After months of speculation, cumbersomely named muscleman Dwayne “The Rock†Johnson has made it official: He’ll be playing longtime DC Comics supervillain Black Adam onscreen. Sources say he’ll be facing off against one of the longest-running superheroes in the comics industry, Shazam (originally — and sometimes still — known as Captain Marvel, though there’s always the confusing fact that Marvel Comics has its own character called Captain Marvel … comics, everybody!) in an upcoming Shazam feature. The Rock made his entry into the superpowered stable known by tweeting thusly:
Variety says the Shazam flick will be penned by Jack the Giant Slayer and Turbo scribe Darren Lemke. For those not in the know (which is, basically, everyone): Black Adam was introduced in 1945 as Captain Marvel’s dark opposite. Captain Marvel is a little boy named Billy Batson, who has the magical ability to transform into a mighty do-gooder by uttering the magic word, “Shazam!†Like all longstanding comics characters, Adam’s origin story and power set have changed a bunch of times, but the basic gist is that he was born in Ancient Egypt and gained magical powers much like the ones Billy Batson would later obtain. He can fly and shoot power bolts and is very moody. He dislikes fun things and likes ruling things. Insert joke about The Scorpion King here.