The following contains spoilers for Black Adam, now playing in theaters.
Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is easily the DC Extended Universe's most spectacular killer, earning dozens of kills within his first modern-day fight in Black Adam. This kill count keeps growing throughout the film, even as the movie explores the moral implications and ramifications. In fact, it even fuels one of the film's moral centers.
However, it also serves the dual purpose of highlighting just how dangerous characters in the DC Universe can be. With people operating on the levels of Superman and Wonder Woman, plenty of characters have been fearful or envious of their abilities. But Black Adam provides a handy justification in-universe for all that fear and concern, showcasing how lethal even a bored superhero can be to regular humans.
It's Wild How Many People Black Adam Kills
After being released from his eons-long slumber by Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), Black Adam spends large sections of the film decimating entire swaths of Intergang soldiers and troops with his powers. He shows little restraint in these sequences, especially in his first "battle," quickly decimating a room full of soldiers before taking down the dozens outside the mountain. Notably, these kills feel different from other lethal moments in the superhero genre. There's anger in the actions of The Punisher, a goofy glibness with Deadpool and a moral weight with Daredevil. In the DCEU Universe, the foundational murder of the franchise was Superman's reluctant killing of Zod. But Black Adam is non-plussed by the event. In fact, he's almost bored with his lethal actions.
The DCEU has been quietly fixated on the impact of demigods and aliens coming to Earth. Batman's motivation in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice stems from his concern over the Man of Steel's dangerous potential, and the adventures of Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the Suicide Squad have risked unleashing some truly awesome and terrifying threats onto the world. But in those moments, there's at least a motivation and passion behind these events. Black Adam may eventually become inspired to protect the nation of Kahndaq -- justifying murder as an act of defense -- but when he's introduced to the modern day, he's just a powerhouse swatting away the gnats bothering him with their guns and rockets. He decimates bases to simplify battles and has to be reminded of the value of even keeping prisoners for interrogation. Black Adam shows absolutely no regret in killing likely over a hundred people by the film's end.
Black Adam Proves Why the DCEU Should Fear Superheroes
Black Adam's ability to massacre entire squadrons of people as almost an afterthought offers the clearest showcase for the franchise's trepidation around the metahuman and the danger they can possess. While the people of Kahndaq come to see Adam as their champion, it largely stems from their own exhaustion with forces like Intergang -- and their willingness to fight back to regain control of their homeland. They embrace his murderous acts, even actively booing when Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) saves the lives of two men Adam had casually left to die. Black Adam brings the kind of brutality to the DCEU that has defined darker takes on the Superman concept, like Homelander from The Boys and Omni-Man from Invincible. Just because there may be less overt gore doesn't detract from Adam's frankly ludicrous kill count by the end of the film.
Black Adam wipes out plenty of people -- and even if he did so for a noble reason, he still committed a lot of murder. It's the kind of thing that would reasonably motivate someone like Lex Luthor and paints Superman and other superheroes in a far darker light in-universe. Black Adam brings that dark subversion of the Superman mythos and message into the Man of Steel's own world and highlights why people would fear superheroes.
To see the DCEU's newest antihero go on a rampage, Black Adam is now in theaters.