Black Adam will mark the big-screen debut of the morally grey antagonist, but he won't remain a villain in the DCEU. With its development stretching all the way back to 2008, Black Adam was among the many upcoming DC movies to be showcased at DC FanDome, with the anticipation for it and all things DC skyrocketing from the electricity the event brought. Dwayne Johnson, set to portray the title character, was also on hand to provide a look into what Black Adam's place will be in the DC movie pantheon.
With character and world history laid out and the all-around marketing push Black Adam has been given, it's sure to be a major chapter in the DCEU, with a story bringing the ancient past face-to-face with the present. However, despite Black Adam's known history of oscillating from villain to anti-hero over the decades, there's simply no reason to think that he'll remain at completely odds with the heroes of the DCEU. On the contrary, there's much to indicate that he'll eventually go over to the other side.
That isn't to say that Black Adam is going to become a stalwart, upstanding force for good, and indeed, he's far too internally scarred and embittered to rise any further than being an ally of DC's heroes only under the right circumstances. Still, Black Adam's story is one of a man who has experienced both the most crushing of tragedies and the most triumphant of vendettas, meaning that it's far more likely his story will see him evolve towards the closest thing to a hero that he can realistically become.
A central aspect of how Johnson has positioned Black Adam lies in the character's debut representing a power shift within the DCEU. At the same time, an equal amount of emphasis has been placed on his origin as a slave in Kahndaq thousands of years ago, along with the powers he was bestowed with as well as his rise to freedom and vengeance - add in the fact that it's The Rock himself bringing the character to life, and the signals are unmistakable that Black Adam's journey isn't meant to be a fully villainous one.
Of course, the chances of him taking on the kind of nobility of Superman or Wonder Woman, or even being pulled back from his descent into darkness as Batman was, are quite slim. Johnson has also been clear in establishing Black Adam as having a take-no-prisoners mindset while acting as a righteous warrior of justice from his own perspective. All of this adds up to Black Adam as becoming the DCEU's most morally enigmatic character, but transitioning into an anti-hero from an outright antagonist as his story progresses. His comic book history provides a template for ways in which this could unfold, but as with all things when it comes to Black Adam, how that happens is complicated.
With Black Adam having begun as more of an out-and-out evildoer in his early days, the point at which he became a member of the Justice Society of America marked the beginning of his redemption. He would still remain a complex character, while his backstory was also altered, showing him originating in Kahndaq with his rage stemming the nation's conquest - and his own family's murder, by Ahk-ton and Vandal Savage. Black Adam's vengeful re-conquering of Kahndaq would be met with disapproval from the wizard Shazam, leading to Adam's downfall once more.
Despite his association with the JSA, Black Adam would eventually return to his more violent methods, defecting from the team to form his own band of heroes to retake Kahndaq again in the Black Reign arc. Since then, he has held a more antagonistic relationship with the heroes of the DC Universe, but his time as part of the JSA shows that he has shown a willingness to work alongside them at points. The question is, when placed alongside the way Johnson has described him, how could Black Adam's cinematic redemption story unfold? While Billy Batson is likely to be connected to it in some way, with the seeds for Black Adam's rise having already been planted in his movie, the various other heroes Johnson has teased in relation to Black Adam, and one in particular, could also provide some hints.
Only so much can be speculated upon at the moment as far as how the DCEU will redeem Black Adam, but with his movie to feature appearances by Hawkman, Cyclone, Doctor Fate, and Atom Smasher, his relationship with the JSA is already being set up. Theoretically, the Black Adam movie could culminate with his decision to join forces with the JSA to defeat a common enemy, but this also isn't likely to morph him into a full-fledged hero, considering Johnson's ongoing teases of a battle royale between Black Adam and Superman. In point of fact, the Man of Steel's history could even position him as a key figure in Adam's redemption.
As a superhumanly powerful warrior on his own quest of justice and abiding a cruel moral code, Black Adam is surprisingly similar to General Zod. With Kal-El having been forced to kill him to end his destructive rampage at the end of Man of Steel, he could view Black Adam as representing a shot at reforming another loose canon, one whose methods go too far but who isn't beyond saving. Though Black Adam could end up siding with the JSA for a time, he might still view Superman and Shazam as ineffectual heroes due to their more merciful ways, leading him to take what he sees as the necessary steps to remove them from their positions of power. All of these pieces could form the basis for Black Adam, Superman, and Shazam to go head-to-head in a battle akin to the Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam animated short film, culminating in the undaunted antagonist, if not turning over a new leaf, at least re-evaluating how he's carried out his mission up to this point.
While everything about how Black Adam has been set up so far indicated him as a being a force that the DCEU's heroes will find themselves opposing, he isn't going to travel the same same dark road that other villains have. With his complex comic book history and the involvement of The Rock, his story is sure to see him transform, albeit less in a villain-to-hero manner and more as a darkened soul becoming an uneasy ally. Where his meeting with Shazam and his teased confrontation with Superman will come into play in all of that is still up in the air, but everything points to Black Adam just being chapter one of his journey, and it's not one that's likely to end without him seeing some glimpse of the light along the way.
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