We’ve seen two major movies coming out from two of the biggest superhero movie studios in a span of thirty days. Black Adam was the eleventh DCEU movie that gave us a much-expected surprise at the end of the movie (or post-credits), while the MCU’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a fitting tribute to the late former protagonist Chadwick Boseman.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made more than $80 million in its opening week, which has at least a $20+ million difference when compared to Black Adam‘s $67 million opening (boxofficemojo.com). This was quite an eye-opener for the latter, considering that Dwayne Johnson has a reputation for making blockbuster movies, but it seems like his movie has fallen behind in another aspect too.
Fans Say Black Panther 2’s ‘Anti-Hero’ Better Written Than Black Adam
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever currently stands strong at the box office with a worldwide box office record of $110+ million, and considering the repute that the MCU has for making blockbuster movies, it will surely surpass Black Adam in that area.
But that’s not the only aspect of the Dwayne Johnson-led movie that has been used to compare with the MCU’s latest major release. It seems like Johnson’s old ghosts are coming back to haunt him!
A few years ago, when Wakanda Forever‘s Tenoch Huerta was still awaiting the fated job of playing Namor, Johnson was rumored to have taken over the role. However, as history tells us, he changed sides and moved over to the DCEU and is now standing strong with a standalone movie that seeks to kick-thrust the DCEU back into relevance.
Fans were quick to compare the WWE star’s anti-hero movie with Wakanda Forever’s anti-hero character, Namor.
One major aspect that was criticized was how Teth-Adam was poorly written in comparison to Namor. The former was criticized for having no reasonable motive to perform a good deed while maintaining an anti-hero persona, while the latter was praised for having, well, concrete reasoning behind his actions.
Fans have been going ham on Twitter-
The Rock seeing everyone say that Namor in Wakanda Forever was a better Black Adam than Black Adam and he did it with the pointy ears too pic.twitter.com/AsRRp8kBEO
— 𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗖Ʊ𝗥𝗬 (@theeSNYDERVERSE) November 12, 2022
Quite the insult-
Namor did Black Adam better than Black Adam
— Nando (@NandovMovies) November 11, 2022
Do you think he did a better job? –
Namor is literally the anti-hero Black Adam should've been #WakandaForever #BlackAdam pic.twitter.com/aCdU7Am1xI
— Cooldoge67 (@Cooldoge67) November 13, 2022
A glaring mistake?-
Namor proves my whole point about Black Adam. Should never have had a solo movie. Would have killed as a character in someone ELSE’S movie.
— Thomas Moore (@TomAandTom1) November 12, 2022
Hey, he gave Henry Cavill back to us! –
It pains me to say this but Dwayne Johnson put 15 years of blood and sweat into Black Adam development only for Namor to be written much better as a anti-hero. I blame my idol Geoff Johns personally.
— Objective DCEU Fan (@snyder_all) November 12, 2022
Much like the 4th fan tweet in here, Black Adam would have definitely performed better as a supporting character in another DCEU movie. With the best candidate being 2019’s Shazam!
Black Panther 2 And Black Adam May Not See Theatrical Run In China
Much like most Hollywood movies, Black Adam and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever may also very well be heading towards a no-show in Chinese theaters, which would be a major loss in terms of worldwide box office earnings for both movies.
China has one of the world’s largest theatrical spaces, so it would only make sense that both Warner Bros. and Marvel would like to capitalize on that, making the possibility of scrapping both of their latest titles from ever releasing in China a very big thing.
The Hollywood Reporter says that according to sources from insiders in the Chinese industry, both Black Adam and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will never see the light of day in the country because of certain reasons.
The former’s likely reason for facing a ban comes from the fact that Pierce Brosnan (Doctor Fate) is in the movie, who about a few years ago posted an old photo of his family posing with the Dalai Lama (the Tibet-China issue, for the unversed), so it has obvious political reasoning.
The latter’s likely reason for a possible ban in the world’s most populous country is possibly because of the depiction of two queer characters in the movie- the Wakandan warrior Aneka and the Dora bodyguard Ayo, who are both in love with each other in the movie.
These reasons, however, are not surprising considering the fact that China in general doesn’t like the cultural influence that Hollywood movies might spread onto the Chinese crowd.
Source: Twitter
