Headscratchers / Black Adam (2022)

Amanda Waller is free?

• How is Waller not only a free woman, but also still running ARGUS? You'd think she'd be on death row for various war crimes and human rights violations after she was exposed.
  • Simplest explanation; she's dug up dirt on the right kinds of people.
  • It would probably tie in with that polar, submarine Task Force X black site. The US government would be happy for it to function, detaining dangerous metahumans like Guantamano Bay was known for with real life detainees, but it can't be done on US soil due to political pressure (maybe Belle Reve has been shut down for the same reason). Likewise, they are fine with continuing her work, but whatever front job(s) she had before she was sure to be fired from, and she's probably been Reassigned to Antarctica to display a "severe" slap on the wrist as a show of optics for the public and the opposition party (but again, secretly allowed to continue as the ARGUS director).
  • Sweet summer child, the American Service-Members' Protection Act empowers the POTUS to invade the Hague if anybody tries to call up an American on something as pedestrian as "war crimes." If the U.S. government has a problem with Waller, they only dislike that her actions became public.

The Champion sharing too much power?

• Why would Hurut give all his power to Teth-Adam, thus leaving him vulnerable to being killed? We know from Billy that a Champion can give others their power without depriving themselves of it. And even though Solomon wasn't part of the acronym at that time (since he wasn't born yet), Thoth (under his alternate name Zehuti) was supplying the wisdom of the Champion's power.
  • Hurut didn't give Adam all of his powers. He just spread them to him, but when he told Adam to say "Shazam" it made him revert back to normal. He could have changed back if he wanted to. Billy was able to avoid this issue because not only did he have the Wizard's staff, but Freddy and the others already knew his magic word.
    • Yes that was my impression as well - Harut didn't GIVE his powers to Teth-Adam, but in telling Teth-Adam how to activate his shared powers, Hurut was changed back to his human form, and then he was instantly killed by an arrow before he could change himself back again.

The Wizards chose poorly

• Considering The Reveal that the champion was Hurut and not Teth-Adam, why do the wizards think that they made a poor choice of champion? What was so flawed about Hurut that made them see their choice as "careless"?
  • Could be that they held Hurut giving his father power that he then proceeded to abuse against him. Unreasonable, yes, but remember, the last Wizard in SHAZAM! was obsessed with finding a Champion who was pure of heart without understanding Humans Are Flawed and only gave Billy the power out of desperation.
    • Not necessarily unreasonable. They gave him unfathomable power, and because of his emotional attachment he gave that same power to somebody completely unworthy and promptly got himself killed, leading to the unworthy recipient of those powers to kill a huge amount of people in an explosion of rage. Hurut's choice directly led to the deaths of a HUGE amount of people, that's why they chose poorly.
  • They might not be constantly watching and thought that Teth-Adam was his son, with them unaware that he passed his powers on.
  • Depends on if they knew the Champion's identity. But it was a bad choice to pick an angry father and a too-good son.

Justice League merchandise in Kahndaq

• I know the Justice League merchandise throughout the movie is Rule of Cool, but shouldn't their version of DC Comics worry about being sued by "real life" heroes and villains? I can buy Flash, Superman, and Wonder Woman giving them permission to make toys of them, but what about Batman, Cyborg, and Aquaman?!
  • Cyborg could have and Aquaman seems like a dude cool enough to do that and as for Batman? No public identity and a vigilante who can’t go to the courts.
  • Wrestlers, folk legends, real life heroes, historical figures, politicians, and celebrities have merchandise and figurines all the time. It's not really that different. All they'd need is some kind of licensing agreement with a publisher, and as for Batman, he'd basically be public domain for anyone to pick up due to his vigilante and outlaw status without a known identity. Not to mention they could just choose not to sue, the only one I could see doing that is maybe Cyborg, the rest of them aren't really petty, would be eager, or just wouldn't care if someone did that.
  • Aquaman has to split his time between being the newly-crowned King of Atlantis, and joining the rest of the Justice League in stopping world-ending threats. Merchandise, licensed or not, means nothing to him next to these responsibilities. Same with the rest of them and their own commitments. Also, for those of them with secret identities (that's basically all of them, then) then they are not going to risk those by engaging in legal action. It's just totally beneath their notice.
  • Hell, Superman and Wonder Woman would likely love a licensing agreement. . . if most of the profits go to assorted charities. Aquaman might be on board for a similar arrangement regarding ocean conservation and cleanup organizations. Cyborg was going to be a pro football player, which would have involved similar agreements, so he's probably totally cool with it. Flash might enjoy getting a little extra money.

Where were the JSA at the start of the DCEU?

• What the heck were the Justice Society doing during Man of Steel? Wouldn't they know about Zod's broadcast and the attack in Metropolis?
  • They were disbanded at that time.
  • Honest answer is they were not written in around Man of Steel. The plot and the DCEU crippled them.
  • That's a rather negative response. Lots of superhero media (and film/media universes in general) have to live with the fact that other superheroes, and/or sometimes supervillains, can't intervene in their solo movie so as to give limelight to the central protagonists and antagonists (and more generally in a non-superhero shared universe, we shouldn't expect other characters to come into the work kinda willy-nilly if it doesn't require their presence). Yes, in part due to the reality that originally it was Superman's movie envisioned first of all, but to say this is is an act of "plot and universe building crippling them" isn't really fair. Fans rationalise the trope with justifications, so here's one. If the first answer isn't enough, and not sure why it wouldn't be. Well, the disbanded members probably did observe the broadcast and the attack. But they stayed out of it. They watched it go down, probably prepared to intervene if the conflict started wiping out thousands of people and spilled out from Smallville, Metropolis and its antipode in the Indian Ocean. But they saw that Superman and his allies were capable of containing and ending the battle. Much like other heroes established as existing prior to the rise of Superman (e.g. Wonder Woman), they didn't need to intervene because he fixed the problem himself. Also, they may have been on their own important missions at the time, which took up their attention.

If Black Adam hated his powers and saw them as a curse, why didn't he just get rid of them?

• Near the end of the movie, we learn that the current Black Adam is actually the father of the son, Hurut who we see at the beginning, who received his powers after he was mortally wounded and Hurut shared them with him, and promptly got assassinated by the king's archers, and the statue in Kahndaq is dedicated to Hurut, not the current Black Adam. Then we see the father go on a homicidal, revenged filled rampage until he storms the castle and some time after that he gets sealed away. When relaying this, he refers to his powers as a curse because he feels he wasn't as worthy as his son and isn't a hero. Then he willingly surrenders to be sealed into stasis. The problem is, if he truly hates his powers and wants to live and die as a mortal man, why doesn't he just give them away like his son did, either before he was sealed or to someone in the present day? Then he wouldn't have to worry about his revenge or unworthiness, unless he also didn't feel that he was worthy to choose the next Black Adam?
  • Easy answer: he's still human and flawed. If you had that kind of power, would you just give it away ? It took some eye opening on Adam's end to have him accept that maybe it would be best if he gave up his powers and go through with it.
  • Because remember, for him, IT HASN'T BEEN VERY LONG. Sure we talk about 5000 years, but to him its like his son just gave him his powers and died yesterady. His powers are the only thing that he has left of his son. He's simply not emotionally over his son's death yet. When Teth Adam finally starts to come to grips with his son's death, and acknowledges that his son was a far better man than he and that he IS unworthy of the power, is when he surrenders to Hawkman.

Can Black Adam sense good and evil in people?

• He spared Isis and her family back in the cave. Hawkman is able to go toe to toe with Black Adam and live to tell about it. Either Black Adam sensed good in the JSA and went easy on Hawkman, or Carter's power level is up there with Captain America. He and the JSA should be minced meat.
  • There is a trope for that.
  • He spared the only people in the cave not attacking him (he's violent and vindictive but not indiscriminately murderous). Hawkman is wearing Nth Metal armour. That stuff has always been Applied Phlebotinum in the comics and has stood up to Black Adam level strikes before. Doctor Fate has magical protection, Atom Smasher is large enough to take hits and he never actually directly hit Cyclone (likely because it's kinda hard to see where in all that wind and dust she actually is).

Amon wearing a star on his chest

• Isn't he aware that's the symbol of his country's enemy Akh-Ton?
  • Akh-Ton's star pointed downwards, Amon's points upwards. Given it's a bit out of place for a kid his age to be wearing big yellow stars on their clothes, it's possible Amon's star is seen as a sign of defiance against the old regime.

Where were the other Eternium weapons?

• Intergang in their first confrontation with Black Adam use an Eternium-loaded warhead with an rocket launcher to shoot him, and in the only time in the movie actually manage to badly injure him. Yet we never see or hear such weapons mentioned again, despite having a massive mining operation ongoing and enough machines like the jetbikes and the shield generators who seem to use it.
  • Intergang might export the bulk of their findings back to their homebase. An organisation that big and well-equipped doesn't come cheap and they need to maintain a legitimate business facade to avoid getting on the bad side of any superheroes.
  • Plus judging from the historical flashback Eternium is just hard to come by even with a big operation.

Heroes don't kill?

• Hawkman insists heroes don't kill, and much of the JSA spend their time saving the Intergang members Black Adam is intent on slaughtering. But Hawkman's perspective also seems quaint if not entirely unrealistic in this iteration of the DCEU considering Superman killing Zod or the scores of criminals killed, directly or indirectly, by Batman. It's also a bit tone-deaf when the JSA demands that Intergang face justice in the international courts when they have no jurisdiction and hence no way of actually accomplishing that.
  • Superman killing Zod was a last-ditch, best-of-bad-options choice, and Superman was devastated by it. Batman's casual murder was part of the theme of BvS, showing how far he had fallen from a true hero and close he was to turning into a villain. The overall theme of this film is when or if a "firmer hand" is required, and Both Sides Have a Point. The JSA really doesn't have a right to come into Kahndaq and tell the oppressed people that in the name of "international stability" they basically just have to put up with it, but Black Adam doesn't necessarily have the right to wantonly murder anyone he feels is a threat to him (and later, his people). When the system fails, what is the right course of action? Give a gentle nudge to try and get the system back on track? Or ignore the system completely? As for the JSA's lack of jurisdiction, yeah, they can't slap handcuffs on every member of Intergang and fly them to the Hague, but they could go there and spell out exactly what's happening in Kahndaq and insist it be looked into officially. That might clean everything up. It might not. Black Adam's way might boot Intergang permanently out of Kahndaq. . . or might get them to escalate with more violent reprisals, or make Kahndaq the target for an even bigger threat.