The Rock’s Black Adam Can Avoid A Major Snyder DCEU Criticism

The Rock’s Black Adam has the potential not only to be different than anything in the DCEU but also to avoid a major Zack Snyder tone criticism. Despite Dwayne Johnson being cast as Black Adam in 2007, it was only recently that Black Adam finally became a solid project in the form of a DCEU movie. With a timeline that can explore thousands of years into the DCEU’s past and involve historical heroes, Black Adam can redefine the saga’s canon and, as The Rock himself states, change the hierarchy of power in the franchise. With all that said, Black Adam was originally a villain, which brings challenges and opportunities in terms of where the film can take his story.

As the state of the DCEU canon after Justice League is still a mystery, Black Adam dealing with events that happened way before the League was formed is an interesting idea. Black Adam will feature the Justice Society, the superhero team that predates the Justice League in the comics and that has not previously appeared in a live-action DCEU movie. In Black Adam, the Justice Society will be formed by Hawkman, Atom-Smasher, Cyclone, and Doctor Fate. However, it is still a mystery whether the Justice Society will oppose Black Adam or if The Rock’s character will work alongside those heroes.

This gray area in which The Rock’s Black Adam falls could actually be one of the movie’s main strengths, especially compared with Zack Snyder’s DCEU films. Snyder would often push his heroes, especially Superman and Batman, to their moral limits – and sometimes even have them break those limits. That led to controversial moments like Superman killing Zod in Man of Steel and Batman branding criminals in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, both of which sparked a lot of criticism and caused the DCEU to be labeled as being way too dark and sometimes even cynical. The Black Adam movie, however, could cross those same lines and navigate similar heavy themes without having to worry too much about receiving the same criticism, as Black Adam is essentially a villain. Even if The Rock’s Black Adam is more of an anti-hero, his actions will not be judged in the same light as that of the heroes because the character will never have the same moral obligations as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

In fact, Black Adam could be met with more criticism about its titular character not performing villainous actions than the other way around. By having The Rock, who after Fast Five’s Hobbs role now rarely plays villains, star as Black Adam, the Black Adam film set itself for a difficult mission. On the one hand, it cannot have a main character without sympathetic traits. On the other, it cannot simply change Black Adam from a villain to a hero. The anti-hero area is the best and probably the only rote the movie can take, and, as a consequence, Black Adam will be able to bend way more rules than Batman and Superman did in the Zack Snyder films.

Finding the balance between what a character should stand for and what challenges they must encounter is difficult, but that will be much easier for Black Adam. By playing a villain turned into an anti-hero, The Rock will have much more freedom as to where he can take his character. With a heavy hitter as strong as Superman and Shazam but without the same moral compass, Black Adam can truly change the balance of power in the DCEU.