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Black Adam

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Untitled drawing - 2021-12-13T130926.930

Background[]

Our tale begins in Kahndaq, a fictional Egypt-like nation on the Sinai Peninsula. A man named Teth-Adam, born into slavery and witness to the deaths of almost his entire family at the hands of their ruthless dictators, was hopelessly lost, bound to become another cruel footnote in the history books. Amazingly however, he found the resolve to escape from his captors and rescue his nephew Aman from captivity. Unfortunately, Adam was grievously wounded in the process, and though they got away, it didn’t look like he’d survive.

That is until the almighty wizard known as Shazam stepped in. The two were transported to the Rock of Eternity, and Aman was chosen as Shazam’s champion, a pure of heart hero granted the powers of the gods to do good. Aman accepted, and as a bonus, his uncle was healed and could be given powers of his own as well. With the two now having the world at their fingertips, Kahndaq could be freed of its tyranny. However, Teth-Adam was vengeful and full of rage, wanting to kill those in power, while Aman wanted to make peace and end the bloodshed altogether. In a drastic and desperate move, Adam killed his dear nephew then and there for the sake of what he considered the greater good. He seized ultimate power at the cost of his humanity; he had become Black Adam.

With his newfound abilities, Black Adam got to work cleaning up Kahndaq’s oppressors, and somewhere along the way, fought and defeated the living embodiments of the Seven Deadly Sins. True story. Unmatched, he easily took the throne of Kahndaq, reigning as its new king, a bloody monarch seeking just vengeance for his people. But this wasn’t enough. The mad god massacred the Council of Wizards and went after Shazam himself, only to be sealed away for thousands of years, brought back once in the 10th century to defeat the powerful Frost King, and then locked away once more.

But of course, he returned. Now in the present day, he took back his homeland, but in a world full of superheroes, garnered unwanted attention. Specifically, he would come to blows again and again with Shazam’s current champion, a teenager named Billy Batson. Despite his age, Billy showed a level of fortitude and courage that matched Adam’s, giving him and his conquest one tough time. Still, many times Black Adam has ravaged Billy and his family, and the rest of the superhero community as well. Despite such pushback, Black Adam’s wrath did not come from a place of pure malice. He DID care about his people, and he wanted to spare innocent lives whenever possible. After years of hatred, he’s started to mellow out, even teaming up with the good guys, but he’s definitely no upstanding paragon. Regardless of who or what he fights for, if you stand in Black Adam’s way, don’t bother praying, because the gods are already on his side.

Powers & Abilities[]

  • Divine Empowerment (Greek/Roman Pantheon): Given powers by the wizard Shazam alongside his nephew, Adam was granted the magic of Shazam which allowed him his powers from six different heroes and deities: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury. He activates these powers by saying the magical word "Shazam" which is the first letter of each of the gods' names combined.
    • Wisdom of Solomon: Due to Solomon's blessings, Black Adam had instant access to a vast level of scholarly knowledge. His intellect and wisdom are heightened to superhuman levels. This also provides great or comprehensive knowledge in many areas, including:
      • Clairvoyance: The ability to understand situations from many angles, including future and past consequences with superhuman clarity and accuracy.
      • Divine Grace: Innate luck and divine guidance that allows finesse in actions and dealings with others.
      • Eidetic Memory:
      • Language:
      • Tactics of War:
      • Mathematics:
    • Strength of Hercules: Immense demi-godly strength that allows him to lift grown men high off the ground, stop speeding cars, and smash stone.
    • Stamina of Atlas: With the blessings of Atlas, Adam can endure great physical exertion without tiring while in his empowered form.
      • Self-Sustenance: The ability to survive without sleep, food, water, or air.
    • Power of Zeus: Zeus' power, besides fueling the magic thunderbolt that transforms Black Adam, also enhances his other physical abilities and allows for inter-dimensional travel.
      • Accelerated Healing:
      • Electrokinesis: Black Adam can generate and manipulate mystical lightning.
        • Electro-Blast: Black Adam can project bursts of lightning from his chest.
      • Healing: The ability to use the transformative lightning to heal others or ones self instantly.
      • Magic Resistance:
      • Molecular Reconstruction: Using his magical knowledge, Adam was able to transform Ibac the First into stone by saying the word Aton-Mahjarr.
      • Teleportation: The ability to access the Rock of Eternity.
    • Courage of Achilles: This aspect is physical and partly psychological, and gives Billy superhuman amounts of inner strength to draw off from, while also making him indestructible to harm. He was completely unharmed when a car smashed into him at full speed. He barely seemed to even notice the presence of the vehicle when it impacted him.
      • Indomitable Will: An incredible amount of willpower and inner strength that allows perseverance in overwhelming odds and seemingly unbeatable situations.
      • Immortality: As long as he remains in his empowered state he doesn't age.
    • Speed of Mercury: With the blessings of Mercury, Adam can move as fast as a bolt of lightning,
      • Flight: Black Adam can hover or soar at high speed through an act of sheer will.
      • Superhuman Reflexes:
      • Superhuman Agility:
  • Divine Empowerment (Egyptian Pantheon): After his resurrection, Adam was no longer powered by the Wizard, instead he gained his power from six Egyptian deities — Shu, Horus, Amun, Zehuti, Aten and Mehen. Like before, Adam activates these powers by uttering the magic word "Shazam".
    • Stamina of Shu: Upon his resurrection, Adam was imbued with the stamina of Shu, the Egyptian God of the air and light. Because of this blessing his highly advanced musculature produces almost no fatigue toxins, granting him almost limitless physical stamina during physical activity.
      • Self-Sustenance: Because of Shu's blessings, Adam is able to survive without food, water or any other sort of sustenance while in his empowered form.
    • Speed of Horus: Black Adam was bequeathed hyper-speed after his resurrection by the Egyptian God of the sky Horus.
      • Flight: Due to the blessing of Horus Adam can resist the pull of a planet's gravity and navigate through the sky unaided by technology.
      • Superhuman Agility: Black Adam's agility, balance and bodily coordination are enhanced to superhuman levels.
      • Superhuman Reflexes:
    • Strength of Amun: Black Adam was gifted vast superhuman strength by the King of the Egyptian Gods, Amun. With this power Adam is able to lift tanks with ease, crack stone, and land powerful blows on the likes of Ultraman.
    • Wisdom of Zehuti: Upon his resurrection, Adam was blessed with the wisdom of Zehuti, the Egyptian God of learning.
      • Enhanced Senses: Black Adam's senses are far greater than any normal human.
        • Enhanced Hearing:
    • Power of Aten: After his resurrection, Adam was no longer fueled by the Wizard's magical abilities, but rather the light of Aten, an aspect of the Egyptian sun God Ra.
      • Electrokinesis: Black Adam is able to manipulate the magical lightning that fuels his power. He can summon powerful bolts of lightning by yelling "Shazam" and letting the transformative bolt of lightning hit the opponent rather then himself. His lightning was also capable of recharging Flash's powers after he was depleted of energy.
        • Electro-Blast: Black Adam can project bolts of powerful arcane lightning from any part of his body. By projecting this energy from his hands, Adam was even capable of harming Wonder Woman.
      • Magic: As the wielder of the Gods of Egypt's power, Black Adam can use magic spells for various purposes. He used the blood of a magical creature in order to gain insight on where Billy Batson was located in the Magiclands.
        • Power Distribution: Black Adam can share portion/bequeathe all his magical powers to anyone that he so chooses or considered as family, granting them similar powers as his own.
    • Courage of Mehen: Black Adam was bequeathed both physical and psychological resilience by Mehen, an Egyptian snake-god. Black Adam can withstand bullets with no difficulty, as well as withstand massive blunt force.
      • Accelerated Healing: Black Adam can recover from wounds at a much faster pace then regular humans thanks to the blessing of Mehen. He once completely healed a broken jaw in a few hours after it was broken by Ultraman.
      • Immortality: As long as Adam remains in his empowered state, he doesn't age. He's stated to have lived for thousands of years.
  • Egyptology: Since he lived through the time period, Adam has a rich understanding of ancient Egyptian culture.
  • Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Adam has admitted he's had a lifetime of experience as a Champion of the Wizard. He also battled against an alien invasion, who had come to subdue Kahndaq and the rest of the World centuries before the modern day. Defeating their champion in single combat, provoking the other aliens to flee Earth.
    • Martial Arts: Black Adam is a master of Dhritishastra, an Indian martial art developed by Vandal Savage so complex it takes multiple lifetimes to learn. He is skilled enough to keep the upper hand in a fight with Batman without needing to use his powers. Batman didn’t concede the fight but was forced to admit fight that Black Adam was just as good as he was.
  • Intimidation: Adam was considered intimidating enough to be conducted in the Sinestro Corps.
  • Leadership: Adam rules the African nation of Kahndaq.
  • Meditation:
  • Multilingualism: Adam speaks English, ancient Egyptian, Kahndaqi, and Arabic.
  • Occultism: Due to the nature of his powers, Adam has a decent understanding of magic.

Equipment[]

  • Suit: Black Adam’s signature suit, which is partly made of gold, is built for combat, while also looking great. He can channel electricity through it and light up his emblem for electrifying attacks. The triangle emblem on his belt can be used in conjunction with his lightning to open a doorway to the Rock of Eternity.
  • Yellow Lantern Power Ring:
    • Energy Construct Creation:
      • Force Field:
    • Energy Projection:

Feats[]

Strength[]

Speed[]

  • Goes from ground level to The Thermosphere in matter of seconds.
  • Flies into space with Sinestro.
  • Dodges Mary Marvel.
  • Catches and throws a bomb while tearing a guys arm off before it detonates.
  • Moves several hundred miles in a couple seconds.
  • Moves as a blur and speed-blitzes Shazam.
  • Speed-blitzes Shazam.
  • Speed-blitzes Ultraman.
  • Decapitates a terrorist faster than the eye could see.
  • Catches Darla, the fastest member of the Marvel family.
  • Blitzes Power Girl and tags Flash (Jay Garrick).
  • Blitzes Hal Jordan faster than he could react.
  • [Pre-Crisis] Repeatedly stated to be able to fly at light-speed.
  • [Pre-Crisis] Flew from the farthest star in the universe to Earth in 5,000 years (5,600,000 c).
  • [Pre-Crisis] Was able to hurl himself out of the normal universe and into the Rock of Eternity within a few moments.
  • [Post-Crisis] Blitzed a group of policemen.
  • [Post-Crisis] Kept up with Jay Garrick’s speed, pushing it to its limits.
    • [Pre-Crisis] Jay could adjust his internal vibrations faster than human calculations could even measure to reach the sixth dimension in an infinitesimal fraction of a second (immeasurable).
    • [Post-Crisis] Jay was able to momentarily run through the timestream with Barry Allen and Wally West while they were outpacing Death (immeasurable).
    • [Post-Crisis] Jay, along with Superman and Wally, was able to travel through the timestream from the 64th century back to the present  (immeasurable).
  • Scales to Shazam who:
    • [Pre-Crisis] Has flown to the Rock of Eternity which exists beyond time and space (immeasurable).
  • Has kept up with Wonder Woman, who:
    • [Post-Crisis] Once blocked pieces from the Shattered God, which came from the corner of the universe in seconds (52.594 - 315.569 quintillion c).
    • [Post-Crisis] Diana has thrown her lasso into the Speed Force (immeasurable).
  • Has kept up with Martian Manhunter, who:
    • [New 52] Spread his telepathy across Earth within the span of Planck time (788.371 duodecillion c).
  • Scales to the likes of Green Lantern, who:
    • [Pre-Crisis] Could send probes across the universe, scanning it within a heartbeat (9.409 duodecillion c).
    • [Post-Crisis] Could casually travel across the universe within hours (87.6 quadrillion c).
    • [Rebirth] Could potentially create a Speed Force singularity by forcing his ring to go too fast (immeasurable).
  • Scales to Superman, who:
    • [Pre-Crisis] Can fly fast enough to burst the bonds of infinity (infinite).
    • [Post-Crisis] Can react to and destroy reality blitzing missiles which were traveling from conceptual Monitor nanotechnology into the multiverse before Lois’ heart could beat once (immeasurable).
    • [Post-Crisis] Could exist in an ‘eternal now’ where all moments existed simultaneously, allowing him to move across a quantum sea to push through the boundaries of space, memory, and emotion, bringing him to the ‘final barrier’ that could not be passed, the concept of death itself (immeasurable).
    • [Rebirth] According to Batman, can halve distances in Planck time.
    • [Rebirth] Can react in an attosecond.
    • [Rebirth] Can escape a prison of weaponized Hypertime, which is the temporal equivalent of the “omniverse” (immeasurable).

Durability[]

Skills[]

  • One of Shazam's longest running villains.
    • Consistently gives him a run for his money.
  • Impressed the wizard Shazam with his fairness & decency.
  • Killed the evil priest known as Ahk-Ton in revenge for killing his people.
  • Overthrew the government of Khandaq.
  • Helped Shazam in the War of the Gods.
  • Joined the Justice Society of America.
  • Systematically joined and betrayed the Injustice Society to help the JSA.
  • Killed Kobra.
  • Joined the Secret Society of Super-Villains to protect Khandaq.
  • Brought Atom-Smasher back to life after the Spectre killed him.
  • Did acts of good will while in the United States.
    • Even attended a charity dinner at the Sivana estate.
  • Killed Sobek, a talking crocodile that destroyed Khandaq.
  • Defeated Death, who was amped by all the souls Black Adam had killed.
  • Defeated the Great Ten.
  • Fought against the combined efforts of the Doom Patrol, Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, and Wonder Woman & Martian Manhunter of the JLA.
    • Killed Terra and mutilated a young Frankenstein in the battle.
  • Resurrected his wife Isis with the Lazarus Pit.
  • Worked with Felix Faust to escape the Tower of Fate.
  • Battled against Hawkman.
  • Saved two doctors that treated his wounds while powerless.
  • Defeated the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Killed Aman, his nephew.
  • Murdered the members of the Council of Eternity.
  • Took in metas who were shunned from reality after the Metahuman Theory set in.
  • Defeated Shazam, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Atom Smasher, Eclipso, Psycho Pirate, Superboy-Prime, Pariah, etc.
  • Killed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
  • Singlehandedly held his own against entire superhero teams.
    • Took on the entire JSA team by himself.
  • Has consistently been a powerful foe to the entire Marvel Family.
  • Became a valuable member of both the Justice Society of America and Justice League.
  • Was the sole survivor of the initial battle between the Justice League and the Great Darkness.
  • Was the first champion of the Wizard Shazam.
  • Snuck past the binding spell of the Tower of Fate while he was a human.
  • Managed to fight and defeat Santa Claus because he didn’t give presents to the children of Kahndaq. Yes, really.

Weaknesses[]

  • Vulnerability to Magic: Black Adam is vulnerable to powers that nullify or surpass his own magic.
  • Dependency: Due to his advanced age Adam was previously totally reliant on the Wizard's magic to sustain his life and was unable to transform back into his mortal form without fading into dust. He appears to have overcome this weakness following his resurrection and empowerment by the Gods of Egypt.
  • Vulnerability to Electricity: He can be reverted to his alter ego with enough electricity.
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