Warning! Spoilers for Black Adam #1 by DC Comics
There are some heroes with incredible healing abilities, but none in either the DC or Marvel universes compare to what Black Adam is capable of doing.
Black Adam is a fairly unique figure in the DC Universe. He is technically a villain and the antithesis of Shazam, yet he occasionally conducts himself in heroic activities as the Earth is threatened. Superman himself even thinks Black Adam should join the Justice League. He is the self-proclaimed ruler of the small Middle Eastern nation of Kahndaq. Because of his status both as a super-powered individual and a political figure, he was called in to testify before the United States Congress, where he arrogantly mocked their efforts to control him.
After the hearing, which took place in Black Adam #1 by Priest and Rafa Sandoval, Black Adam’s human form had a burn on his hands. While his associate was concerned about the injury, Black Adam wasn’t. He knew he could just say “Shazam” to activate his super-powered form and the injury would magically vanish. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a normal injury and it remained. But if it were, Black Adam’s hand would have gone back to normal as it had done so many times in the past with regular wounds.
Superhuman healing takes many different forms. With the Flash’s healing factor, it just means that he heals at an accelerated rate. With other heroes like Deadpool and Wolverine, their regenerative abilities are so strong they can come back from almost any fatal injury. But that’s not what Black Adam is doing. He’s technically not healing himself. But by activating his magical form the injury is simply wiped from existence. Any malady or ailments his human body has is simply erased by activating his powers.
Like Shazam, Black Adam is often seen for having superior strength, speed, invulnerability, and flight similar to Superman. But unlike Superman, Black Adam can revert to a human form that does sustain injury. There’s a reason some think Black Adam is actually stronger than Superman. The fact that any of these injuries can be erased by activating his superhuman form shows that Black Adam’s unorthodox healing abilities are something that is often overlooked because it is not something he typically utilizes in battle. But as a political figure that has to do certain political tasks, such as testifying before Congress in the United States, Black Adam has to take up his human persona. And being able to heal this human persona just by saying a single word is an extraordinary gift of Black Adam’s that shouldn’t be overlooked.
