Black Adam, nemesis of Captain Marvel, is back to his wicked ways in this six issue limited series, after a brief spell as an anti-hero in DC's epic 52.Ancient Egyptian reject from the wizard Shazam's Marvel Family project, Teth-Adam, became leader of one of DC's wonderful 'made-up' countries, the troubled Middle Eastern land of Kahndaq, using particularly violent methods to drive any supervillains from its borders.
Unfortunately during one of these conflicts his beloved Isis was slain and Adam went a bit mental, seemingly slaughtering everyone in the city sheltering her killer before going on a rampage that was ultimately stopped by the forces of good magically stripping him of his powers.
Black Adam #1, finely illustrated by Doug Mahnke and dramtically scripted by Peter J Tomasi, sees the powerless, renegade, former world-leader, sporting a new look that puts him firmly in The 4400's Jordan Collier/wannabe messiah bracket, leading his fanatical followers on a bloody path to retrieve the bones of his former love, Isis, then carry them up into the Himalayas for reasons unknown...
Black Adam is not a sympathetic character, or even particularly likable, but the combination of Tomasi's prose and Mahnke's pencils still allows us to invest an interest in the character and take a morbid fascination in his desperate and ghoulish quest (at one point, he is even driven to cannibalism... at the expense of one of his most loyal followers).
As I gradually shed my own fanatical allegiance to Marvel Comics and switch the bulk of my monthly titles to the DC Universe, even though its current obsession with Universe-changing, weekly epic tales makes it difficult for us newbies to jump onboard once that train has started moving, darker characters like this make the transition easier. Black Adam has the brutality of the grittier Marvel Universe, but clearly lives in DC's larger than life, more fantastical continuity.
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