While the distant planet Apokolips and its denizens were key to both versions of the film, only one of them actually introduced audiences to the evil intergalactic despot, Darkseid, and made it clear that Darkseid and pals weren’t nearly finished with Earth in their quest for the Anti-Life Equation at the conclusion of the movie. So wait, what does any of that have to do with Black Adam? Black Adam takes place almost entirely within the fictional nation of Kahndaq, which has been occupied and brutally oppressed by a well-organized, funded, and equipped group of mercenaries known as Intergang. Like Darkseid, Steppenwolf, the Parademons, and Apokolips, Intergang was created by Jack Kirby when he made the jump from Marvel to DC in the early 1970s. And while Intergang has in many ways functioned as the equivalent of the mafia in the pages of DC Comics, they wield high tech weapons of extraterrestrial origin, all of which are supplied by Darkseid’s armies of Apokolips in their ongoing quest to make life miserable for everyone in the galaxy, and presumably to weaken Earth’s superhumans and make them more susceptible to invasion. So what is there to suggest that Black Adam makes Zack Snyder’s Justice League canon rather than the theatrical version? Admittedly, we’re going by the very different ending between the two films. In the theatrical version, Darkseid’s existence is stated rather than shown, and it’s just kind of assumed that the defeat of Steppenwolf may or may not be the last we hear of the hordes of Apokolips. But in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Darkseid tells DeSaad: “Ready the armada, we’ll use the old ways.” Is it reasonable to assume that stage one of “the old ways” involves outfitting earthly goons with extraterrestrial weapons to start softening us up for invasion? Sure it is. Their advance force just got their spiky asses handed to them by the Justice League, so it would make sense they try some other pressure points to get a better idea of what they’re getting into! Now, does this mean that those absolutely bonkers Justice League sequels teased in the coda to that film are now back on the table? Absolutely not. But with Dwayne Johnson making it clear that he wants the DC movies going forward to make “listening to the fans” a priority, any little nods to the “Snyderverse” might help make that corner of fandom feel heard. Black Adam is now playing in theaters.
