History Characters / ShazamBlackMarvelFamily

* StockShonenRival: He's evolved into this type of character for heroes like Shazam, Superman, and Hawkman over the years, being a ruthless villain who eventually transformed into an equally ruthless AntiHero who wears thematically darker colors to his more heroic counterparts and acts in a much more brutal fashion than the heroes, particularly when he's [[KickTheSonOfABitch fighting other villains]]. And whenever he encounters any one of his more heroic rivals, Black Adam's philosophical differences and tensions with the heroes will always be at the forefront.

Black Adam's backstory is relatively simple: Born millennia ago, he was given immense magical power by the wizard Shazam, becoming the original Earth's Mightiest Mortal in ancient Kahndaq (a {{fictional|country}} AncientEgypt-like country). Unfortunately, he became drunk with his own power after the death of his family, and Mighty Adam (as he's called) rebelled. Shazam had him banished to another dimension. In the 20th century, Captain Marvel was appointed the new champion of Shazam to battle Adam. Bonding with Theo Adam, a modern archaeologist's aide, Black Adam comes back as a ruthless animal who killed Captain Marvel's parents years ago when he first returned.

[[folder:As Whole]]

* BadassFamily / BadassCrew

* LightningCanDoAnything

* AntiVillain: modern portrayals make this way as a villain

* ArchEnemy: To Billy Batson

* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: While he's typically presented as being on Captain Marvel's level, during the ''WorldWarIII'' storyline he was able to fight against him, Superman, and a number of other heroes from the Justice League and Justice Society AT THE SAME TIME!

In the ''Comicbook/DCInfiniteFrontier'' era he actually joined the Justice League, and also got another miniseries, written by Creator/ChristopherPriest. In keeping with the "all past continuity is true simultaneously" ethos, this returns to the "banished to the furthest star" backstory, revealing that ''something'' came back with him.

* DarkChick: Of the Four Horsemen. He's the least powerful and most erratic.

* PhraseCatcher: "Oh, Sobek!"

* FriendToAllChildren / FriendToAllLivingThings
* FertileFeet

* SpoiledBrat: He was once succinctly summed up as a spoiled child with delusions of grandeur and his actions with his abilities tend to corroborate that notion

(There are two retcons here that are worth pointing out; in the original Fawcett Comics/Earth-S continuity, Shazam banished him to "the furthest star in the universe" rather than another dimension, and Billy had been Captain Marvel for a long time before Adam made his way back to Earth, rather than being a response to the villain's return. And both the Earth-S and ''Comicbook/PowerOfShazam'' origins just had him as being from Egypt, with Khandaq being a later addition by Creator/GeoffJohns.)

The ComicBook/New52 saw Black Adam get a reboot along with the rest of the DCU, though in his case this amounted to a few tweaks here and there - notably, he's not bonded to Theo Adam. In the new timeline, Black Adam was imprisoned on Earth until he was freed by Sivana, serving as the villain of the Shazam back-up story in ''Franchise/{{Justice League| of America}}''. He died at the end, but was resurrected by a resistance movement in modern Kahndaq to destroy its current dictator, which he did, declaring himself the country's protector... just as [[ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013 the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 took over the world]]. Much offended by the Syndicate's claim the world was theirs - believing instead it belonged to no-one - he joined ComicBook/LexLuthor's Injustice League to help defeat them, eventually developing a [[CommonalityConnection friendship]] with ComicBook/{{Sinestro}} over their statuses as harsh rulers. It was also revealed in ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueEndlessWinter'' that he was briefly released in the 10th century as part of the group later nicknamed "Justice Leage Viking".

In the ''Comicbook/DCInfiniteFrontier'' era he got another miniseries, written by Creator/ChristopherPriest. In keeping with the "all past continuity is true simultaneously" ethos, this returns to the "banished to the furthest star" backstory, revealing that ''something'' came back with him.

The ComicBook/New52 saw Black Adam get a reboot along with the rest of the DCU, though in his case this amounted to a few tweaks here and there - notably, he's not bonded to Theo Adam. In the new timeline, Black Adam was imprisoned on Earth until he was freed by Sivana, serving as the villain of the Shazam back-up story in ''Franchise/{{Justice League| of America}}''. He died at the end, but was resurrected by a resistance movement in modern Kahndaq to destroy its current dictator, which he did, declaring himself the country's protector... just as [[ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013 the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 took over the world]]. Much offended by the Syndicate's claim the world was theirs - believing instead it belonged to no-one - he joined ComicBook/LexLuthor's Injustice League to help defeat them, eventually developing a [[CommonalityConnection friendship]] with ComicBook/{{Sinestro}} over their statuses as harsh rulers. It was also revealed in ''Comicbook/ForeverWinter'' that he was briefly released in the 10th century as part of the group later nicknamed "Justice Leage Viking".

The ComicBook/New52 saw Black Adam get a reboot along with the rest of the DCU, though in his case this amounted to a few tweaks here and there - notably, he's not bonded to Theo Adam. In the new timeline, Black Adam was imprisoned on Earth until he was freed by Sivana, serving as the villain of the Shazam back-up story in ''Franchise/{{Justice League| of America}}''. He died at the end, but was resurrected by a resistance movement in modern Kahndaq to destroy its current dictator, which he did, declaring himself the country's protector... just as [[ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013 the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 took over the world]]. Much offended by the Syndicate's claim the world was theirs - believing instead it belonged to no-one - he joined ComicBook/LexLuthor's Injustice League to help defeat them, eventually developing a [[CommonalityConnection friendship]] with ComicBook/{{Sinestro}} over their statuses as harsh rulers.

The character is set to appear in [[Film/BlackAdam2022 his own movie]] in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse, portrayed by [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]] (who's been set to play him for a [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell very long time]]), guest-starring the JSA. ''[[Film/Shazam2019 SHAZAM!]]'' most likely alludes to him when the wizard talks about the ancient champion who became drunk on his powers and turned evil.

A descendant of Black Adam who is given his power.

* RoguesGalleryTransplant: He's part of Billy Batson's RoguesGallery but does battle other heroes like Superman, Hawkman, the JSA, and the Teen Titans.