How Old Is Black Adam? (Movie & Comics)

Black Adam is probably the most-known comic book character related to the superhero Shazam, formerly known as DC’s Captain Marvel. The character was introduced by Fawcett Comics in 1945, and DC acquired rights for all the Shazam-related characters in the 1970s. Since then, Black Adam has gained popularity as an anti-hero and archnemesis of Shazam. The homonymous movie starring Dwayne Johnson introduced the character to the big screen in 2022. While it doesn’t seem that we will ever see Johnson as Black Adam again, there’s a lot to talk about the character. So, let’s see how old Black Adam is in the movie and comics.

Teth-Adam was born in the 26th century before the common era in both movies and comics. But we need to keep in mind that we’re talking about the current Prime Earth comic book incarnation, which was first introduced in 2012. The Black Adam that existed on New Earth, DC’s former mainstream reality, which existed from 1986 to 2011, was born around 1200 years before the common era. So, now in 2023, Dwayne Johnson’s live-action Black Adam and Prime Earth’s Black Adam would be at least 4500 years old.

The origin story of Black Adam goes all the way back to the time of the Pharaohs and the time we read about in the encyclopedias about Ancient Egypt. Places and times with such a rich history have always been fertile ground for interesting fictional characters. Just think of Marvel’s Moon Knight, which also used the history and mythology of ancient Egypt to create an interesting superhero story.

The History of Black Adam’s Character

The character of Teth-Adam, aka Black Adam, was first created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck. The character first appeared in the first issue of The Marvel Family, published by Fawcett Comics, in December 1945. The character was introduced as a supervillain and one of the biggest archnemesis of Shazam, then known as Captain Marvel, alongside Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind. DC Comics acquired the rights for the Shazam-related properties in the 1970s. DC Comics officially marks Fawcett Comics’ Black Adam, a character that existed on the so-called Earth-S.

Under DC Comics, Black Adam debuted in mainstream reality in 1994, although the character appeared in 1986’s Shazam!: The New Beginning, which was set in an alternate universe known as Earth-85, but that appearance isn’t officially considered canonical.

New Earth served as DC’s mainstream reality that started with the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986 and ended with Flashpoint in 2011. New Earth’s Black Adam debuted in The Power of Shazam! in March 1994. This character incarnation was born circa 1200 BCE and was the son of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II.

When Prime Earth replaced New Earth as DC Comics’ mainstream reality in Flashpoint, Volume 2, in 2011, the DC’s entire line of comic books was relaunched. Prime Earth’s incarnation of Black Adam was introduced in August 2012 in the tenth issue of Justice League Volume 2. The origin story of Prime Earth’s Black Adam differs from the origin story of New Earth’s Black Adam in many aspects. The first difference is that Prime Earth’s Black Adam is way older; he was born in the 26th century BCE, which makes him 1400 years older than New Earth’s Black Adam.

Unlike New Earth’s Teth-Adam, who was depicted as the son of the Pharaoh, Prime Earth’s Teth-Adam was an enslaved person who met the Wizard Shazam at the Rock of Eternity while he was escaping the underground prisons with his nephew Aman. The Wizard named Aman the champion and gave him the powers of Shazam. While Aman wanted to save the enslaved people and bring peace, Adam was only thirsty for revenge, so he killed Aman and took the powers for himself.

Then he was known by the name The Mighty Adam, who freed his tribe by defeating the dictators and the Seven Sins, but he also turned against the Council of Wizards, and the Wizard Shazam cast him out beyond the universe’s farthest star, renaming him Black Adam, in the 24th century BCE.

While there are some differences between the source material and the movie, the Black Adam movie starring Dwayne Johnson is much more based on Prime Earth’s Black Adam. It’s interesting how Johnson was attached to play the role since 2007, five years before the Prime Earth Black Adam first appeared.

The movie’s incarnation was also born in the 26th century BCE, and the movie tells a story about Teth-Adam, who was given the powers of Shazam after his son, Hurut, the champion of Kahndaq, gave powers to his father before the assassins of Ahk-Ton killed him.

Enraged, Adam massacred the assassins and destroyed Ahk-Ton’s palace, after which he killed the Council of Wizards that deemed him unworthy of Shazam’s powers. After that, the Wizard Shazam imprisoned him in a tomb where he remained until the present day, where the majority of the movie takes place.

The story of Black Adam was referred to in the original Shazam movie in 2019, back when it was believed that Shazam and Black Adam would eventually meet each other in a crossover movie after their introduction on the big screen. However, after Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods suffered major disappointments at the box office; it does not seem likely that we’re ever going to see Johnson playing Black Adam again, let alone his fight against Zachary Levi’s Shazam, whose future in live-action is also very uncertain.

The Black Adam movie is now streaming on HBOMax, which MAX will officially replace on May 23, when Shazam! Fury of the Gods will also arrive on the platform.