By: Geoff Johns & Sterling Gates (story), Edgar Salazar (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: He’s a bit like Che Guevara, only with more lightning.

The Review: Kahndaq has always been a rather useful tool for DC writers to bring in Middle Eastern issues while conveniently avoiding the worst of the reaction that would happen if they actually tried to talk about the Middle East.  Whatever value Kahndaq may have as a political proxy, it’s blunted by its association with Black Adam.  It’s pretty hard to take a nation seriously as a realistic sovereign body when it’s led by a magic-infused bodybuilder with a cape.

In that sense, Kahndaq requires more exploration and development as a concept than its resident superhero.  Johns-Gates make some efforts in this regard by giving us an efficient, if extremely generalized summation of Kahndaq’s history: an age of despotic rule by your factory-fresh violent dictator, an age of peace(?) under Black Adam, the removal of Adam and then a slow slide into domestic misery and political instability under another violent dictator.  Acceptable, if not worth remarking upon.

The most interesting thing to come out of this history lesson is how time has polished Black Adam’s reputation in his country of origin.  The Sons of Adam claim that Adam’s rule ended when he was “imprisoned by a council of evil gods,” which seems like pure loyalist propaganda.  More interesting is the fact that the Sons are convinced that Adam’s nephew was “killed by [ancient dictator] Ibac’s forces,” when we know the appalling truth.  This blatant lie could only have been perpetuated by Adam himself, and that only digs his villainy a little deeper.

At this stage of Kahndaq’s national tensions, it might not make a difference if people discovered Adam’s misdeeds.  The Sons are determined to throw off the shackles of modern servitude the hard way—which, at the risk of making a comment on real political events, seems self-defeating.  Amon makes a good point in mocking his sister Adrianna’s peaceful protests (“[Y]our Twitter feed fills up with sympathetic responses from across the world from people who do nothing to help.”), but there’s just no way a violent coup, even against an allegedly horrid ruler, can lead to a happy ending.  Not in a mainstream comic book universe, anyway.

But the characters don’t need to be aware of their fictional environment to realize how futile these militant efforts are.  For Adrianna, the proof is bleeding out right there in her arms.  Yet she doesn’t seem to recognize that she was completely correct that her brother’s association with hardline rebels would lead to his demise.  I mean, she calls it pages earlier, sees it happen, then ignores it to pick up where he left off, leaving you to shake your head in disbelief afterward.*

Anyway, once Adam gets back on the scene,* the coup is over in seconds, obviously.  Frankly, the deposed Ibac should be grateful; now it’s someone else’s problem when the Crime Syndicate announces their claim over the world mere seconds later.  If ever there was an opportunity for Adam to shore up his antihero credentials, confronting evil overlords from a parallel universe would be a good time to start.  Certainly, we don’t see much else that would explain why he would command such beloved loyalty from the population.

Salazar’s art is best classified as the finest of DC’s house art, an attractive combination of Cafu’s sharp lines and Aaron Lopresti’s lush figure work.  It delivers the script in fine, energetic fashion, if a bit thoughtlessly,* and with Eltaeb’s glossy colors, you get a very credible-looking issue.  I wouldn’t mind seeing Salazar take on an ongoing, if possible; surely he’s a superior choice to some of the current ongoing artists DC has at work.*

Conclusion: More about Black Adam’s nation than Adam himself, but the issue does establish an important status quo for the character, even if we don’t learn much about him.

Grade: B-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * Then again, this is the same woman who doesn’t even give a moment’s notice to a man who literally gets struck by lightning right in front of her as she’s talking to him.

* See note above.  Salazar really should have called to someone’s attention how insane it is for Adrianna to have no reaction to a man getting struck by lightning out of nowhere.

* I’m looking at you, Freddie Williams II.

– Wonder who’s the voice commenting unheard, “Yes, Kahndaq’s people will be free…  [Adrianna] will be the one.”

Grade

Conclusion