Black Adam always kind of reminded me of Sinestro.
In both cases, an omnipotent authority — the Guardians or the wizard Shazam — misjudges someone’s character and transforms him into a superhuman champion. The powers make him arrogant and corrupt, and a younger, purer champion — Green Lantern or Captain Marvel and company — must finally find a way to stop him.
Oddly enough, both Sinestro and Black Adam even had pointed ears.
One of those mirror-image opponents that always seem to afflict superheroes, Black Adam was Teth-Adam, the ancient Egyptian predecessor of Captain Marvel.
The creation of writer Otto Binder and artist C.C. Beck, Black Adam was the heavyweight foe Fawcett Comics chose to kick off the first issue of The Marvel Family (Dec. 1945). The team of Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel had first appeared three years before in Captain Marvel Adventures 18.
The Marvel Family met their match in Black Adam, and couldn’t manage to overcome him until the powerless Uncle Marvel used his head. He tricked Black Adam into saying “Shazam,” reverting the supervillain to his now-5,000-year-old mortal form. He’s reduced to a skeleton.
It took Black Adam three decades to recover from that, thanks to Dr. Sivana’s reincarnation machine.
Then, in the 21st century JSA title, Black Adam became a partially reformed and more morally complex character.
“When Black Adam was added to the JSA, it was a complete WTF moment,” recalled Bill Delaney. “Unless I’d missed something, he’d been an unequivocal villain up to that point. Adding him to the JSA seemed like (David) Goyer and (Geoff) Johns wanting Captain Marvel, but not being permitted. I was still only mildly interested in the book, so Adam being added stirred doubts that I’d be sticking with it.
“Thankfully I was wrong. Goyer and Johns did a great job at taking a one-dimensional character and fleshing him out into one of comicdom’s greatest antiheroes (although with more emphasis on the ‘anti’).
“They also built some of the JSA’s best character moments and storylines around him, while at the same time adding interesting layers to DCU continuity by tying together many of its historical Egyptian characters.
“Even Captain Marvel himself was made more interesting when he finally joined. The tension between them was handled perfectly. No overly dramatic arguing; mostly just subtle digs and body language.”
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