BLACK ADAM #1 ANNOTATIONS

Page 1

Global Economics are fun! For those who have little patience to decipher realpolitik jargon, here's the TLDR: Black Adam violated a number of laws/sanctions in the Sinai area that resulted in this senate hearing. We don't know the specifics yet, but we do know it has to do with Egypt and arms trading.

This incarnation of Adam seems to be an amalgamation of the Theo Adam persona and the N52 origin. We don't normally see depowered Adam so it's obvious as to how this can get messy.

The Theo Adam persona in Pre-Flashpoint continuity was a total douche who killed Billy Batson's parents. He gained the power of Black Adam, but the Theo Adam persona ended up getting removed during Geoff Johns' JSA run (JSA #21).

Black Adam was introduced to the N52 in the back-ups of Geoff Johns' Justice League run, where he was unleashed by Sivana, fought the Shazam Family, and then got depowered by Billy, resulting in him being reduced to ashes due to his old age. Black Adam was then resurrected during a JLA Villain's Month special (Justice League of America #7.4) around the time of Forever Evil. Billy had brought his ashes to Kahndaq during Trinity War, and a rebel group known as the Sons of Adam ended up restoring him with an ancient spell (that story featured incarnations of Amon and Adrianna Tomaz from 52, which is another great Black Adam story). However, Bendis' use of Black Adam during his Justice League run has restored the events of 52, so the whole resurrection thing is very messy.

I'm assuming that since his 'resurrection', Adam has been able to freely transform back and forth between the two personas without disintegrating.

I love the non-invasive editor's notes on the acronyms at the bottom of the page. Wish more books would do that.

Page 2

I find Black Adam saying he wants to "evolve Darkseid's Theology" very fascinating, and I can't help but wonder how he would go about doing that.

The setting on Messier 54 reminds me of the Fawcett origin of Black Adam, with the Wizard Shazam banishing him to a remote planet in deep space. Could Messier 54 be his former purgatory?

Page 3

The closest we've gotten to Black Adam interacting with New Gods was during the 52/Final Crisis days when he took down the Four Horsemen (Veronica Cale and Intergang had 4th world links) as well as him fighting a Desaad possessed Mary Marvel.

The list of figures in his diatribe towards Darkseid are all Egyptian Pharaohs and former regions in the Middle East/Sinai area.

Dialogue mentions classic Kirby lines almost verbatim. "...Tiger Force at the core of all things..." and "...I am the revelation..." are all from Forever People #3.

Page 4/5

Epic splash page. Rafa Sandoval is S-Tier.

Theogony is the title of this arc, taken from the poem by Hesiod detailing Olympian genealogy and bloodlines.

Page 6

Impossible indeed! [See page 8] I definitely facepalmed when I first saw the unlettered art, but I happen to have a few more braincells than reactionary comics twitter-folk and knew not to overthink a sequence like this. I have no doubt that Priest included this sequence as a break the internet type of moment, which I think is hilarious in hindsight.

Adam already seems to catch on that there's something fishy about this showdown.

Page 7

Previous page had red blood, but I guess they're sticking to translucent blue ooze? The panel arrangement by Sandoval is so cool.

Desaad stuttering is hilarious.

Page 8

Duped!

I don't think we've seen Darkseid clones before, and there is definitely more to this encounter than meets the eye. Priest has mentioned in interviews that we will come back to the ["Liar"] flashback plot:

"You'll see in this story arc that it takes place on a couple of different planes of existence. One is certainly the world we live in, but another is this outer space adventure that we keep flashing back to."

Page 9

Global Economics are fun! (Reprise)

TLDR: the US Government has invested a ton of money into Egyptian defense in an attempt to stave off Kahndaq, the investment has artificially regulated their exchange rate so it no longer has to be pegged to the dollar in order to maintain value (this is something some countries do to prevent/undo crises like hyperinflation and whatnot). This gives more context to the first section of ["Busy"] on page 1, as Adam and Kahndaq had collusion with arms dealing in Egypt as a result of the US pushing influence into the Sinai.

Page 10

The J'onn reveal is great and Black Adam's mic drop sets the tone for this run extremely well. Can't help but wonder if "Sandbox" (this issue's title) is a reference to the Sinai or Kahndaq itself? That seems pretty obvious, but as of now that's all I can think of.

Page 11

Mike Ehrmantraut expy anyone? Shep is our fixer archetype, though I'm not sure if he's an OC or an unbelievable pull from Fawcett limbo. Could Shep be a nickname for Hatshepsut?

The Kahndaq retconning to reconcile with the Egyptian link works very fluidly. Here's a pull from a Chris Priest interview where he goes into it:

"Obviously, by changing it so that Black Adam is from Kahndaq, we now have a fuller level of agency over the country, as opposed to making it a literal historical place. But what bothers me about that is that we are taking away agency from Egyptian people by severing that connection. So I try to split the difference and say, ‘Okay, he is the ruler of Kahndaq. His investment is in this area of Kahndaq. But these people are hereditary Egyptians.’ That restores that agency to that constituency, to that group of people that read our comics."

Reference to Archduke Ferdinand obviously indicates that the deceased is a powder keg for political crisis and incoming conflict. 

Page 12

The dialogue implies some kind of entanglement between Adam and Shakur's wife, but it could always be something else.

Priest made some interesting statements regarding the Kahnaqi reform movement in an interview:

"We're dealing with a storyline where there is a democracy movement going on in Kahndaq. Black Adam opposes it, but the reason he opposes it is that this is a country that never had democracy. You can't just suddenly flick a switch and impose self-rule on people who have never had it. America has done that over and over again and it's had mixed results at best. It's not that he doesn't want them to have self-rule, it's that it can't just happen overnight. It has to be a process, let's put it that way."

Page 13

Meet Malik Adam White, comic internet's new Pariah! The character arc is coming folks, don't worry! He's intentionally a snarky loudmouth!

Page 14/15

I saw an interesting take on the "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids" dialogue, someone said that Malik might be doing in on purpose to hide an accent or maintain some kind of cover. If not, then I guess Priest ended up selling/trying too hard on these couple pages to display this character's personality.

Facepalmed at gangam style and calling Black Adam a karen.

Page 16

The Dracula reference is funny since Priest has referred to Black Adam as a Dracula type character during an interview:

"It's an introspective look at a Count Dracula type of character who has been around since the 14th century. It's about a man who has lived too long and what that feels like for him. I've described his immortality as this heavy overcoat that he has to wear everywhere he goes, even though he's longing to take it off. There are people who want to live forever, but I think that if we had a chance to live for centuries, at the least, it would get boring and, at some point, even oppressive."

Page 17

We saw Adam's arm get fried during the Darkseid clone fight, but Priest has said in interviews that there is more to his ailment than what we've seen so far in the ["Liar"] sequence.

"At the same time, Black Adam gets infected with this space virus, so he believes he’s going to die."

Space Virus = Punching a hole through a Darkseid Clone? Desaad is a conniving SOB so I wouldn't be surprised.

Page 18

The rental car GPS did say that the last place Shakur had visited was Malik's house, so either he's lying or Shakur was intercepted by another individual and placed where the police found him during ["The Fixer"].

Looking back at the controversy surrounding Shakur's wife, could Malik be related to the Nassars and that's why Shakur went to his house? Given what we learn on the final page, this could be a possibility.

Page 19

Supporting cast expansion pack!

Reaffirming the lack of interaction with Shakur with a close friend seems to cement the fact that Malik most likely didn't meet with Shakur. It's all up in the air with the information we've been given so far.

Page 20

Magic van portal?

Page 21

That's an interesting group of characters (a chef?). The reveal that Shep is working with the reform group is interesting, he is a part of the State Department and could easily be in charge of Kahndaqi relations.

Page 22

This is very interesting. ["The Fixer"] sequence explained that Shakur Nassar was Adam's chief political rival, as he was in charge of the democratic reform movement in this country. Priest has confirmed in interviews that Black Adam only opposes democratic reform because there will be an immense cost of transition that could be disastrous. Kahndaq has always been under autocratic rule.

However, the circumstances as a result of ["The Liar"] sequence would seem to have given Adam little choice. It appears that Shakur chose Malik due to the fact that he's a descendant of Adam (but we still don't know if he has a connection to the wife controversy), and this makes the transition more enticing to Adam.

The Black Adam family has grown once more! I wonder if Priest will fold in Isis and Osiris, or if he's just going to stick to the N52 stuff.

PENDING QUESTIONS:

-What happened during the rest of [The Liar] flashback sequence?

-How did Black Adam get poisoned by a space virus?

-Who killed Shakur Nassar?

-What are the rumors about Nassar's wife?

-Why does Malik deny meeting Nassar even though the rental's GPS indicated Nassar had visited Malik's house?