Black Adam #9: Justice or Death

Black Adam’s story has always been about one man’s continual failure at redemption.

Theo Adam has been everything under the sun: a hero, a villain, a slave, a pharaoh – and in all of that time, he has never been able to find a measure of happiness or peace. While the movie starring The Rock tried its best to shy away from the darker elements of Theo’s past, Christopher Priest’s run with him embraces those aspects of Black Adam’s character while also placing emphasis on how Adam views the world and how the world sees him, especially his home of Khandaq. Every issue of the book has delves into various parts of Black Adam’s history and this issue is no different as it focuses on the early years of his reign as Pharaoh. 

Priest does well with using flashbacks as a framing device as Adam talks to his comatose descendant, Malik White, about his time as The Mighty Adam. Priest’s writing serves well with Adam as he balances reminiscing about his great deeds as Mighty Adam, but twinges with regret as he acknowledges that he wanted revenge for how he was treated as a slave instead of actual justice. This makes Adam a bit more of a tragic hero as he finds himself wanting to be a good man, the kind of person that his nephew Aman could have been proud of, but is instead unable to overcome his bitter nature and slaughters those in his path to “protect” his people. This allows for readers to feel remorse for Adam while not absolving him of any of his crimes.

Eddy Barrows took over art duties from Rafa Sandoval in issue #8 and I have to say that I couldn’t think of a better replacement artist. Where Sandoval made moments look heroic as we focused on Malik learning his powers, Barrows is able to bring in a semblance of darkness as we angle towards Black Adam’s past. His linework is heavily detailed, making use of hatched lines for further shading and shadows, made even darker by Eber Ferreira’s heavy inks. He is often posed with a sense of smug regality and framed with low angle shots as if he’s looking down at the reader, showing that his ego has gotten the better of him and his desire for justice. Barrows contrasts these panels with self reflective close ups when we return to the modern day as he shows Theo with facial expressions that show regret for the man that he was, covering sides of his face with shadows, evoking a feeling of shame.

Eber Ferreira and Matt Herms, on inks and colors respectively, bring the art together as they further add to the sense of pathos that the book is trying to portray. Herms makes great use of bright whites for The Mighty Adam’s costume while also utilizing heavy greys and dark reds for background colors to show that the heroes methods aren’t as light in nature as he would hope – especially when he plows through the chest of a giant monster. Even in later scenes, there are even darker browns and greens to emphasize the harshness of Adam’s time period, where battles were fought for water and it was kill or be killed. In the opening pages, in the aftermath of a large battle, Adam stands alone on top of a mass of dark red corpses and the idea of blood and sand is made very apparent through the art and colors.