Black Adam: The Dark Age #1

Black Adam: The Dark Age #1
Being that I hate Countdown, and thought that World War III was the most ludicrous piece of trash published by DC in the past decade or so, I almost didn't read this. I almost cheated myself out of a GOOD read. And it is GOOD. Even though the outcome is not in doubt - a shame that DC couldn't get their acts together and release this before the start of Countdown, eh? - it's the journey that matters. I was listening to NPR today, and they had a segment on all the successful biopics about pop stars from Cole Porter to Johnny Case, to Sid Vicious and Ritchie Valens. Even though we know all about these people, the movies about their lives are big hits. Why? Because of the fact that seeing people that we're familiar with overcome adversity is uplifting for us. Even when they don't overcome their travails, it's still enlightening. And thus, even though we know where Adam ends up, it's the journey that counts. In some way, each of us realizes that he's never truly been a villain. He's merely been misunderstood for using whatever means necessary to protect his people. Kind of like Doctor Doom, but without the megalomaniacal impulse to conquer the world and make the heroes pay for imagined slights.

There are only two problems with this book.
One) Isn't Teth-Adam supposed to appear significantly different from Black Adam? Apart from the physique, aren't their faces supposed to be different?
Two) Didn't Batman destroy all the world's Lazarus pits, except for the one he created in the Batcave?

Other than that, it's a GOOD book, and I find myself, against all odds, looking forward to the next issue.