Black Adam has to do a lot of heavy lifting for one movie, so it brings along some friends, in the form of the Justice Society, to help out. At the end, I think I’d have rather seen a Justice Society movie.
Dwayne Johnson monotones his way through the title role, without any of the anger and rage that informs his comic counterpart. Awoken accidentally by people looking for the demonic Crown of Sardacc, Black Adam has to confront the modern world and the ways his homeland, Kandahq, has changed over the past 5,000+ years since he was entombed.
For one thing, they’ve invented doors in the meantime. A running joke is that he never uses doors when a wall will do. Another running joke is that the spunky kid pointlessly inserted in the movie to name drop every other member of the DC universe wants Black Adam to come up with a catchphrase that he could hopefully manage to say before he kills someone. Instead of, like, after.
Against Adam are the forces of Intergang, the British criminal syndicate that is an occupying force, and the Justice Society, modern versions of Atomsmasher, Cyclone, Dr. Fate and especially Hawkman, who here graduates from being a pathetic has-been to a cool, sophisticated tech genius whose Nth-metal suit and weapons makes him indestructible and one of the few who can hold their own against superbeings.
I’d like to see more of the Justice Society, especially now that the more traditional roster in Stargirl has been cancelled. Black Adam, well… maybe not so much more of him, really. Dwayne Johnson seems like a hell of a nice guy, but as an actor, he is just always the Rock.
