The following contains spoilers for Black Adam, now playing in theaters.
At the heart of Black Adam is a moral quandary about the ethics of killing. While the titular antihero lays waste to Intergang and kills a truly absurd number of soldiers, it's cheered on by a public exhausted by the group's brutal control of the region. And while heroes fight against Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson), arguing their kind should never kill, it comes across as somewhat hypocritical, considering their ally in the film.
One of the strangest beats in Black Adam centers around the alliance between heroes like Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). That's because Hawkman's proclamation to Black Adam that heroes don't kill seems to discount all the lethal missions Waller has approved of during her tenure as the head of Task Force X, aka the Suicide Squad. So why does Waller get a pass from the other heroes in the DC Extended Universe?
Amanda Waller's Role in Black Adam
Throughout Black Adam, the titular antihero lays waste to the forces of Intergang and does an absurd amount of damage to the enemies of Kahndaq. It's enough of a bloodbath that Waller decides to intervene by contacting Hawkman and the Justice Society, hoping to deal with Black Adam before he transforms into a global-level concern. It leads to the superhero team flying into the nation to contend with the perceived threat of Black Adam. However, while they briefly convince him to turn himself over due to the inherent danger his power level poses to the world, the JSA ultimately has to fight alongside him against Sabbac. Afterward, the heroes retreat, leaving Black Adam to decide his own future. When Waller communicates with Adam via drone, he makes it clear he has no interest in following her commands, resulting in her calling in backup from Superman to confront the antihero.
It's an interesting reintroduction to Waller, whose previous DCEU appearances placed her more behind the scenes. Waller was seen in Suicide Squad conversing with Bruce Wayne, implying a level of cooperation between her and the heroes of the Justice League. But it appears Waller is far more important in the current landscape of the DCEU. She has an entire arctic prison containing dangerous threats to the world and has casual contact with Hawkman. On top of that, her ability to call in Superman hints she's fully turned the Justice League into allies. That's a surprise, though, given Waller's previous actions in the DCEU and her willingness to kill contrasting heavily against the rest of the heroes she works with.
Amanda Waller's Future in the DCEU
Over the course of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, Waller makes it clear that she's not concerned with restraint in her missions. She even seems to lack any concern for the loss of civilian life, as she almost casually dismisses the inhabitants of Corto Maltese after the mission -- ordering Task Force X to leave them to Starro's wraith. She's also been willing to murder her own agents if they refuse her orders and even came close to killing Bloodsport before her staff rebelled against her. Waller is perhaps well-intentioned and dedicated to protecting her nation. But she's far less morally scrupulous than Hawkman, who spends much of Black Adam reminding the titular antihero that heroes don't kill.
Hawkman's feelings suggest that Waller's place in the DCEU is more contentious than it seems -- and that either the exposure of the Suicide Squad's actions in Peacemaker were either forgotten or hadn't happened yet. Otherwise, Hawkman was willing to throw away his morality, working for a woman who'd ordered countless murders as part of his mission to bring down a murderer. It also raises the question of how Superman became involved and why he isn't more concerned about Waller's commands and the actions of the Suicide Squad. Waller may have quietly become too connected in the DCEU for even her daughter's whistleblowing to fully unseat her from power, setting her up to define the future of the universe.
To see Amanda Waller's DCEU return, Black Adam is in theaters now.