10 Times DC Went Too Far

4. Black Adam Rips A Man In Half - 52

Lian Harper Death
DC Comics

52 is rightly regarded as one of the absolute best DC stories ever written in the last few decades. An incredibly interesting story of the DC universe dealing with the fallout of Infinite Crisis, exploring the new multiverse of 52 parallel universes that spawned from the event, the series pulled together a number of creators and put the spotlight on lesser-known characters like the Question, who rose up to occupy the void left behind by DC's Trinity.

However, in this otherwise hopeful story of heroes coming together, there are also moments of gratuitous brutality. And, well, you read the title to this entry, and there's not a lot of room for interpretation there. Black Adam, once the previous wielder of the magic of the wizard Shazam, has since become the ruler of the nation of Kahndaq.

Naturally, he isn't the nicest guy when it comes to people breaking his rules. As demonstrated when Black Adam decides to pay the Kahndaq embassy in New York a visit to say hi to the locals, grease some palms with ambassadors, and maybe try some of that New York pizza he's never had time in between slug fights with Captain Marvel to taste.

Oh, and rip poor, poor Terra-man in two. He also does that.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?