Black Adam Tie-In Comic Confirms Another DC Superhero With a Twist
The first teaser trailer for DC's Black Adam movie debuted to great fanfare last month, showcasing the long-awaited blockbuster led by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Across the various updates and early pieces of marketing for the film, it's been clear that the titular character would not be the only notable DC Comics name in the film, especially after the reveal that members of the Justice Society of America would be appearing in the project. While we're still a few months out from Black Adam's debut, the first issue of its tie-in comic just confirmed a long-running theory about another comic-accurate character appearing in the film — but with a twist. Spoilers for Black Adam — The Justice Society Secret Files: Hawkman #1, from Cavan Scott, Scot Eaton, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse, and Rob Leigh below! Only look if you want to know!
The backup story of the issue begins a multi-part tale surrounding Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi), and her work to attempt to fight the group Intergang. The story opens with Adrianna standing in line for something with a young boy — who is revealed to be her son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui). While Sabongui's character could briefly be seen in Black Adam's first trailer, this issue confirms his name — as well as his unexpected connection to Adrianna.
In the comics, Amon is actually the brother of Adrianna, and is eventually given part of Black Adam's powers and turned into Osiris, who is essentially the Captain Marvel Jr. of the Black Adam family. Over his comic tenure, Amon is able to activate these powers by saying Black Adam's name, and uses them as a member of the Titans and the Teen Titans. The brother-sister dynamic between Adrianna and Amon was loosely adapted on The CW's Legends of Tomorrow through Zari Tarazi (Tala Ashe) and Behrad Tarazi (Shayan Sobhian) — and weirdly, Sabongui briefly appeared on the show as a younger version of Behrad.
Given the fact that Shahi is in her 40s, the idea of establishing Amon as her son instead of her brother makes sense, and allows for more storytelling to potentially be told with Sabongui's version of the character. It remains to be seen whether or not that future would involve him fully becoming Osiris, but it would definitely add another layer to the future that is planned for the Black Adam corner.
"I'm Middle Eastern; I'm Persian," Shahi explained in a previous interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "And there's not a lot of Middle Eastern representation out there, so being in a movie like this really helps make a statement for my culture and where I come from. There are other Middle Eastern actors that I know who are either getting cast in terrorist roles or they're really being stereotyped by how they look. So I'm hoping that, on some level, Black Adam will help break open that stereotype. And hopefully, Hollywood will become more colorblind in a way, and will open itself up to more Middle Eastern actors and storylines. And on top of that, this is the first thing I've been a part of that my kids can actually watch. So that's nice."