Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Warner Bros.
Deep into the sodden, beige-steel milieu of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s marquee superhero debut, Black Adam and Hawkman lock eyes in a bombed-out apartment building. The pair are debating the ethics of world-saving—if it is ever okay to take a life while hunting down the primordial evils that haunt the DC universe. Black Adam is about as ancillary as a comic character can be, and Hawkman is somehow even more obscure—so how does director Jaume Collet-Serra attempt to bridge the gap and get us to invest in these minor demigods? Simple; by dusting off ol’ reliable: pure, uncut, capital-“E” edge.
“You call yourself a hero, and yet you’d let these criminals go free,” growls Black Adam (Johnson), parroting a sort of vindictive, Patriot Act philosophy previously reserved for the most cop-indulgent seasons of 24.
“Heroes don’t kill people,” retorts Hawkman, steadily losing ground to Black Adam’s glare.