Summary

• Black Adam and Shazam have a connection in the comics that wasn't explored in the movies, leaving casual audiences confused.
• Black Adam draws power from Egyptian gods, while Shazam draws power from mythical heroes.
• A crossover between Black Adam and Shazam is unlikely to happen due to the reboot and the lack of connection between their movies.

The now-defunct DC Extended Universe introduced a new supervillain/antihero in its 2022 film, Black Adam. Based on the former Fawcett Comics character of the same name, Black Adam's introduction was meant to change the hierarchy of power in the shared universe. Of course, even those who weren't familiar with the comic books noticed how similar he was to another figure from the DCEU.

Given their similar powers, costumes, and the fact that they both transform using the same magical word, it's obvious that Black Adam and Shazam are connected in some way. The comics give a straightforward connection between Black Adam and the original Captain Marvel, with the two being fierce rivals for several decades of publication history. Unfortunately, the movies lacked that, making many casual audiences question the Black Adam-Shazam connection.

Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on March 18, 2024: The DCU has officially replaced the DCEU, with James Gunn's Superman film having begun production with a release date set for 2025. While it is unclear precisely which characters from the DCEU will transfer over to Gunn's new universe, there is one matchup that fans are still dying to see: Black Adam vs. Shazam.

How Is Black Adam Related to Shazam?

Black Adam Was Chosen By The Same Council As Shazam

• Black Adam first appears in 1945's The Marvel Family #1 by Otto Binder, C.C. Beck, and Pete Costanza.

As Black Adam explains, Teth-Adam received his power from the same council of wizards that once included the being who would one day be known as Shazam. While there were some alternations, this plot point in the movie mirrors the character's origins from the source material. In the classic continuity of DC Comics, Teth-Adam was chosen by the wizard Shazam, who chose Billy Batson to be his champion 5,000 years later. The comics initially saw Teth-Adam being corrupted by his power and becoming a supervillain known as Black Adam. Seeing how his former champion misused his abilities to terrorize his country of Kahndaq, the wizard Shazam banished him to a different star (in the classical telling of the story).

In the film, Teth-Adam wasn't Shazam's chosen champion; instead, his son was chosen and later transferred the power to Teth-Adam to protect him. This leaves the young man vulnerable to an assassin's arrow, with the strike killing him in his mortal form. Using the wizards' power for himself, Teth-Adam then avenged his family's death and was imprisoned for 5,000 years. Unlike Billy Batson's Shazam, Black Adam is a lot more brutal and violent, and this isn't just when he's firmly on the wrong side. Even when Black Adam became a sort of antihero and joined the Justice Society of America, he enacted his own vicious concepts of justice.

Shazam's Power Was Drawn From Ancient Gods

• The Billy Batson version of Shazam first appears in 1940's Whiz Comics #2 by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck. At the time, the hero was known as Captain Marvel.

Shazam/Captain Marvel's power came from other mythical heroes, including Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. This isn't the only major difference between Black Adam and Shazam. Unlike Billy, Teth-Adam drew his powers from Egyptian gods, including Shu, Heru, Amon, Zehuti, Aton, and Mehen. His classic origin story sees him as an orphan in Fawcett City who's led to an abandoned train that takes him to the Rock of Eternity. There, he meets the wizard Shazam, who empowers him to become his champion by saying his name.

This was changed somewhat during the comics' New 52 reboot, which heavily altered classic characters for somewhat darker interpretations. There, the wizard chose Billy (this time a troubled foster child) due to the goodness that the bratty boy didn't even see in himself. It was this version of the character (who was renamed merely Shazam in the comics due to copyright issues) that the DCEU Shazam movies were based on, which is why the character on the big screen resembles this more divergent iteration.

Black Adam is the exact opposite of Billy Batson, whose alter ego is referred to as the "Big Red Cheese" due to his overly heroic personality. In fact, he's many times treated in classic comics as being more optimistic than Superman himself. Thus, while they share the same symbol, similar costumes, and even have identical superpowers, Black Adam and Shazam are not the same.

Is a Black Adam/Shazam Crossover Happening in the DCEU?

• During their first fight in The Marvel Family #1, Captain Marvel and his allies defeat Black Adam by tricking him into saying "Shazam!" Now without powers, Black Adam's ancient form withers away into nothing.

Fans have long wondered if the DCEU versions of Black Adam and Shazam will ever come to blows onscreen. Unfortunately, the answer is most definitely no - unless a social media battle off-screen counts. Black Adam actor Dwayne Johnson at one point confirmed that the crossover between his godly antihero and Shazam was "gonna happen," but they had to establish each superhero's origin story properly first. Previously, Johnson revealed that the original script of Black Adam initially "had both [Black Adam and Shazam] establishing their origin stories in one film." The actor had to fight hard for the two characters to "have their own stand-alone films." If anything, Johnson seemed far more interested in pitting Black Adam against Superman, with "Black Adam vs. Shazam" being more of an afterthought.

Since the release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, a Shazam and Black Adam battle in the DC Extended Universe was cemented as an impossibility. The movie was a financial failure, much like Black Adam was a few months beforehand. Johnson reportedly fought to eliminate the connection between Shazam and Black Adam by shutting down a post-credits scene in Black Adam that showed the film's Justice Society attempting to recruit Billy Batson/Shazam. Thus, Shazam! Fury of the Gods made no reference or connection to Black Adam, with the events of that movie not so much as hinted at. There was a post-credits scene teasing Shazam joining the Justice Society (who had fought Black Adam in his own movie), but this was about the closest thing to a connection.

The most damning end to the possibility of a DC Extended Black Adam and Shazam fight was the announcement of the DC Universe reboot from James Gunn. Gunn is now the creative lead of DC Studios, and he plans to reboot DC's movie universe entirely with the 2025 movie Superman: Legacy, which just recently dropped the tagline to be known simply as Superman. It would appear that none of the DCEU continuity is being retained, with everything starting fresh from the new Superman movie and the animated series Creature Commandos. This means that only a sliver of actors will be reprising their roles from the previous franchise. Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam is not returning, nor is Zachary Levi's Billy Batson/Shazam. However, this doesn't mean Black Adam will never fight the World's Mightiest Mortal on the big screen.

Will Black Adam Ever Face Shazam On-Screen?

• Black Adam infamously teased that its titular antihero and Henry Cavill's Superman would face off in a future film. Only weeks later, it was announced that this would not be the case and that Cavill would officially be recast.

In the comics, Shazam and Black Adam have crossed paths many times. In Geoff Johns's New 52 Shazam book, Black Adam went toe-to-toe with the Shazam Family, challenging them over their shared power source. Billy was still a child learning about his superpowers, leaving Black Adam as a far more experienced combatant. Sadly, this battle of wills and skills was never adapted into the DC Extended Universe, which ended with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Strangely enough, the events of the Black Adam and Shazam! movies were both glossed over in other DCEU movies, so it's no surprise that they were similarly irrelevant to each other.

So far, it seems that James Gunn's DC Universe will make good on the promise of delivering more classical versions of the heroes and villains. This directly contrasts the fairly contentious DCEU, which was notably darker for characters such as Superman. With how much Superman is already looking to pull that off, it's likely that the eventual DCU reboot of the Shazam/Captain Marvel character will do the same. Thus, he'll likely be closer to the version envisioned in the Golden Age of Comics or the incarnation crafted by writer/artist Jerry Ordway in the 1990s's The Power of Shazam! comic book series.

That would make sense given that one of Gunn's supposed favorite villains is Lady Blaze, the wizard Shazam's demonic daughter who had a prominent role in Ordway's series. The initial Power of Shazam comic book also featured a grandiose battle between Captain Marvel and Black Adam in Fawcett City. Adapting this will finally give moviegoers the Shazam vs. Black Adam fight that was seemingly being set up in 2022. Unfortunately, given that the new DCU doesn't begin until 2025, there's no telling when Black Adam and Shazam will finally share the big screen with each other in a major blockbuster movie. Still, if the franchise proves as popular as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is no limit to the number of stories and characters that James Gunn could introduce in future projects.