What does Black Adam Killing mean for DC’s Superhero Films

Black Adam isn’t the only one who kills in the DCEU.

Dwayne Johnson, also known as “The Rock,” has talked for years about the brutality of his portrayal. The movie has finally come out, and Black Adam is shown in a scene where his lightning powers melt a man’s skin. He was not lying. Johnson’s return to form with his wrestling days is evident in this heel turn.

This rhetoric is repeated many times throughout the movie. Black Adam tells half of the movie’s characters that heroes don’t kill people. Then he replies with a snarky version of “but I do.” To DCEU fans, this seems a bit strange that Black Adam has killed people. Because up to now, most heroes in DCEU and other superhero movies have murdered people.

DC’s Legion of Super Killers

It feels even stranger when Amanda Waller (the Justice Society of America is capturing Viola Davis Black Adam. Amanda Waller would not mind a little murder. She loves to blow people’s heads up, and that’s what inspired her Suicide Squads. Talking of The Suicide Squad, all anti-heroes have been convicted murderers. Harley Quinn ( Margot Robbie Peacemaker ( John Cena ).

Their spin-offs kill people every day. They don’t have the superpowers and magic abilities of Black Adam. However, because they were both R-rated characters, their killings were more graphic and brutal than Dwayne Johnson’s PG-13 films. Their heroes have murdered people, even if you don’t look beyond DC’s R-rated entries. Superman (Henry Cavill) snaps General Zod’s neck (Michael Shannon) and teams up with Aquaman and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to behead Steppenwolf, Ciaran Hinds, after Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

The whole premise of Batman (or BvS, short for it) was that Supes was mad at Batman ( Ben Affleck) for naming criminals to death in prison. Watch the scene in which Superman confronts Batman on the docks, where you will see that Batman does a lot of killing in that movie. In that movie, Batman also uses guns. Even though Superman did show remorse for Zod’s death, the characters of DCEU don’t seem to have any problems with killing. Why is everyone so upset when Black Adam does it? It all comes down to how the DC Universe hierarchy has changed.

A Crisis on Infinite Snyderverses

After 2017’s Justice League, DC movies saw a significant shift in their goals. The vision of a single director was the basis for the universe. He wanted to tell one story through multiple movies. This was Zack Snyder and Warner Bros.’s initial plan, with a few other directors creating spin-offs. This was in stark contrast to the MCU’s growing MCU, were multiple directors were expected to tell their stories and combine them into a crossover. Snyder’s take on these characters was always very distinct, and he tried to take them to places that were not in the comics. His movies remain controversial because they are different takes on the same roles.

The way these characters were presented changed after Snyder’s departure in 2017. The 2019 movie Shzam saw a significant change. The movie’s main character, Freddy ( Jack Dylan Glazer), is a young boy who is an avid fan of comic books. He also has merchandise for Superman and Batman, which includes a Batarang. However, it’s not too jarring because kids love superheroes, and it doesn’t seem out of place in the context of DCEU because the masses have ridiculed characters like Superman up to that point.

It was the first time the characters were discussed in films as if their actions were the same as their comic-book counterparts. The significant universe-shifting change in Shazam and Black Adam was not due to wizards. It was that main characters from the DC Universe had completed their character stories as Snyder intended and were now closer to their comic book counterparts. Black Adam continues Freddy’s spirit. We see him through the eyes of his comic-obsessed sidekick Amon ( Bodhi Sabongui). Amon isn’t content to idolize these heroes; he also carries DC comics he collected from the real world. This movie is an intelligent use of corporate synergy and product placement, proving that the DCEU has become more true to comics.

Original Recipe Justice League

Dwayne “The Muscle” Johnson cannot compete in this universe for brutality. On the other hand, James Gunn has people being ripped in half. His killstreaks and attitude do not match the current state of the DC Universe. Black Adam is a pivotal moment for DC. Johnson and his team have managed to create a movie that combines the best of Snyder films and the more classic Justice League movie. This movie is a rare example of eating your cake and coming out well.

Superman and his super-friends might not have cared much about Black Adam in the past. Now that they have taken down Steppenwolf and Zod, they can see the dangers Black Adam is taking and how his superhero can quickly turn into something horrible. It will be a fascinating dynamic, and it will be explored further in DC films.

It’s great to see Warner Bros make DC movies more faithful to the characters’ spirit.

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