Black Adam's Justice Society of America Could Be the Key to DC Films' Future

Across years of development and months of early marketing for DC's Black Adam movie, one phase has been repeated a lot — that the hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change. That unofficial tagline has already given fans an inkling of what to expect from the project, with regards to Black Adam's (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) formidable set of superpowers and unpredictable moral compass. But as those who have been keeping up with Black Adam know, the titular character won't be the only costumed figure to factor into things, with the film co-starring several members of the Justice Society of America. While there's still a lot that's unknown about the JSA's live-action movie debut in Black Adam, the circumstances surrounding it — and their storied and specific history within DC Comics — could prove to change the hierarchy of DC's live-action future along the way.

Created by Gardner Fox, Everett E. Hibbard, and Sheldon Mayer in the 1940s, the Justice Society was conceived as a way to unite the already-popular standalone superhero characters of National and All-American, the two companies that would eventually become DC Comics. Unintentionally, the group made history as the first superhero team in mainstream comics, with fans relishing in the novelty of seeing these previously-separate heroes join forces against larger threats. While the group initially faded away amid the implementation of the Comics Code Authority (with their concept eventually being revived and renamed the Justice League of America years later), the group remained popular, and their adventures were eventually reintroduced as the premier superhero team of an alternate universe, Earth-2. Through the decades of retcons and reboots that followed, the JSA endured as a group rooted in the classic uncynical days of superheroics, and eventually developed a roster of older superheroes and newer "legacy" characters who took up existing mantles.

With the launch of Black Adam's first trailer earlier this week, we've already begun to get acquainted with the film's JSA roster, which will consist of Carter Hall / Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Maxine Hunkel / Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Albert Rothstein / Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). While this group is only a small sample of the heroes who have joined the JSA in the comics, it's a pretty unique microcosm of the team's history — Hawkman and Doctor Fate were founding members of Fox's initial roster (and seemingly will be the same in live-action), while Cyclone and Atom Smasher are legacy characters succeeding the Golden Age superheroes Red Tornado and The Atom, respectively. From the jump, that creates a dynamic of superheroes at different phases of their careers, instead of (largely) flattening the tenures of a team as we've seen onscreen with the Justice League and Marvel's Avengers. And with rumors suggesting that the original Atom will appear in Black Adam, it sounds like the film will dive into the larger legacy and history of the DC universe, something that has basically been unexplored in the current continuity, to the point where one could argue that (outside of Gal Gadot's Diana Prince / Wonder Woman), superheroes didn't exist until the events of Man of Steel in the 2010s.

With DC reportedly aiming to create a more cohesive live-action continuity under the tenure of Warner Bros. Discovery, the multigenerational nature of the JSA might be an easy way to get there, without having to counteract what has been established in previous projects. Rumors have swirled that a JSA spinoff movie could be greenlit depending on Black Adam's success, and over the past few years, that potential project has only felt more and more beneficial in helping cement DC's ever-changing superhero status quo. A hypothetical JSA movie could include a combination of previous "Golden Age" heroes — including original incarnations of characters we know DC wants to prioritize, like The Flash and Green Lantern — and younger characters who are either tied to older mantles or forging their own paths. The JSA could also include a number of characters already introduced in the film universe like Wonder Woman and Dinah Lance / Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett), both of whom have decades worth of history with the team in the comics. This would give DC a superhero ensemble with wide-ranging appeal and a wide variety of characters, all while the studio continues to hash out its plans for the onscreen future of the Justice League. It would also present a team with an unironically optimistic emotional center, something that would do wonders as DC continues to nail down its overall cinematic tone, and as audience habits change following the events of recent years.

Even beyond letting the JSA thrive in live-action, there's value in the idea of letting its individual members thrive in their own movies or HBO Max spinoffs. On the surface, every single member of Black Adam's JSA could narratively justify their own spinoff, fleshing out their respective corners and powersets. A Hawkman project could easily be DC's answer to WandaVision — a genre-bending, centuries-spanning tale of his enduring romance with Hawkwoman, which could also fold in younger characters like Hector Hall and Kendra Saunders. A Doctor Fate spinoff could dive into the dark corners of DC's magical universe, while also introducing the many other incarnations of Doctor Fate and possibly the Lords of Order. Atom Smasher's story could concern his past with the aforementioned original Atom, and maybe even fold in the more popular shrinking successors to the Atom mantle like Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi. And Cyclone's legacy within DC Comics is incredibly specific too, with ties not only to one of the very first female superheroes (her grandmother, Ma Hunkel / Red Tornado) but to the ever-evolving cyborg iterations of Red Tornado led by evil scientist T.O. Morrow. While these corners might not be filled with the A-list names that fans still want to see in the DC universe, the success of projects like Peacemaker has proved that as long as you get audiences invested, even the most obscure characters can become household names.

We're still several months out from the launch of Black Adam, and from the Justice Society of America finally getting to debut in a live-action blockbuster. If DC plays their cards right, that appearance of the JSA could kickstart a wealth of storytelling possibilities, both on an ensemble and individual level. All the while, seeing the JSA on the big screen could scratch an itch that general audiences didn't even know they had, in the same way that their comic counterparts first did in the Golden Age of Comics.

Black Adam will be released exclusively in theaters on October 21st.