DC's Black Adam is getting his own solo series prior to the upcoming Black Adam film set to release later this year.
DC Comics announced that writer Christopher Priest (Deathstroke, Justice League), artist Rafa Sandoval (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, The Flash) and covert artist Irvin Rodriguez (Future State) are teaming together for a new Black Adam series that will start in June. "Forgive the cliché, but I've rarely been this excited about a new project," Priest told DC. "DC has provided an amazing opportunity for me to explore and, to some degree, reimagine this character in a very new light while bringing new challenges and consequences to a man who has lived far too long and is desperate for redemption. Rafa Sandoval brings palpable voltage to every panel, bringing out my Kirby-Simonson Big Noise instinct as Rafa's gifts take me to places I never knew I wanted to go. My only regret is we only have 22 pages a month for this."
The plot synopsis for the Black Adam series reads, "There is no forgiveness for Black Adam. This is the reality Teth-Adam, immortal man of indomitable will, must face when he discovers he has been infected with an incurable plague destroying his immortality. Haunted by the specter of centuries of dark deeds, Black Adam transfers his powers to a worthy successor who will redeem Adam's legacy and defend their ancestral homeland of Kahndaq, only to subsequently become mystically 'handcuffed' to him when Adam's plague is arrested, giving birth to perhaps the most volatile and dysfunctional super-team in DC history!"
"I have been a lifelong fan of everything about Shazam and one of the things I always wanted is to draw a charismatic villain, and Black Adam is perfect for this," Sandoval added. "This is the first time I've had an opportunity to work with Christopher Priest and his attention to detail, attentiveness and openness makes him a great creative partner."
Black Adam first appeared in 1945's The Marvel Family #1 by Otto Binder, C.C. Beck, Pete Costanza and Wendell Crowley. While primarily seen as the main antagonist to Shazam, Black Adam is one of the more complicated anti-heroes within the DC Universe due to his tragic upbringing and strict code of honor. He frequently uses his Superman-like powers for villainy; however, Brain Michael Bendis' run on Justice League saw him join the all-star superhero team to fight against evil. In Justice League #72, Black Adam was sent back down a path of maliciousness after he was possessed by a deity called Xanadoth.
Black Adam will be played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in an upcoming Black Adam film set to release later this year. The movie was originally scheduled to hit theaters in Dec. 2020, but will now release on Oct. 21. "We have always had a vision of where we saw where we wanted this to go," producer Hiram Garcia previously said of the film. "There's always been a rough, kind of loose outline in our head and on an imaginary whiteboard of how we'd want to do it. As we're making that, we started to look at that a little bit more. But, again, ultimately, we need the movie to be received well and we want fans to like it, but there's 100% a vision of what we'd like to be doing in a multiple picture aspect when it comes to Black Adam and the [Justice Society of America]."
Black Adam #1 -- by writer Christopher Priest, artist Rafa Sandoval, cover artist Irvin Rodriguez and variant cover artists Mikel Janin, Lucio Parrillo, Crystal Kung, Cully Hamner, Travis Mercer and Danny Miki -- will release on June 21.
Source: DC Comics