WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the story "Future State: Black Adam: The End of the Beginning" from Future State: Suicide Squad #2 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert & Jeromy Cox, on sale now
Future State has revealed a number of new threats to the DC Universe, including the Unkindness, one of DC's most powerful and threatening beings. However, the one man who could prevent that darkness from spreading might have to be willing to kill a few heroes to do it.
A version of Black Adam from the distant future was just trapped in the present day Rock of Eternity. And if he gets loose, there's a very good chance he's going to end up trying to kill Shazam and the Teen Titans' Raven.
Black Adam has long been one of DC's more morally complicated characters. An often well-meaning but ruthless powerhouse, the immortal Black Adam, who's still alive in Future State's 853rd century, has largely found peace and serenity in his little corner of the universe, or at least he had until the dark force known as the Unkindness came to his world of Chandra. Black Adam barely escapes the Unkindness alongside Resurrection Man, Gold Beetle, and this era's Wonder Woman, with who he's about to have a child. But even their brief respite inside the Tower of Fate is short-lived, as the Unkindness follows them through the betrayal of Resurrection Man.
With no other options, Black Adam is given the last power of the Wizard Shazam and blasted through the multiverse, even seemingly killing cosmic powerhouses like Tempus Fuginaut and through elements like the Speed Force. He finally connects with the Rock of Eternity and sends it careening out of place from the center of the multiverse. This is the event that lands the Rock of Eternity in the Hell of the modern-day, a mystery that's slowly been building within Future State. Trapped within it once more, Black Adam makes a vow to change the future by destroying the Unkindness before it can impact the rest of the universe, unaware that the Unkindness will soon be locked away into Hell as well.
There are some serious complications with that vow, however. As revealed in Future State: Teen Titans, the Unkindness was actually once the heroic Raven. A major Teen Titan and mystical hero, Raven was corrupted by the spirits of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This unlocked a primordial and powerful darkness within her, turning her into a greater threat than her father Trigon ever was. Future State: Shazam revealed that Billy Batson and Shazam made a deal with Nekron to always help protect Raven after sealing her in the Rock of Eternity in a bid to contain the rising evils within her, only for the unaware future Justice League to force him to break his vow and unleash her.
If Black Adam can break free of the Rock of Eternity, he will almost certainly try to kill Raven before she becomes the Unkindness, and it's not hard to imagine him targeting Shazam for his role in unleashing the Unkindness.
This only makes things more complicated for the present-day Black Adam, who is set to join the Justice League in the new era of Infinite Frontier. There could end up being two versions of Black Adam running around the present-day DC Universe, with one of them actively ready to wage war on two heroes if it means saving the possible future where his Wonder Woman and their child exist. And despite the violence of his mission, that future could even end up looking pretty appealing to the present-day Black Adam, too.
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