Black Adam Reading Order

This reading order is designed to give an outline of major storylines featuring Black Adam (Teth-Adam) throughout DC Comics. It may not encompass every one of his appearances but is a timeline of the major ones and the stories that affect them.

The continuity details relating to each specific storyline are explained in the “Review” of each storyline. Every “Review” link will provide a detailed continuity breakdown of that story and will explain any reference the story makes to other aspects of the DC Universe. All of this can be found under the “Continuity” section of each link.

Jump to: New 52 – Rebirth – Universe – Infinite Frontier

New 52

At the beginning of the New 52, the DC Universe was reset. In this new continuity, Black Adam’s history seems to have been wiped clean entirely.

Near the beginning of this era, Black Adam is reintroduced through the “Shazam” backup storyline from the Justice League series. This storyline highlights his reappearance in the DC Universe while also exploring his backstory. After this, Black Adam reappears in the Forever Evil (Reading Order) event, where he plays a moderate role. Finally, near the end of this era, Black Adam has a moderate role in the Sinestro series.

Justice League issues are from the Vol. 2 series

Notes

1. Black Adam does not actually appear in this issue. However, it highlights a point of transition that helps explain how he went from his status at the end of the "Shazam" storyline to his status at the beginning of Justice League of America #7.4.
2. Black Adam has a significant role in this Sinestro (Reading Order) story arc. His role here is significant enough, especially in issues #16-18, that we considered moving it to the "Essential" column. However, it doesn't have much of an impact on his personal progression and isn't really mentioned much after this point.

Rebirth

The transition from the New 52 to the Rebirth era does not create any specific continuity changes for Black Adam.

In the Rebirth era, Black Adam has very few appearances. His largest role is as a brief antagonist in the Dark Nights: Metal (Reading Order) event.

Notes

1. As mentioned above, Black Adam's role the Dark Nights: Metal (Reading Order) event is pretty minor. It has little impact on his personal story and has relatively little impact on the event as a whole.

Universe

The Universe era is essentially an extension of the Rebirth era, as it maintains the same continuity. However, since Black Adam had very few appearances in the Rebirth era, his story here mostly picks up on plotlines from the New 52. Specifically, it continues narrative elements from Geoff Johns' "Shazam!" storyline.

In this era, Black Adam initially appears in the Shazam series. This series builds on the "Shazam!" storyline and teases more for the future. After this, Black Adam appears in a Year of the Villain special issue. Finally, he takes on a large role in the Endless Winter (Reading Order) crossover event. This event highlights a previously unknown story from Black Adam's past while also continuing to elaborate on what he is doing in the present. The Endless Winter event is also somewhat of a prelude to the status quo Black Adam will take on in the next era.

Shazam issues are from the Vol. 3 series

Notes

1. Only the "A Coal in My Stocking" story from this issue is relevant to this reading order.

Infinite Frontier

This era is currently in publication. Because of this, we have not created a full reading order for it yet. We will be updating this portion of the reading order once more comics have been published.

However, Black Adam has already take on a major role in this era. For now, we suggest checking out the Infinite Frontier era Justice League series, which starts with Justice League #59, collected in Justice League Vol. 1: Prisms. Black Adam is a key player in this series.

All DC Comics Reading Orders