The Rock will star as Teth-Adam in the upcoming DCEU film Black Adam, and some viewers may be wondering whether or not he’ll be joining the Justice League. Black Adam will feature the classic superhero team, the Justice Society of America (or JSA), with at least one member who seeks to recruit Black Adam. The Justice Society, however, is not the same team as the Justice League, and Black Adam has a different history with each team in DC’s comics.
Teth-Adam of the fictional nation Kahndaq received the same powers that Billy Batson acquired in 2019’s Shazam! Teth-Adam was chosen by The Wizard to be his first champion, but he became bitter and vengeful after criminals murdered his family. In DC Comics, Black Adam was initially one of Billy Batson’s greatest villains, but over time he became a more morally ambiguous character. The DCEU’s Teth-Adam, who became the legendary Black Adam, will be depicted as an anti-hero rather than a villain.
The Black Adam promotional material shows the titular anti-hero interacting with famous JSA members, including Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher. The Justice League is neither shown nor mentioned in Black Adam’s trailers, but Doctor Fate tries to recruit Black Adam into the JSA. Black Adam has been part of both the JSA and Justice League in the comics, but in the DCEU, he’ll likely only be part of the JSA, and it’s unclear how long his membership will last.
The Justice Society of America precedes the Justice League by over a decade, having debuted in the 1940s during the Golden Age of superhero comics. The JSA included numerous classic DC heroes in its original roster, eventually adding Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman to their list of honorary members. The DCEU’s Justice League isn’t explicitly stated to be the universe’s first superhero team, so the franchise will likely retain the JSA’s comic history where it was founded before the more famous Justice League. The JSA member who seeks to recruit Black Adam, Doctor Fate, is a classic Golden Age DC hero who co-founded the JSA within a year of his debut. Doctor Fate, also known as Kent Nelson, wears a mystical helmet gifted to him by the Mesopotamian deity Nabu. As Doctor Fate, Nelson is an extremely powerful sorcerer, whose magical abilities grant him a large variety of potent superpowers.
Black Adam, despite his villainous past, was a member of the JSA for a brief time, though his brutal and authoritarian tendencies put him at odds with the team, leading to his departure from it. While Black Adam also joined the Justice League in Brian Michael Bendis’ run of the comics, this likely won’t be shown in the upcoming DCEU film. The Rock’s Black Adam won’t be joining the Justice League in Black Adam, but his tumultuous relationship with the JSA will be shown.
