DC Comics reviews 10/23/19 – Action Comics #1016, Detective Comics #1016

Black Adam Year of the Villain #1

Black Adam’s Year of the Villain tie-in was interesting. For starters it’s probably a stretch to call Black Adam a villain at this point. Secondly most of this issue revolved around the Shazam Who Laughs thoroughly kicking Black Adam’s tail.

Writer Paul Jenkins sets up a simple premise of the inhabitants of Kahndaq bracing for the arrival of the infected Billy Batson. Jenkins doesn’t really explain why Shazam is coming to Kahndaq and why he wants to face off with Black Adam. The character was just introduced in Batman/Superman #2 so it’s hard to determine how his voice should sound. Jenkins opts to make Billy more of a punk comparing his brawl with Black Adam to a video game. Adam hardly puts up a fight so the added page count seems wasted.

Inaki Miranda’s art style is very simplistic. For such an action packed issue the art doesn’t have the kind of energy and momentum to give the pulse-pounding feeling of a clash of DC titans.

The conclusion of the issue was bound to be underwhelming as Shazam Who Laughs can’t be sidelined so soon into his debut and Black Adam isn’t in position to take the loss either. A draw in this kind of one-off won’t leave many readers satisfied.

This is recommended for major Black Adam fans. If you want a very loosely connected Year of the Villain tie-in this one is OK but hardly a necessary read.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10