James Gunn‘s DC Universe continues to expand with the release of Lanterns and other upcoming projects, but that doesn’t mean that the previous adaptations get any love. A devoted fanbase still follows the Snyderverse, with some projects still being watched to this day, despite their initial reception during their theatrical run. And with Superman set to return to Man of Tomorrow, fans have recently been tuning in to this one DC project that could have brought the Man of Steel back, as well as interest in the DCU, before Gunn got involved.
Before David Corenswet wore the red cape, Henry Cavill portrayed Clark Kent/Superman since 2013, starting with Man of Steel. Since then, he has made a handful of appearances in the DCU, but his character would make “headless cameos” in future projects, as seen in Shazam! and The Flash. However, one DC project not only brought the character back, but also almost paved the way for a Man of Steel sequel.
Black Adam was a 2022 superhero film that starred Dwayne Johnson as the DC anti-hero Black Adam, and its post-credit scene featured the return of Cavill’s Superman. Recently, Black Adam became a streaming hit, landing at #5 on Netflix’s Top 10 Movie Charts Worldwide, sitting between A Minecraft Movie and Riot. For those who haven’t seen the feature, Black Adam serves as an origin story for Black Adam, who is freed from his imprisonment after nearly 5,000 years. After initially rejecting the idea of becoming a hero, he eventually embraces his role as Kahndaq’s protector and saves the country from Sabbac (Marwan Kenzari). But because Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) still saw him as a threat, she warned that she would retaliate if he left the fictional country.
Not only did this feature bring back Cavill’s Superman, it also introduced the Justice Society, featuring Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). Despite getting a second chance through streaming, its box office performance said otherwise: it generated only $393.5 million worldwide. Critics also panned it, giving it a 39% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Superhero Team Should You Join? Avengers · X-Men · Teen Titans · The Boys
Every team is a personality test with a uniform. One saves the world and argues about it the whole way home. One has been fighting for the right to exist since the day it formed. One is still working out who it is while the fighting happens. And one has no powers at all, plus no intention of playing fair. Eight questions decide where you actually belong.
🛡️Avengers(Marvel Studios)
🧬X-Men(Marvel)
🐦Teen Titans(DC)
💊The Boys(Prime Video)
01
What kind of power would you actually want? The power matters less than what you would be willing to do with it.
02
Why join a team at all? Nobody puts on the suit for the reason they say out loud.
03
How do you feel about the people in charge? Every team has a chain of command. Very few of them survive contact.
04
What is your role inside a group? Every roster needs the same handful of people to function.
05
How do you win a fight you should lose? This is the scene the entire film gets built around.
06
What is this work costing you? Nobody does this for free. The bill just arrives differently for everyone.
07
How should the world see your team? Half of this job is public relations, and everybody knows it.
08
The offer arrives. What makes you say yes? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your team.
Recruitment Is Complete Your Team Is…
Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.
Marvel Studios · The Avengers · Since 2012
The Avengers
You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.
The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.
You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
real entry requirement here.
The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.
When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.
Marvel · X-Men · Since 1963
The X-Men
You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.
This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.
You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.
The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.
You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.
DC · Teen Titans · Since 1964
The Teen Titans
You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.
Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.
You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
which is far less lonely than being the only one.
The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.
The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.
Prime Video · The Boys · Since 2019
The Boys
You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.
The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.
You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
not to mention.
This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.
You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.
How ‘Black Adam’ Almost Brought Back Cavill’s Superman
In the comics, Black Adam was meant to be Shazam’s nemesis, but in the DCU, the character was marketed as someone who could rival Superman, with Johnson claiming that Black Adam would “change the hierarchy of power” in the franchise. This was seen in the film’s post-credit scene, where Cavill’s Superman made a proper cameo, telling Black Adam that his presence became another instance where “the world became nervous”, with the first being him. Since his return, reports said Warner Bros. was going to develop a Man of Steel 2, 11 years after the first one, which had fans excited. However, when Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios, Cavill was no longer Superman, along with other established cast members in the superhero franchise.
Black Adam is available to stream on Netflix and HBO Max. Follow Collider for more updates.
