Review: Black Adam: Endless Winter Special #1
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writers: Ron Marz, Andy Lanning
Artists: Brandon Peterson, Marco Santucci
Letters: Wes Abbott
Colors: Mike Atiyeh
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
Black Adam: Endless Winter Special #1 – “Endless Winter” Chapter Eight!
Seeking to bolster his nation’s place in the world, Black Adam arrives in Gotham City demanding action to end the threat causing an endless winter across the globe.
But Black Adam isn’t telling the world’s leaders everything-especially not that he’s faced the mysterious Frost King before and won. Find out what Adam’s hiding in the penultimate chapter of “Endless Winter.”
Positives
It’s clear across the DC Landscape that Endless Winter is in almost every DC book, and every DC Character is involved in this endeavor.
Ron Marz and Andy Lanning provide more history to Black Adam’s history with the Frost King. After all, Black Adam has been in existence for thousands of years, so why not place this legendary character into the fray.
His association with minor characters (as the Endless Winter protagonists often assert issue after issue) such as Catman, Silver Banshee, Icicle, Multiplex and Rampage is puzzling. However, it does give a chance for Marz and Lanning to play with some of these older characters. They dust them off, and keep with the continuity of what DC is doing this year, especially in the vein of DCeased.
Speaking of Black Adam and the DCeased series and in this short interlude Endless Winter, he has really been getting a lot of airtime lately. This may coincide with DC putting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson into a social media hype role for all that is going on with Black Adam and the impending leap to the big screen.
Black Adam is both a warrior, a draconian leader who stops at nothing to defend his country (see the DCeased series) and a rival not only to Billy Batson, but the Trinity as well.
Endless Winter may prove to be the jumping off point for this anti-hero to get back into the mainstream a bit more.
Positives 2.0
Brandon Peterson, Marco Santucci and Mike Atiyeh all hit homeruns in the art department as the scenes of battle are epic and explosive thus leaping off the page.
Wes Abbott doesn’t get the love he deserves as one takes a look at the dialogue and scroll insets to transport the reader effortlessly in the time periods. I appreciate so much what lettering is to a book and Abbott is like that basketball official that simply calls the game and you don’t even know he or she is there!
Negatives
I’d say this issue tested negative for any negatives. Given our recent COVID-19 experiences, that’s a good thing!
Verdict
Black Adam: Endless Winter Special #1 – as this is a “filler” issue that features Black Adam, I would hope that DC would explore more of Black Adam and possibly feature an 8-12 issue run for him. This was a good start…let’s see how he plays out in the ultimate defeat of the Frost King.
