WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Justice League #58 by Andy Lanning, Ron Marz, Howard Porter, Andworld Design, Marco Santucci, Arif Prianto, and Troy Peteri, on sale now.
"Endless Winter" has revealed the first Justice League who battled with the Frost King, consisting of Queen Hippolyta, the Viking Prince, Black Adam, and Swamp Thing. The brutality of the war has been swift, with Swamp Thing sacrificing himself in hopes of stopping the frigid villain.
Nothing is going according to plan, which leaves Adam to improvise in Justice League #58. As the story rolls on, it becomes pretty obvious the mystical powerhouse is still DC's most sinister tyrant thanks to a nasty trap he lays.
In the 10th century, the heroic squad's trying to stop the Frost King in Greenland, with Adam coming to the refugee camp with an air of arrogance to him. Hippolyta's told he took the king's family -- his wife and two children -- and placed them in the villain's path, as maybe they could reconnect him with his humanity and get him to flip the switch off from freezing the planet.
Adam's chided, however, because if the Frost King's more monster than man, he could kill his family in a blind rage. Also, there are other creatures and wild beasts out there, not to mention the sub-zero temperatures could bring grave harm to the family. Hippolyta and the Viking Prince head out to rescue them, but they soon find that the man, Edwald, is emerging again when his family pleads with him to come home. But just as he's seemingly broken from the trance, Adam slams into Edwald like a literal bolt of lightning, bringing the angry Frost King back.
He didn't care for the family, he just wanted Edwald to let his guard down so he'd have an opening to attack. It's really sadistic to use them in this way, but it's the same kind of tactics and military strategy he's used in several realities, whether it's the main DCU in fights like "World War III" or Doomsday Clock, or the "Injustice" universe.
Honestly, though, it's vintage Adam being a tyrant, manipulating people, especially innocents, as if they were pawns on a chessboard. His teammates are left shocked by his treacherous nature just when it seemed like they made progress and could truly work together as a unit. Instead, Adam's ruthless, selfish, and only interested in the art of deception and misdirection to fell his enemy.
Sadly, this would lead to the ground collapsing and Edwald's family getting lost in the ice, so just as Hippolyta warned, Adam's rash actions would end up having deadly consequences. The Frost King hasn't forgotten all of this that transpired and now modern Earth is being made to pay for Adam's sins and stupidity.