10 Astounding Facts To Get You Pumped For Black Adam
9. He Died In His Debut!
The 1945 story, The Marvel Family #1, begins with The Wizard telling his champion, Shazam, about Black Adam for the first time. When he learned Adam was misusing his power, The Wizard banished him to the farthest star. After five millennia, Adam returned to Earth, forcing The Marvel Family to band together to stop him from conquering the world.
Naturally, the story concludes with Black Adam's defeat. However, he wasn't beaten by Shazam. Or Mary Marvel. Or Captain Marvel Jr. He was beaten... by Shazam's manager, Dudley. Despite possessing no superpowers, Dudley managed to vanquish Shazam's greatest foe.
So how is this possible? Well, when Dudley realised his teammates couldn't beat Adam, he offered him membership into the The Marvel Family since he has the power of "Shamhaz". Adam corrected the old fool, stating he has the power of Shazam. Since Adam cried out Shazam's name, he reverted to his mortal form. Because Adam was 5,000 years old, he withered away in seconds and perished.
Although he was revived by Sivana's resurrection machine in a later issue, it's funny that Adam was originally killed by Shazam's most incompetent ally.