Warning: SPOILERS for Black Adam follow…
Did the hierarchy of power truly change in the DCEU with the release of Black Adam? The jury’s still out on that one but the new movie, which released October 21, sure gave the DC Extended Universe Wiki a notable bump.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson spent about sixteen years trying to get Black Adam to the screen, in some form. First he was attached to a Shazam! movie, where he’d play the title character, then that shifted to him possibly instead portraying the villain, Black Adam, in said Shazam! movie, before the decision was made to split them into two different films. Now, over a decade later, there’s an entire DCEU to contend with and Johnson’s Black Adam has arrived on the scene as an vengeful anti-hero, ready to brutally take lives in the name of those he chooses to protect.
With Black Adam’s premiere also came the introduction of an entire new supergroup, the Justice Society of America. In fact, the film presented us with what we learn is itself a brand new lineup for the JSA, insinuating that this crew had been around for a long while, with different rosters embarking on various crusades and adventures (Henry Winkler even cameos as a now-retired JSA hero). It was now up to Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone to go toe-to-toe with the God-like Black Adam in an attempt to halt his destructive behavior.
Out-Shazaming Shazam
Black Adam and Shazam have a specific origin in common (the reason Adam was originally a Shazam/Captain Marvel villain in the comics), both acquiring their powers from the all-knowing Council of Wizards. But the combination of Johnson and DC proved to be a winning team as Black Adam’s release helped the DCEU Wiki grow 85% over the weekend.
That’s nearly four times the performance of Shazam’s opening weekend back in 2019. On top of this, the top performing page from the Wiki was the profile for Black Adam himself, as fans wanted to know all about this lesser-known DC character whom Johnson had been laser-focused on playing for so long.
Below are the Top 10 page results that came from Black Adam hitting theaters:
- Black Adam
- Doctor Fate
- Black Adam (Film)
- Sabbac
- Hawkman
- Cyclone
- Atom-Smasher
- DCEU
- Superman
- Justice Society
MAN OF STEEL v SON OF ADAM
Black Adam’s mid-credits scene brought back Henry Cavill as Superman, the first time the actor’s played the role since 2017’s Justice League (he didn’t participate in any of the reshoots for Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021). It would seem, based on the face-to-face with Black Adam, that the DCEU is already angling these two to fight in a big “VS” situation.
Despite Supes’ big cameo though, Superman was lower down on the most-searched pages, coming in at number nine. The film just had too many new characters people wanted to know more about, including all of the Justice Society, and Superman wasn’t one of the shiny new toys. It would be cool to know why Superman seemingly owed Amanda Waller a favor though, right?
Interestingly enough, however, coming in at number eleven, was Harut, Black Adam’s son. Harut may have not quite cracked the Top 10, but the film’s late-game twist made it so he had the fastest-growing top page over the weekend. As we discovered, Johnson’s Black Adam wasn’t the true champion of Kahndaq. He was the father of the champion and, at death’s door, was given his son’s powers right before his boy was killed in front of him. The calamity Kahndaq experienced was brought about by Black Adam’s rage and his tomb was actually a prison constructed by the Wizards themselves.
As an extra Easter egg, fans can see now that the champion version of Harut was played by Uli Latukefu, who plays a younger version of Johnson on NBC’s Young Rock. So it would appear Latukefu, unlike many of The Rock’s WWE contemporaries, does know his role (it’s Dwayne Johnson. His role is Dwayne Johnson or someone directly connected to him).
