Warning! Spoilers for Future State: Black Adam #1's "The Beginning of the End" below.
The greatest Superman Prime, one of the most powerful versions of Kal-El ever, remerged in one of the universe's darkest times, and while his presence seemed like a perfect solution to defeat a group of new villains, it turns out even he wasn't strong enough to beat them.
Superman Prime was created by Grant Morrison and Val Semeiks for DC's One Million arc, as the golden hero has a vast array of cosmic powers that put him in the upper-echelon of most powerful DC Comics characters ever. He's got the same backstory as the original Superman, but after becoming immortal and absorbing powers of the sun for thousands of years, he gains his golden form, while also getting a Green Lantern ring from a previous battle with Solaris.
Future State: Black Adam #1 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando arin, Oclair Albert, Wes Abbott, Jeromy Cox, focuses on the Justice Legion-A picking up a strange transdimensional frequency in space. Superman Prime, who had been resting in his Fortress of Solitude in the center of the Sun, investigates, but suddenly feels strange memory issues, when The Unkindness appears. The team is led by the Lord of Chaos (Vandal Savage) and features the Seven Deadly Sins, who are hellbent on destroying reality in an effort to end all of existence. The group swarms Superman Prime and break his body and will, as they leave his corpse floating in space.
To say the Justice Legion-A are shocked with The Unkindness making quick work of Superman Prime is an understatement. The current Superman says that he dreamed of being a hero like Superman Prime, but "he didn't even stand a chance" against the monsters. The Flash rightly points out that if Superman Prime doesn't stand a chance, then who among them does? The rest of the galaxy reacts to the defeat in significantly different ways: Atlantean's send a barrage of cruisers to fight back which are also destroyed easily, while a cybernetic world decides to self-detonate after calculating they have no chance at survival.
The Unkindness is such a threat, that when they invade the now-peaceful paradise Khandaq ruled by a Black Adam who has long-abandoned magic in favor of science, the DC antihero turns back into his magical form in order to fend them off. It's going to be fascinating to see what more havoc The Unkindness unleashes upon the universe because after defeating the previously thought to be unkillable Superman Prime so easily, it remains to be seen whether anyone else in the galaxy is even remotely strong enough to defeat them. Future State: Black Adam #1 is in stores now.
