Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Warner Bros.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson didn’t always have those massive, superhuman muscles. No, he was once one of us normal folk, with no curvaceous arms and no soccer ball-sized pecs. He was average. He was, simply, Skinny Rock.
Okay, this isn’t true. Anyone who has watched Young Rock knows the real backstory behind the bodybuilder. (The NBC series, somewhat fictionalized, follows Johnson from his childhood into 2032, when he runs for president. That’s the fake part. The rest of the series is fairly autobiographical—including his adulthood spent being absolutely ripped.)
But according to Black Adam, there was once a tinier, petite version of The Rock, before he got all massive and muscular. The new DC Comics flick features an origin story that takes a swan dive into the uncanny valley, shrinking The Rock’s muscles down to bare bones, and the result is…flooring.