Black Adam #1-6
Originally released in 2007
Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Doug Mahnke
During the event "52", Black Adam found love and came to rule the country of Kahndaq, but it wasn't to last. He was betrayed, and his love, Isis, was killed along with her brother Osiris. In retaliation for a neighbouring country sheltering those responsible, he started World War III. (Which consisted of Black Adam vs. the rest of the world)
Now, trapped in his mortal form (Billy Batson has taken the place of the wizard Shazam and changed Black Adam's magic word to something that Adam doesn't know) and with his face beaten to a pulp so he's no longer recognizable, Adam seeks to revive his wife no matter the cost.
When a Lazarus Pit doesn't work, Adam tries to turn to Doctor Fate for help, only to find Felix Faust trapped in Fate's tower. For whatever reason (either because he's never heard of Faust before or because he's just that desperate), Adam trusts Faust to revive Isis in exchange for freeing Faust from the tower. Given that Faust is named after someone who made a really bad deal, no points for guessing that this won't end well.
Faust gives Adam the power to return to his superpowered form, but at a cost - until he learns the word that Billy chose, he has to say his wife's name, and doing so drains the magic from her bones, making it less and less likely that she can be fully revived. In addition, Adam needs to find an amulet that's been split into three pieces and scattered across the world, which isn't easy when he's an internationally-wanted fugitive who's responsible for starting a global war.
The Justice League and Justice Society are trying to track Adam, and so are a shadowy international cabal who want to kill Adam. (partially to make him pay for his crimes, partially so they can study his corpse) Black Adam used to be a member of the Justice Society, which complicates things; despite how his time with the team ended, at least one member (Atom Smasher) still thinks of Black Adam as a friend, or at least someone who can be reasoned with.
One of my biggest issues with the Black Adam movie was that, despite the character constantly insisting "I'm not a hero," he acted pretty heroic with the exception of killing people, which the heroes of that DC movie universe (aside from younger ones like Shazam or Blue Beetle) did on a regular basis anyway. This comic does a better job at highlighting his crueler side while still keeping him sympathetic - at the end of the day, he wants his wife back, and beyond that, he wants to be left alone.
The art seemed kind of stiff at times, for the lack of a better word - I realize that these are still images to begin with, but some of the facial expressions seemed flat and emotionless at times. The action is drawn well, demonstrating Adam's speed and power once he's transformed while showing how terrifying he'd be to ordinary people.
I like how the creative team included a plot device to make it so Adam is forced to stay untransformed for as long as possible. It does a good job with creating tension - he tends to be in his borderline-invincible superpowered state all the time, so not only is he in a form that he's likely not used to, but he's much more fragile, and staying transformed makes it less likely that he'll reunite with his wife. As a result, he has to be careful about when he changes and how long he changes for.
The book has some of that early 2000s edge to it (characters get dismembered or otherwise violently killed on a regular basis; Adam's first attempt at reviving Isis has her being reborn in the nude), but it was an interesting look at love and loss, along with how far you would go to have one more day with someone that you love. That question is raised to Hawkman in one of the earlier issues, though he doesn't answer it, which is a shame; I liked the idea of Adam trying to rationalize with the heroes and get them to understand his point of view, but his actions at the end of 52 made them less likely to hear him out.
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