Black Adam
Preliminary Notes
Black Adam / Teth-Adam is a DC character. Needless to say, he has a ton of history surrounding the character. For Detective Comics, we’ll be using the New Earth Universe as the primary source for feats. This is because Teth’s abilities is far more fleshed out there, he boasts more impressive feats, and it’s still within Post-Crisis territory.
Post-Crisis Run includes New Earth & New 52 (1986 - 2011)
Prime-Earth is the current adaptation / universe within DC. Black Adam makes an appearance and Shazam!’s movie counterpart is by and large based on Prime-Earth, so I’ll be using the story from this era. Black Adam’s movie is likely going to be a combination of his backstory here and some New-Earth runs anyhow. Just an educated guess.
Prime Earth Run includes Earth-0 and Post-Flashpoint (2011 onwards)
Feats will be labeled as NE for New-Earth or PE for Prime-Earth. New 52 falls under the former. Anything after Flashpoint is the latter. I will not be citing irrelevant feats for redundancy sake.
Issues / Comics comes from the ol’ reliable https://readcomiconline.li
Animated appearances are treated as tertiary canon and will be last in priority for information.
Name: Teth-Adam
Gender: Male
Age: at least 3,200
Height: 6’0” (183 cm)
Weight: 198 lbs (90 kg)
Protector of Kahndaq
Cannot make up his mind if he’s a villain or not
Husband of Isis; Brother of Osiris
Background
(as told in Prime-Earth)
Teth-Adam was originally a slave in Kahndaq. Between the vicious regime underneath Ibac and his barbaric army, Teth did not have much of a family left. This is except for his nephew, Aman. Near death, Teth was rescued by his nephew and they fled. However, they ended up stumbling upon the Rock of Eternity. There, they would meet the Council of Wizards. The leader of this Council found Aman to be pure and thus granted him the magical powers of Shazam and Aman would share this power with his uncle. Together, they sought to free the nation of Kahndaq. Uncle and nephew had two different ideas on how to do this. Aman wanted to end the bloodshed peacefully, while Teth-Adam was more than willing to kill all who opposed them. Teth-Adam did not agree with Aman’s method and killed him to take possession of the rest of the Wizard’s power.
The legendary Black Adam defeated the Seven Deadly Sins and Ibac, ending the dictatorship in Khandaq. For eons, Black Adam combated the threats to the nation. Eventually, wanting to free the entire world and end the Wizard’s (Mamagram’s) sole reign on magic across the multiverse, he revolted against them. He killed most of the Council of Wizards before being sealed himself by its leader.
Time-skip to the modern age, Black Adam would be freed by a scientist named Doctor Sivana. Sivana would show him how much the world has progressed (and digressed in his eyes), sparking Black Adam’s newfound motivation to free everyone from tyrannical rule. He would go after the current champion of Shazam, a boy named Billy Batson. After a quarrel with him and Billy’s family, Teth-Adam was finally killed, faded into dust.
...until Kahndaqi rebels under their new oppressive government got a hold of Adam’s ashes. They would revive him by imbuing him with the Egyptian Gods, allowing him to once more call forth the powers of Shazam… but Egyptian. Black Adam came back to life, freed Kahndaq again, and installed himself as the nation’s new protector.
With Kahndaq as a sovereign nation, Black Adam sees his country as the purest nation. He gives asylum to those who need it and vanquishes those who threaten it. He offered metahumans a place to live, worked with villains, and even teamed up with the Justice League on more than a few occasions. While his actions are extreme, he is Kahndaq’s trusted champion against the rest of the world.
Arsenal & Equipment
Yellow Lantern Ring
The Yellow Lantern Ring was given to Earth’s Heroes and Villains during the Sinestro run of comics. After culling the Anti-Emotion cult, most were confiscated. However, Sinestro allowed Black Adam to keep his Yellow Lantern Ring. It’s never brought up again, but it’s fine to mention. While the Yellow Lantern Ring, fueled by fear, boasts many abilities, Black Adam has only shown two of its uses.
Energy Construct Creation - Creating an apparition of energy to aid him.
Energy Projection
Force Fields - An energy barrier meant to repel most conventional forms of attack.
Powers & Abilities
SHAZAM
Greek Gods (previously)
Wisdom of Solomon - Black Adam had instant access to a vast level of scholarly knowledge. His intellect and wisdom are heightened to superhuman levels. Most notably, he has a council of advice that can tell him the best actions to take.
Strength of Hercules - Standard super-strength beyond the norm.
Stamina of Atlas - Can survive without food, sleep, water, or air. Cannot tire.
Power of Zeus - Grants Black Adam his magical powers. This includes accelerated healing, electrokinesis, resistance to magic, and the ability to transmute people into stone.
Courage of Achilles - Indomitable willpower and immortality.
Speed of Mercury - Flight and super-speed.
Egyptian Gods (currently)
Stamina of Shu - From the God of Stamina. Black Adam doesn’t experience muscle fatigue, allowing him to fight as long as he wants to. He doesn’t need food or water to survive as he’s a being of magic.
Speed of Horus - From the Egyptian God of the Sky. He gains super speed, flight, and enhanced reflexes.
Strength of Amun - From the King of the Egyptian Gods, Amun. This is super-strength.
Wisdom of Zehuti - From the Egyptian God of Learning, Adam’s senses such as hearing are bolstered far above the norm.
Power of Aten - From the light of Aten, from Sun God Ra, Black Adam was granted electrokinesis. He’s able to channel lightning and shoot blasts of magic electro-blasts (see Living Lightning).
Courage of Mehen - From Egyptian God Mehen, Black Adam possesses supreme willpower. Because of this, he can overpower certain forms of telepathy. His living lightning allows him to heal quickly. He does not age while in his Black Adam state.
Living Lightning
The Living Lightning (LL) is what fuels Black Adam’s abilities. By calling forth “Shazam”, Teth-Adam transforms into this guardian alterego. LL is magic in nature but it’s still electricity. It can be used to jumpstart machinery, power up the Flash, and even revive hearts. The LL can be used up close or at a distance with energy blasts, and it’s at its most powerful when it’s called down like a bolt of lightning. Should Teth-Adam feel the need to, he can also pass down the LL to others to essentially share the power. This does weaken himself and grants another person the powers of Shazam. Due to its magical nature, the LL is far stronger than any individual bolt of lightning and can bring down DC’s best heroes. It can, however, be taken away by killing the user in close proximity when the word is called. “Shazam!” is also a verbal command and should the user be rendered mute, they cannot transform.
Feats
Strength & Attack Potency
Destroyed a force-field built to withstand an extinction-level asteroid. [NE]
Tore off Hawkman’s wing. [NE]
Fought some of the Frost King’s Avatars. [PE]
Stomped the Doom Patrol, Marvel Family, and the Great Ten in China. [NE]
Overpowered the entire JSA… twice. [NE]
Black Adam’s Living Lightning revitalizes the Flash’s speed. [PE]
Overcame Martian Manhunter’s body control and defeats him. [NE]
Ripped off Amazo’s head. [NE]
Killed the Council of Wizards. Endangered Mamagran, one of the Quintessentials. [PE]
Overpowered Death, who was empowered with millions of souls. [NE]
Speed & Reactions
Flew from the moon to Earth in minutes. [NE]
Speed of Horus could keep up briefly with Jay Gerrick, the Flash. [NE]
Navigated his astral self from Darklands back to his body on Earthlands. [PE]
Blitzed Power-Girl. [NE]
Kept up with JL members whose name is not Barry Allen or Wally West. [1 2 3 4]
Could keep pace with the Sinestro corps even without a Yellow Lantern Ring. [PE]
Durability & Stamina
Got jumped by the JSA multiple times.
Tanked a strike from an Nth Metal mace that absorbed the Living Lightning. [PE]
Did the same thing, but this time with Green Lantern amping the mace. [NE]
No sold the Marvel Family’s attacks. [NE & PE]
Skill & Intelligence
Freed and became the protector of Kahndaq numerous times.
Known world-wide as a sovereign state. Teamed up with the JSA, USA, and at one point China, in order to keep Kahndaq out of national affairs. [yes]
Fended off the Seven Deadly Sins of Man. [NE & PE]
Fended off King Shazam (Billy Batson under the control of The One Who Laughs) [PE]
Killed two million citizens of Bialya in a matter of hours in a fit of rage. [NE]
Aligned himself with the Justice Society of America, the Society of Supervillains, the Injustice Society, the Injustice League, and the normal Justice League. [yes]
Snuck into UN-occupied Kahndaq, gathered his dead wife’s remains from around the world, braved nature, a yeti, and was tracked by the JL itself to revive her. Most of the time, without any powers. [NE]
Wisdom of Zehuti & Wisdom of Solomon gave him a council’s worth of wisdom, knowledge, and experience to draw from.
Scaling
Billy Batson / Shazam / Captain Marvel
Wonder Woman
Lanterns
Other JL Members
Weaknesses
The Living Lighting, despite being magic, is still electrons moving along a path. Its electrical energy has been absorbed and redirected on multiple occasions.
Should Teth-Adam be rendered mute in his human form, he’s screwed.
He may have resistance to telepathy and can overpower it, but he isn’t immune to it.
Despite his wisdom abilities, Black Adam is very headstrong and often opts for the most straightforward way to victory. This leads him into more trouble than out of it.
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