{"id":432596,"date":"2026-01-25T16:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T16:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/432596\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T16:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T16:33:11","slug":"the-return-of-the-rocks-black-adam-teased-by-dc-with-a-new-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/432596\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of The Rock’s Black Adam Teased By DC (With A New Name)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody expected the release of Black Adam<\/a> to change the superhero game more than its star, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but the commercial and critical reception was more than disappointing. And while the chances of Black Adam 2 seemed gone<\/a>, DC is teasing the return of Johnson’s antihero nonetheless. With a new role, a new name, and a chance to play the god-tier menace many fans wanted.<\/p>\n

The Rock’s Black Adam Being Teased As The New ‘Absolute Shazam’?<\/p>\n

First Look at Absolute Superman #18 by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

As the musclebound champion of magic most capable of going toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel, it made perfect sense for Henry Cavill’s Superman to face Black Adam in his movie’s end credits scene. Making good on a claim famously made by Johnson that with Adam’s arrival, “the hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change.”<\/a><\/p>\n

As the last appearance for either hero, and James Gunn’s DCU performing a hard reset shortly after, fans assumed they had heard the last of that particular boast. That is, until DC released the first tease of a brand new Shazam in its Absolute Universe, coming to take on the newest version of Superman. And dropping a massive wink to superhero fans everywhere in the process:<\/p>\n

The Battle of Kansas may have put the Lazarus Corporation into retreat, but it’s left behind some terrifying surprises in its hidden caches of weapons and world-ending secrets. The most dangerous of all? The sarcophagus of the legendary King Shazam! Don’t miss the start of a new epic that will change the hierarchy of power in the Absolute Universe!<\/p>\n

\"King
\n King Shazam Breaks Free in Absolute Superman #18 Cover Art<\/p>\n

Fans would have assumed that the Absolute Shazam, like the same variants of Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and more, would be a re-imagined version of Billy Batson. But with so obvious a reference to The Rock’s champion, fans can only assume it will be his hero, not Billy’s, breaking loose to challenge Kal-El.<\/p>\n

King Shazam is The Mega-Villain Fans Wanted From Black Adam<\/p>\n

The Return of The ‘Evil Shazam’ Will Give Superman Hell<\/p>\n

\"Evil<\/p>\n

With a new incarnation of Shazam comes a new title, as the official plot synopsis also teases the arrival of “King Shazam.” Not only a more intimidating, tyrannical name than even the original Teth-Adam would have chosen, but also a name which recently appeared in the pages of DC Comics as another brand of nightmare.<\/p>\n

When the Batman Who Laughs managed to infect DC’s most innocent and youthful superhero, the “King Shazam” which tore Batman and Superman to pieces was a sight to behold. Has the creative team decided the variant was too good a creation to only appear once? Or did the noticably heroic path for Johnson’s take on Adam need a bit more of the villainy many fans wished for?<\/p>\n

The mystery will be revealed when Absolute Superman #18 will arrives on April 1, 2026 from DC Comics.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 21, 2022<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t125 Minutes<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJaume Collet-Serra<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Aldis Hodge<\/p>\n

\n Hawkman \/ Carter Hall\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody expected the release of Black Adam to change the superhero game more than its star, Dwayne “The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-432596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}