Black Adam’s ties to this country are very important
to his stories and motivations.
It was revealed in the JSA series that Kahndaq is the homeland of Black Adam, and it was
burned to the ground back when he was the magically powered superhero protecting Egypt
over 3600 years ago.
When Kahnqaq was destroyed by a supervillain named Ahk-Ton, his wife and children were
killed in the process, which is why Adam takes extreme measures to protect the city.
But this caused Shazam to remove his powers and entomb him for centuries.
So overall, there’s a lot to unpack there with Adam.
2 Killed his Wife To call Black Adam a wouldn’t be incorrect.
Nothing proves that more than that time he ended his wife’s life in Black Adam The
Dark Age issue 2.
So in the aftermath of all those disastrous events in the World War 3 story arc, Adam
decides to chill out a bit, lay low, and get his wife Adrianna Tomaz back, who was currently
deceased at the time.
But he carried around her bones with him, until he found a Lazarus pit.
Jack pot, right?
Nope.
Turns out dropping someone's bones into a Lazarus Pit to bring them back to life has
some pretty bad side effects.
Despite being reunited with his love, he realized something horrific was happening.
Her body was slowly decaying.
So in order to spare her from any more suffering, he killed her.
Sure, it was an act of mercy, and a kill he claims to have committed out of his love for
her.
And she clearly wasn’t complaining about it.
But still, the whole situation, along with how Tomaz looked at the end, was definitely
something our eyes could have done without seeing.
1 Destroyed a whole nation As you can gauge from the rest of our list,
Black Adam played a pretty big role in 52, and World War 3 was his narrative; it’s
all about Adam seeking to avenge his family, sick with grief.
In 52 issue 45, he takes things a little too far.
And by a little too far, I mean he destroyed the entire nation of Bialya.
So remember how we mentioned that Adam was hunting for the horseman Death in a previous
number?
Prior to finding him, his search brought him to Bialya, who, in a fit of rage, he burns
to the ground while looking for Death, blaming the nation for being partially responsible
for his family’s demise.
He exterminates the entire population of 2,000,000 citizens.
Death would feed on all of the slaughter, but as we mentioned earlier, he was still
no match for Adam and his grief.
This would prompt several heroes to try to hunt Adam down and prevent his rampage from
spreading across the globe, including the likes of Terra, who, as we mentioned earlier,
he dealt with by deploying one of his favourite party tricks; punching his fist through her
body.
Full circle.
Oh Adam.
At least he’s consistent.
There we have it friends!
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