In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, learn whether there was supposed to be a Shazam series with Black Adam that led into War of the Gods

Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and sixty-seventh installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false. As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. This is a special installment sort of tied into the new Black Adam movie.

NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I'll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!

COMIC LEGEND:

Black Adam was meant to be re-introduced by John Byrne in a Shazam reboot series that would lead into War of the Gods.

STATUS:

False

At the end of 1986, it fell to Roy Thomas and Tom Mandrake to come up with a new approach to Captain Marvel that would bring the character into the DC Universe (as he was set to become a member of the relaunched Justice League in early 1987), and they produced Shazam: The New Beginning, a reboot of the whole Marvel Family mythos, tying Captain Marvel and Black Adam's origins together, with Black Adam becoming the first villain that Captain Marvel had to face (this is the series where Thomas came up with the idea of doing Captain Marvel as a kid in an adult's body that has become the standard approach to the character ever since).

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At the end of the series, Billy Batson outmaneuvers Black Adam by transforming back to his kid form, assuming that Black Adam would try to punch him to death, but Billy would know when to move, so Black Adam would instead trigger a device...

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and it sent Black Adam into another dimension...

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And then, that was the last Shazam series for SEVEN YEARS, with only one single short Captain Marvel feature appearing in Action Comics Weekly the following year, so by 1991, Captain Marvel and Black Adam had been basically in comic book limbo for three and four years, respectively, which is an ETERNITY in modern comic book publishing (Roy Thomas' quest to do a Shazam series during that period in time is worth its own CBLR in the future).

RELATED: How An Avengers Villain Was Retroactively Killed Off

HOW DID BLACK ADAM SHOW UP IN WAR OF THE GODS?

In 1991, George Perez's Wonder Woman run basically concluded with a crossover event, War of the Gods, and in the second issue (by Perez, Russell Braun, Cynthia Martin and Romeo Tanghal), Black Adam just shows up...

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No explanation, he's just back.

He feels compelled to attack the villainous Circe, so he goes to the Suicide Squad and recruits them to help him as cannon fodder. They attack in the following issue (by Perez, Bruan, Pablo Marcos, Vince Giarrano, Scott Hanna and Tanghal)...

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Circe even notes that she had no idea Black Adam was even still alive!

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When he confronts her, she deduces that Set probably sent Black Adam after her (you know, the whole war of the gods deal)...

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She then strips him of most of his powers...

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Black Adam is then recruited by the wizard Shazam to help him recreate the spell that gave Captain Marvel his powers, and when that happens, Black Adam's powers will return, as well. The mission is a success in War of the Gods #4 (by Perez, Marcos, Alan Kupperberg, Phil Jimenez, Gordon Purcell, Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin)...

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But then as soon as that happens, Shazam then sends Black Adam back to nothingness...

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It's all super crazy, as nothing in Shazam: The New Beginning was acknowledged, and he just shows up, plays a major role and then turned to dust at the end of the series.

This has to led to a recurring theory about what was SUPPOSED to have happened before this event.

RELATED: Was Firestar Designed Based on Mary Jane Watson?

WAS THERE SUPPOSED TO BE A SHAZAM SERIES HEADED INTO WAR OF THE GODS?

As I noted in an old Comic Book Legends Revealed (still double digits at the time, so we're talking MANY moons ago), I wrote about John Byrne was working on a Shazam reboot (as enough time had passed that DC wanted to reboot the character again)

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but after doing some work on the first issue, the project fell apart because, as Byrne explained to Peter Sanderson in TwoMorrows' Back Issue #12:

The reason this [project] didn't happen was that going in, I said I want this to be a separate universe. I want this to be not connected with the DC Universe in any way. And DC said, yep, fine, that'll be great, that'll be good. And then I had actually done the cover and the first two pages of the first issue and they said, "Oh, by the way, Cap has to be in the Justice League [Here, Byrne most likely just means that "Cap has to be in the DC Universe, as Cap's Justice League days were past by this point - BC]." And I said no, we agreed. And they said he has to be, it's absolutely necessary. I said, well, bye then. It was another one of those cases where I made my unreasonable demands loud and clear, up front, they agreed to them, and then said, "Oh, no, we're changing our minds."

So as the story goes, the Byrne Shazam series was intended to lead into War of the Gods, and when it fell apart, suddenly Perez still had his big event, but with no Shazam series to lead into it, so he just improvised and had Black Adams how up out of nowhere.

I asked Tom Peyer, who was the editor on War of the Gods, and he said that they were not relying on the theoretical Byrne Shazam series at all, and that Perez just liked using as many characters in the series as possible, as he felt it gave the event a more epic feel.

Thanks to Tom Peyer, Peter Sanderson and John Byrne for the information!

SOME OTHER ENTERTAINMENT LEGENDS!

Check out some entertainment legends from Legends Revealed:

1. Was Hanna-Barbera’s Fonz and the Happy Days Gang Originally a Doctor Who Cartoon Series?

2. Was a Joke In An Issue of Cable/Deadpool Really the Inspiration for Ryan Reynolds Playing Deadpool?

3. Was the Mister Mister Song “Kyrie” Written About a Brutal Attack?

4. Were TV Dinners Invented Due to Swanson Having Too Many Thanksgiving Turkeys Left Over?

PART TWO SOON!

Check back soon for part 2 of this installment's legends!

Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com