Saturday, 17 September 2022

Death Battle Predictions: Black Adam VS Apocalypse

 


Black Adam, the king of Kahndaq and archenemy of Shazam from DC Comics.


Apocalypse, the chronological First Mutant and enemy of the X-Men from Marvel Comics.


Life can be unfair. That fact has rung true since the beginning of civilization. So what happens when an unfortunate soul oppressed by the many gains godlike power? Of course, they become the masters. These two demonstrate the disastrous outcomes brought about from looking down upon the weak. In an ironic twist of fate, today’s ancient Egyptian supervillains have adopted the ways of their abusive superiors, becoming worshiped as gods that shape the world as they see fit. A storm has arrived, and the Four Horsemen approach. Find out if Black Adam’s mighty lightning is a match for Apocalypse’s molecular wizardry in this DEATH BATTLE!

Background

Black Adam

“I am Black Adam. And I will bring justice to this planet.”


Our tale begins in Kahndaq, a fictional Egypt-like nation on the Sinai Peninsula. A man named Teth-Adam, born into slavery and witness to the deaths of almost his entire family at the hands of their ruthless dictators, was hopelessly lost, bound to become another cruel footnote in the history books. Amazingly however, he found the resolve to escape from his captors and rescue his nephew Aman from captivity. Unfortunately, Adam was grievously wounded in the process, and though they got away, it didn’t look like he’d survive.


That is until the almighty wizard known as Shazam stepped in. The two were transported to the Rock of Eternity, and Aman was chosen as Shazam’s champion, a pure of heart hero granted the powers of the gods to do good. Aman accepted, and as a bonus, his uncle was healed and could be given powers of his own as well. With the two now having the world at their fingertips, Kahndaq could be freed of its tyranny. However, Teth-Adam was vengeful and full of rage, wanting to kill those in power, while Aman wanted to make peace and end the bloodshed altogether. In a drastic and desperate move, Adam killed his dear nephew then and there for the sake of what he considered the greater good. He seized ultimate power at the cost of his humanity; he had become Black Adam.


With his newfound abilities, Black Adam got to work cleaning up Kahndaq’s oppressors, and somewhere along the way, fought and defeated the living embodiments of the Seven Deadly Sins. True story. Unmatched, he easily took the throne of Kahndaq, reigning as its new king, a bloody monarch seeking just vengeance for his people. But this wasn’t enough. The mad god massacred the Council of Wizards and went after Shazam himself, only to be sealed away for thousands of years, brought back once in the 10th century to defeat the powerful Frost King, and then locked away once more.


But of course, he returned. Now in the present day, he took back his homeland, but in a world full of superheroes, garnered unwanted attention. Specifically, he would come to blows again and again with Shazam’s current champion, a teenager named Billy Batson. Despite his age, Billy showed a level of fortitude and courage that matched Adam’s, giving him and his conquest one tough time. Still, many times Black Adam has ravaged Billy and his family, and the rest of the superhero community as well. Despite such pushback, Black Adam’s wrath did not come from a place of pure malice. He DID care about his people, and he wanted to spare innocent lives whenever possible. After years of hatred, he’s started to mellow out, even teaming up with the good guys, but he’s definitely no upstanding paragon. Regardless of who or what he fights for, if you stand in Black Adam’s way, don’t bother praying, because the gods are already on his side.


Apocalypse

“You struck me. Huitzilopochtli of the Aztecs. Kali Ma, Black Mother of India. The First Light of the Mutant Dawn…Lord Apocalypse! I will not tolerate such heresy!”  


It’s no secret mutants face unjust treatment in Marvel society, but this story is something else entirely. The first ever mutant was born in the times of ancient Egypt and was immediately an outcast due to being just… UGLY. Like, Thanos level ugly. Thus, he was left to die in the desert. Lucky for him, a tribe called the Crimson Sands took him in as one of their own, training him for years to become an excellent warrior that would earn him the name of “En Sabah Nur” or “The Morning Light”. With his physical might, he was the best of the best and flaunted it frequently, even if the others despised him for it.


But it wouldn’t matter for long. The pharaoh enslaved him and his people to serve under his rule, but through everything En Sabah Nur had been punished with, everything terrible that had happened, he survived to take the power he rightfully should have. Accepting his role as a monster, but yearning to be the king. When he fought off the pharaoh and took his place as ruler, he gave himself the new name of what he would bring upon his enemies. He had become the Apocalypse.


With his insurmountable mutant might, Apocalypse ruled his land with an iron fist and was an unstoppable force to anyone who dared oppose him. He was hellbent on enforcing his ideology of survival of the fittest, that the strong will prevail and the weak will crumble to dust. Surprisingly, his kingdom actually prospered, but ruling Egypt with this idea wasn’t enough; he had his eyes set on taking over the entire world. After centuries, his goals would be made easier by him finding alien technology he would use to enhance his already incredible physiology, giving him not only a boost in his own strength, but new ideas for world domination. He incited world wars, a literal apocalypse, and it took the X-Men, a team of mutant superheroes, to go back in time from the future and stop him. But even then, he would never stay gone.


No matter how many times he was defeated, sealed, or killed, Apocalypse came back to cause disaster and misfortune. He even battled a younger Thor back in the day. But after terrorizing the X-Men and Avengers for so long, thanks to Krakoa, Apocalypse has begun to cooperate with his fellow mutants for a more peaceful world, using the name . Whatever that means.


Anyway, once an event known as “X of Swords” began, they almost turned our big-lipped antagonist into a tragic hero. After all his battles and despite his lust for conquest, it was revealed that all he really wanted was for his family to thrive. He fought for Moira and his children’s love, because he understood that love is not a weakness, it is your greatest strength. And he almost became a hero in the end, saving his people and sacrificing himself to be stuck in another dimension forever, all for what he loves.


But since this is comic books, he’ll probably be back to his antics soon enough. After all, nothing lasts forever. And no matter what we do, the end times are inevitable.


Equipment

Black Adam

Suit

Black Adam’s signature suit, which is partly made of gold, is built for combat, while also looking great. He can channel electricity through it and light up his emblem for electrifying attacks. The triangle emblem on his belt can be used in conjunction with his lightning to open a doorway to the Rock of Eternity.


Apocalypse

Bio-Armor

A specialized piece of armor that serves as his standard attire, and is designed specifically to be able to be adaptable with his molecular manipulation. Over the years, it has been further enhanced by Celestial technology, with features such as the ability to absorb kinetic energy to redistribute it back at the opponent.


Celestial Armor

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One of Apocalypse’s greatest advantages against most of his foes is this piece of armor. While he only wears it for certain occasions, it is composed of Celestial technology, and allows him to take hits from even the strongest of opponents.


The Finch

A special piece of Celestial technology that was originally designed to repair genetic decay. However, after his modifications, it's able to replace all cells in a body with perfect counterparts, essentially allowing Apocalypse to transfer his body with others through DNA. Beyond this, the power of this device is capable of connecting minds to the surroundings, and creating and destroying an entire island.


Techno-Organic Virus

An extraordinary virus which converts living matter into technology, which Apocalypse was first infected with by Cable. When the virus mixed with his blood, it gave him technopathic abilities and enhanced regeneration that can bring him back from a drop of blood, so long as there's organic matter that the TO virus can rewrite around him (it should be noted that this process takes a really long time to finish). Apocalypse later used the same virus to infect Cable when he was an infant. Ironic, isn’t it. Funny how time travel works.


Acceleration Device 

A small device that Apocalypse used to cure Charles Xavier of the Techno-Organic Virus by accelerating the virus' growth, to the point where it could not properly function and thus became insufficient to sustain biological matter. It takes approximately ninety seconds for the device to complete the process.


Robots

With all the technology he has obtained from the Celestials, it’s no surprise that Apocalypse has used them to create robots; from an assassin robot capable of nuclear self-destruction, to ​​probes that operate across the world to spy and gather information, to ​​various cyborgs each designed for specific mutants. Apocalypse has even built a robot version of himself that’s capable of contending with Wolverine (EL BLIGHTSPOKE) and tossing around heavy machinery before.


Death Seed

Another piece of Celestial technology that was originally given to him for the purpose of advancing evolution (ironic, considering its original purpose was for destruction). However, Apocalypse had other ideas with it. When implanted into a person, their powers would become greatly enhanced and they would either become Death, one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse, or in the case of Archangel, another Apocalypse entirely, corrupting them in the process.


Grimoire

Created from Apocalypse’s own mind and manifested into physical pages, this spellbook is his documentation of his own thoughts of knowledge, which includes how to perform magical rituals, astrology, ​​experiment records and descriptions of various magical creatures.


Abilities

Black Adam

Power of the Egyptian Gods

Similarly to Shazam, Black Adam also obtains powers from six different gods. However, unlike Billy Batson, when Adam shouts “SHAZAM!”, he obtains the power of the Egyptian pantheon instead of the Greek. Vouchsafed powers from the gods of Egypt, he gains the stamina of Shu, the speed of Horus, the strength of Amun, the wisdom of Zehuti, the power of Aten, and the courage of Mehen. When transformed with this power, Black Adam cannot age.


Stamina of Shu

The god Shu was the god of air and support of the sky, and blessed with the Stamina of Shu, Black Adam gains superhuman endurance and durability, allowing him to withstand what would normally be fatal to a human. It makes him completely bulletproof, as well as able to take hits from top-tier DC powerhouses.


Speed of Horus

Horus, or Heru, the god of the war and sky grants Adam incredible speed, allowing him to evade or blitz any foes in his path, leaving them nothing but dust and bones. He’s used this incredible speed to avoid blasts of lightning and keep up with speedsters such as Jay Garrick. This also grants him the power of flight.


Strength of Amun

Amun or “The God of Air” gives him mighty strength to battle any hero in his way, fighting Superman or Shazam and breaking through Green Lantern constructs like nothing. With this, he’s also strong enough to create thunderclaps to deafen or ​​blow back opponents.


Wisdom of Zehuti

Zehuti (more commonly known as Thoth) was the god of wisdom, intelligence, and magic. From Zehuti, Black Adam was granted him a strong mind, which he would use to rule over his people and outwit his foes. This even allows him to absorb and instantly learn a language.


Perhaps most significantly, similar to Billy’s Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Zehuti allows Black Adam to supernaturally acquire information about his foes, or plans for how to win or gain an advantage in a given situation. Through Zehuti’s counsel, Adam has developed strategies to defeat opponents that he was otherwise at a disadvantage against.


Power of Aten

With the Power of Aten, the sun god, Black Adam gains the ability to summon powerful magical lightning called the “Living Lightning”. Whenever Black Adam calls the word “SHAZAM!”, an intense bolt of lightning reigns down but he can also fire lightning from his chest piece, fingertips or his fists. This lightning shares a variety of other functions such as turning people into stone, displaying mental projections, defibrillating people, recharging others like the Flash, and restoring lost memories. 


This lightning is potent enough to roast entire bodies to death, fry people down to their skeletons, and reduce someone to a mere husk. It’s also powerful enough to knock out incredibly powerful beings such as Superboy-Prime and Pariah​​.


Courage of Mehen

Mehen was a powerful warrior who defended the sun with his honor and courage, giving Adam strong morals to believe what he is doing is truly right and just. Making him both a good leader with strong willpower - enough to defend against Martian Manhunter’s telepathy - and a powerful threat to the likes of the Shazam family and Justice League. 


Power Distribution 

With those whom Teth-Adam shares a strong bond with, he can share a portion or all of powers with them. This can be seen with the case of Amon and Mary Marvel.


Enhanced Senses

Compared to the average mortal, Black Adam’s senses are far beyond that of the norm. He possesses heightened hearing, enhanced vision, and has even managed to track opponents through hearing and smell before.


Martial Arts

Black Adam is not just limited to his lightning abilities, he is also an advanced martial artist. He practices a form of martial arts called Dhritarashtra, developed by Vandal Savage, which took people like Ra’s Al Ghul an entire lifetime to just learn the basic forms. With it, he’s skilled enough to beat Batman in a straight fight.


Resistances


Apocalypse

External Physiology

 

Apocalypse isn’t just some random mutant, he belongs to a rare subspecies of mutants called the Externals or as they like to call themselves: “the High Lords”. Like other mutants, he possesses a mutant gene that grants him extraordinary powers, as well as superhuman strength and durability. But what sets him apart is his additional gifts:



Enhanced Senses

Being the first mutant, Apocalypse is capable of sensing the soul energy of long gone mutants. His extrasensory perception extends beyond that, allowing him to sense cosmic beings like the Watcher, people with powerful psychic presences, and even see through invisibility with his sensors.


Martial Arts and Swordsmanship

Due to being trained by the Sandstormers at a young age, Apocalypse has learned hand-to-hand combat, to the point where he’s skilled enough to defeat three armed Sandstormers unarmed. He is also skilled in swordsmanship, to the point he could contend with and defeat Cable, ​​Aero, and his wife, Genesis, a skilled sword fighter in her own right.


Molecular Control

Apocalypse has shown various abilities over the years. One of his first and foremost abilities is his unmatched ability to rearrange and restructure his own body’s molecules, which have been further enhanced by the Techno-Organic Virus, in order for various offensive, defensive, evasive and miscellaneous purposes such as forming:



He is also able to combine energy with this ability in order to form cannons, guns, lasers and even rocket thrusters for enhanced flight. Apocalypse can also shift his molecules to grow and shrink as he pleases, often using this ability to become gargantuan in size and completely overpower the opposition. This ability allows him to have some sort of “pseudo-healing factor” that can regenerate or regrow parts of his body.


Breath Attack

By sucking up the air around him, Apocalypse is able to send opponents around him flying away when he blows out. Similarly, he can suck up bullets and spit them back out.


Technopathy

After being infected with the Techno-Organic Virus, Apocalypse gained the ability to control machinery by connecting himself to them. This extends beyond pure machines, as seen when he was able to control the Ship, which had a mind of its own.


Energy Manipulation 

Gifted with the power of Celestial energy. With applications that are basically infinite, Apocalypse primarily uses this power to create big blasts and beams of energy that can come mainly out of parts of his body such as his hands or eyes (although he has also shown to be able to telekinetically light fires). These blasts are powerful enough to disintegrate people.


Healing

One application of his Celestial energy is the ability to heal others, as seen when he healed Eye-Boy’s hands. His own metamorphic blood is capable of ​​healing others as well.


Forcefields

By focusing his energy around a select location, Apocalypse can create a forcefield around himself or others.


Flight

Apocalypse has been shown to be able to take off into the skies, which can be enhanced by him creating rocket thrusters for himself.


Teleportation

Thanks to enhancements by Celestial technology and energy, Apocalypse has gained the ability to teleport himself, others, or himself and others at the same time. His teleportation is quite impressive, with a range that extends beyond this planet and into space. He can even teleport items as large as the Sphinx.


Telepathy

The Eternal Pharaoh is also capable of telepathic ability, which he normally uses either to read people’s minds to gather information, or to communicate with others from great distances. However, he has also shown he can utilize this ability in order to implant suggestions, project visions of the past, ​​release his external control, as well as battle and reverse other psychics' powers.


Telekinesis

In addition to his telepathy, Apocalypse is also able to utilize telekinesis. With this, he can lift and crush objects in the air, pull a person’s skeleton out of their body, deconstruct and reconstruct objects, prevent people from breathing, and use it to levitate himself and others into the air.


Illusion Creation

Another use of his Celestial gifts is the ability to create convincing illusions of himself or others, which he uses in order to intimidate, fool or distract others.


Absorption

Apocalypse can absorb energy (and can even touch it like it is solid), such as kinetic energy with his normal suit, or energy from an extradimensional realm, which he can use to amplify his physical attributes or rejuvenate himself. He has shown to be able to drain all of Cyclops’s bioenergy (though he was amped by the Power of the Twelve whilst doing so, he possesses the ability regardless). His absorption is not limited to just energy; in an alternate future timeline, he was able to absorb one of Archangel’s feathers to heal himself.


Summoning

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In the past, Apocalypse has shown the ability to summon an entire small army, which he named the Riders of the Dark, in order to compete with Dracula’s forces.


Fusionism / Soul Transference 

With enough energy, Apocalypse is capable of fusing together with other beings. He does this by transferring his own essence from his current vessel into another, however, this process requires quite a lot of energy and time to complete, depending on who he’s trying to merge with. For example, when he tried to merge with X-Man, he required the energy of the Twelve to do so, and even then, he got interrupted by Cyclops and merged with him instead.


Resistances

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Feats

Black Adam

Overall 

  • Defeated Shazam, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Atom Smasher, Eclipso, Psycho Pirate, Death, Superboy-Prime, Pariah, etc.

  • Killed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 

  • Singlehandedly held his own against entire superhero teams

    • Took on the entire JSA team by himself 

  • Has consistently been a powerful foe to the entire Marvel Family

  • Became a valuable member of both the Justice Society of America and Justice League

  • Was the sole survivor of the initial battle between the Justice League and the Great Darkness

  • Was the first champion of the Wizard Shazam

  • Snuck past the binding spell of the Tower of Fate while he was a human

  • Managed to fight and defeat Santa Claus because he didn’t give presents to the children of Kahndaq. Yes, really.


Power


Speed 


Durability


Apocalypse

Overall 


Power


Speed 


Durability

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Weaknesses

Black Adam

Despite his incredible feats and showings of strength, Black Adam has quite a few weaknesses of his own. Should he be tricked into saying the word “Shazam”, his transformation will be undone. This is because the magical lightning used to transform him can also be used to undo his transformation, and while he’s strong as a regular human, he’s certainly not matching the god-like strength he had when transformed into Black Adam. He’s also consistently had his powers taken away from him, whether by the wizard Shazam or power nullification from Tap. And to add insult in injury, he is incredibly egotistical and sees himself as the ultimate savior of his people.


Apocalypse

While Apocalypse may be a heavy hitter, he does have a fair share of weaknesses, especially his massive ego. He is very overconfident in his skills and power even when faced against stronger opponents. Despite his resistance, he is still susceptible to powerful enough telepathic attacks and has been defeated via that a couple times from Jean Grey and Nathan Summers. When rushed with many attacks at once he can become overwhelmed, which can limit his thinking for his unique shapeshifting. His resurrection takes years to complete, and his regeneration is also ridiculously inconsistent with the time it takes to work. It should be noted that each time he resurrects, he initially is far weaker than before and needs time hibernating in order to be fully complete, which itself takes weeks.


Summary

Black Adam

“If I was infallible, I would be a god. But I’m not a god…just a leader of men.” 


Advantages:

  • Much stronger when accounting for volume scaling; relative in strength without it

  • Likely faster with quantifiable ends, and relative with higher-ends

  • Lightning could likely bypass Apocalypse’s healing factor and could hit Apocalypse in vital areas not covered by the Celestial armor

  • Can counter telepathy

  • More skilled in terms of combat

  • With the Wisdom of Zehuti, can overcome the difference in experience and intelligence

  • Celebrates Christmas

  • Is powerful (punches the best)

  • It’s about drive, it’s about power, he stay hungry, he devour


Disadvantages:

  • The Death Seed could potentially make Apocalypse far superior in strength and durability

  • Celestial armor would be difficult to directly damage

  • Less versatile and not as varied abilities 

  • Less experienced and intelligent 

  • Has no defense against Apocalypse’s possession and absorption

  • Apocalypse has experience dealing with magic and magical lightning

  • Looks like Adam Sandler


Apocalypse

"I am everywhere, Magneto. For am the fit. I am the strong. I am Apocalypse!" 


Advantages:

  • Relative strength without volume scaling 

  • Can match higher ends of speed 

  • Celestial armor would provide a beneficial defense against Adam’s attacks

  • Could possibly reach levels far beyond Adam if given full potential of the Death Seed

  • More versatile and varied abilities

  • Numbers advantage with summoning and robots

  • Molecular alteration and teleportation allow for greater battlefield control

  • More experienced and much more intelligent 

  • Black Adam has no defense against his possession and absorption 

  • Has taken magical lightning from the likes of Thor, meaning he could potentially survive Adam’s lightning 

  • Celebrates Christmas 

  • Has been a boss since the ancient times

  • Destroys Rocks daily… 


Disadvantages:

  • With quantifiable ends, is likely slower

  • Weaker with volume scaling taken into account

  • Adam’s lightning can be problematic for Apocalypse’s healing factor and hit vital areas not covered by the Celestial armor

  • Less skilled in terms of combat 

  • Wisdom of Zehuti likely counters his experience advantage 

  • Canonically too ugly to live

  • …but is not The Rock


Verdicts

Black Adam

Stats

So let's talk about Black Adam. Though Apocalypse may be powerful and may have a variety of useful abilities, ultimately that is not going to save him against Black Adam’s sheer might. The Shazam family’s powers are frankly insane. Mary Marvel, who is comparable to Shazam, was capable of beating Captain Atom to a point of near death. Captain Atom is the guy that was capable of destroying and recreating the universe in a nanosecond.


This isn’t the only example of the Marvel family being extremely broken. Shazam was able to briefly lift the book of Limbo, which had infinite pages, and also contained the whole of existence. Before anyone brings up Ultraman stating that he read the final chapter where Mandrakk triumphs, that argument is flawed, as he didn’t win in the end. Since the book was supposed to contain all books possible and all stories in DC, this means either Ultraman was lying or he only saw one possibility out of infinite.


As you can see, both feats should put the Shazam Family at bare minimum universal+, and considering that Black Adam consistently fights and harms them, that should at the very least put him at universal+. This is also consistent with the scaling they get from non-Shazam characters. Black Adam has been shown to be strong enough to break out of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s construct, the same constructs which are strong enough to contain the energies leaking from Imperiex, which is worth the destruction of entire galaxies.


This is helped by the fact that Black Adam has been portrayed semi-consistently as a team-buster, taking hordes of superheroes of immense power levels to take him down. All of these feats paint a very clear picture, that Black Adam is more than comparable to DC’s heaviest hitters and potentially even beyond them. Considering that most DC S-tiers have been placed at least universe busting, to potentially multiversal+ with the highest feats, it’s fair to place him at that level of power.


His iconic lightning strike is also extremely powerful, if not more powerful than his physical stats being able to knock out Pariah and Superboy Prime who’s known for his magical resistance, at his very best could survive being struck by an amped Mordru who could only be defeated by ​​the uprising of an entire planet populated by sorcerers, the least of whom were equal to Silver Age Doctor Fate. Although, it’s questionable if the same Superboy Prime should scale to his feats before as it has been stated than he has gotten much weaker after Infinite Crisis. 


In terms of speed, Black Adam has shown to be immensely fast, flying from the farthest star in the universe to Earth in 5,000 years. This would put his flight speed at 5,600,000c or MFTL+. His combat speed should also be comparable to Wonder Woman, who once blocked pieces from the Shattered God, which came from the corner of the universe in seconds at quintillions of times the speed of light. He could get even further beyond this scaling to his rival Shazam, who has flown to the Rock of Eternity which exists beyond time and space, a feat suggesting immeasurable levels of speed. Either way you put it, Black Adam’s speed should easily be massively faster than light and up to immeasurable speed.


Durability should be pretty self-explanatory. He has tanked blows from the likes of Superman, with Superman even stating that Black Adam could stalemate him for days. Considering Superman’s own feats of strength, such as shattering the boundaries of space and time, which is at the very least a universal feat, Black Adam should easily have universal durability at bare minimum, and up to multiversal+ at most via scaling to DC’s most powerful heavy hitters.


Now, how does this compare with Apocalypse? Well, his stats should be easy to gather by comparing him to some S-tiers in the Marvel universe. He’s capable of restraining the Hulk, the green Goliath who can shatter planet sized asteroids, damage Hyperion who survived universes colliding, and even affect the multiverse in a night of passion with Umar. He’s kept up with the God of Thunder Thor, even an entire army of them. That’s more than impressive, considering Thor has fought the Planck timing Ares, thrown Mjolnir fast enough for it to transcend the barriers between space and time, and shook all of Yggdrasil as a baby, which exists on all planes of reality. This would put Apocalypse, through scaling, at universal - multiversal+ and MFTL+ to potentially immeasurable


Ultimately, similar to the last Marvel VS DC fight, the stats for these two are ridiculously close. The winner for greater strength, speed, and durability could easily swing either way between Black Adam and Apocalypse, which makes it difficult to decide between the two. And while Apocalypse arguably could have the higher durability, he seems to lack the strength and speed of Black Adam.


Teth-Adam is able to regularly hold his own against characters like Shazam and Superman. While his battles with Superman could arguably be due to his abilities being magical in nature, he’s fought other characters comparable to Superman plenty of times. There’s also no such question when it comes to comparing Black Adam to Shazam, whom he fights regularly. His lightning strike being arguably more powerful than his physical stats should also be noted as that allows for further upscaling.


In addition to this is speed. While Teth-Adam can regularly fly at lightspeed, he can also be scaled to Shazam, who has been able to move just as fast, if not faster than Barry Allen. Teth himself has likewise kept up with Jay Garrick, an earlier version of the Flash with immeasurable speed feats to match his successors. While there are definitely incredibly fast characters in Marvel, like Quicksilver, Silver Surfer, and Thor, they’re not quite as fast as the speedsters in DC’s heroes gallery, so the speed edge more than likely should go to Black Adam here. And even if Apocalypse is more durable with or without the Celestial Armor, Black Adam does have specific ways to get around this, so it shouldn’t be a major issue.


All in all, while the balance of power, speed, and durability could lean towards either of these two at any given moment, Black Adam seems to edge him out, which should give him the win for this category.

Arsenal and Abilities

While Apocalypse does have the larger list of hax, Black Adam isn’t exactly helpless against them. With his acronym of Shazam abilities, resistances to mind tricks, and most importantly his lighting which allows him to do more than just zapping his opponents. This legendary lightning is capable of turning people into stone, displaying a mental projection, defibrillating people, recharging others like the Flash, and even restoring lost memories.


The lightning is also extremely powerful, being able to roast entire bodies to death, fry people down to their skeletons, and reduce someone to a mere husk. It’s also powerful enough to knock out incredibly powerful beings such as Superboy Prime and Pariah, who are arguably more powerful or at worst comparable to Apocalypse​​.


Black Adam also has the Courage of Mehen, which gives him mental resistances that can fight off Martian Manhunter’s telepathy. Manhunter’s telepathy should be more than comparable to the telepaths that Apocalypse has faced, like Psylocke and an extremely weakened Jean Grey, so there is no reason why Teth could not fight off Apocalypse trying to control him or read his mind. 


Other factors in Apocalypse’s abilities and arsenal can be also countered, for example:

  • Apocalypse’s army is pretty much worthless due to them lacking even a fraction of the stats to keep up. Teth’s own battle experience, as well as Wisdom of Zehuti, would tell him to aim for the general instead of the fodder.

  • Apocalypse’s fusionism/soul transference takes time to set up, while Teth can simply say Shazam, preventing Apocalypse from setting it up in the first place.

  • Apocalypse’s possession via the Finch takes some time to set up as well, requires physical contact, and can potentially backfire if Black Adam overcharges it with lightning.

  • Kinetic absorption can be countered by Adam overpowering the bio-suit’s ability to absorb his force through sheer strength or… aiming for the head.

  • His energy absorption can be countered similarly, as Apocalypse has never shown the ability to absorb power strong enough to knock out Superboy Prime.


All-in-all, Apocalypse’s abilities may be numerous, but many of them require set up or are impractical against an opponent as monstrously capable as Black Adam. Through sheer speed and strength, and the power of the Living Lightning, Teth-Adam will simply overwhelm Nur more times than not, before any of his abilities can come into play.

Tertiary Factors

Once again, this category is a bit debatable. Apocalypse is certainly more intelligent than Black Adam, considering how many times he’s gotten his powers conveniently taken away from him, and also seems to have less experience. This could be a problem, especially considering that Apocalypse has faced opponents like Black Adam before.


However, that’s not to say that Black Adam doesn’t have his own experiences to draw back on. Plus, he’s received a lifetime of hand-to-hand combat training, to the point that he could even take down Batman with it. And of course, the Wisdom of Zehuti is a great secret weapon to have. Sure, he might not be able to read Apocalypse’s mind, but he’ll still be able to find out anything he needs to know, which is always important in a fight.


With a mass of experience to go off of, Black Adam could certainly work around the different abilities his opponent would use, as demonstrated by the fact that he has resistances, sheer durability demonstrated throughout the blog and him taking on hordes of superheroes of varying powers & abilities during World War III.


In terms of skill, while Apocalypse could defeat multiple Sandstormers in hand-to-hand combat, he has never shown skill enough to beat the goddamn bat like Black Adam has. And while experience does go to Apocalypse during born earlier by almost 2000 years (around 5000 years ago vs around 3200 years ago) and not having to spend centuries imprisoned (though he did spend quite a bit of time hibernating over the centuries), the Wisdom of Zehuti surely can make up for it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while Black Adam definitely has less abilities and hax than Apocalypse, it’s going to be extremely difficult for Apocalypse to actually deal a fatal blow. With the advantage in speed, strength and durability, Black Adam is pretty much a tank going into this battle against a much more versatile but also weaker opponent.


The winner will come down to whether you think Apocalypse’s versatility and hax is enough to close the gap between their powers. If you do, then it's likely that Apocalypse can take the win, but considering that Black Adam is already at a stat advantage and can easily out-speed him, the most likely scenario in this fight is that eventually Apocalypse will be overwhelmed and killed. Ultimately, while Apocalypse’s versatility and hax would give him trouble, we believe that Black Adam would take the win in this fight.

Apocalypse 

Stats

Let's see how well Apocalypse stacks up to Black Adam. Firstly, strength, where via scaling we see Apocalypse duking it out with Marvel superheroes such as Thor, Jane Foster, Cable, Cyclops, Hulk, and Magneto- wait but he isn’t a.. oh well! Going back to Cyclops for a moment, Apocalypse blocked Scott's Optic Blasts with just his hands. He’s also restrained Hulk, who upscales from Grey Hulk’s meteor busting power, 1.2 yottatons of TNT in nerd speak. Not to forget the Hulk’s Thunderclap folding an entire universe.


But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Remember that Saiyan Prince killin’, speed gettin’ Asgardian? Thor himself was trumped in strength by Apocalypse, which is saying a lot, considering Thor is strong enough to tear a root of Yggdrasil, a fluid embodiment of time and space. He was even able to shove the World Engine, which was overpowering the World Tree itself. The realms of the World Tree are entire universes, and there are at least 10, potentially up to an infinite number of realms within Yggdrasil’s avatars. Apocalypse can match and surpass these levels of universal+ and multiversal+ strains of power. Yet this isn’t his best. He can go even further beyond with a simple usage of the Death Seed, which according to Doctor Doom, can amplify the user’s power to a level on par with the Phoenix Force.


All of this would comfortably sit Apocalypse in this area of being universal at least, to all the way to multiversal using very high ends, and even higher if he uses the full extent of the Death Seed.


Speed is simple, he can avoid the likes of Cyclops’ Optic Blasts, which he has dodged multiple times (1, 2, 3, 4). This is impressive, since said Optic Blasts move at light-speed. This would put him at FTL speeds at the very least, but he is likely higher than that. He is fast enough to tag Quicksilver, who once reacted in a picosecond while suffering a concussion. He could also be compared to Thor once again, who has crossed the universe in moments, and reached speeds that would transcend time entirely. He has also kept up with Silver Surfer, who can travel through time through sheer speed alone. This would definitely put him at massively FTL speed, and even make him potentially immeasurably fast.


Durability is up next, and it is no less impressive than his strength. Even a weakened Apocalypse could survive being bombarded by Cyclops and Jean Grey, though it did force him to retreat. He has also tanked attacks from Havok, who once produced a burst of energy as bright as a star across the Milky Way. He withstood Thor cutting into him with Jornb- Jo.. the axe that isn’t Stormbreaker.


He’s tanked attacks from other heavy hitters such as Jane Foster Thor, who once created shockwaves so powerful they shook planets from half a universe away. Hell, Jane has straight up fought Odin, a skyfather, and Mangog, Odin’s worst nightmare. As such, Apocalypse should sit comfortably at universe level durability at bare minimum, and up to multiversal+ or even higher, especially through the addition of his Celestial armor, which is comparable to… well, Celestials! Who are able to take blows from powerhouses like a young Odin and the strongest version of the Destroyer Armor like nothing. While Black Adam could aim for the head, there’s some instances of Apocalypse creating a helmet for himself which could potentially deter Black Adam from doing so.


So how does this all stack up to Black Adam? Well, he’s proven to be an even match for Shazam and the rest of the Marvel family, who have scaling to the likes of Captain Atom, a being that destroyed and recreated the DC universe in a nanosecond, which doubles as both a strength and speed feat. The Marvel family have even crazier feats themselves, like Shazam lifting (albeit briefly) the book of Limbo containing all of existence.


That’s not super inconsistent either, given Adam and Shazam have both fought Superman, who generated enough energy in a fight with Jaxon to restore multiple timelines. It’s stated all but one timeline was destroyed, and given DC has infinite timelines, that basically means Superman restored… well, infinite timelines, which would place his strength at multi+.


As for speed, Adam has kept up with some of the higher-tier DC characters, which allows him to scale to feats like Martian Manhunter spreading his telepathy across Earth in Planck time or Superman traveling fast enough to break the bonds of infinity. Hell, Shazam himself has flown to the Rock of Eternity, which exists beyond space and time.


Ultimately, comparing their low and high ends, both Adam and Apocalypse should be relatively even with each other. Scaling to finite speed feats could lead to Adam holding a solid speed advantage, but using infinite and immeasurable speed feats closes that gap, and both scale to universe and even multiverse destroying characters. This isn’t a fight that can be exactly won with raw stats alone, and that leads us to our next factor.

Arsenal & Abilities

Thanks to being an External and heavily enhanced by Celestial technology, Apocalypse has some of the greatest versatility in abilities and equipment of Marvel’s mutants. From your average energy blasts, to fusing with others to his own turning any part of his body to whatever he wishes. 


First of all (and to get this out the way at the start) is his regeneration, but to understand the effectiveness of his regeneration, we need some context and address misconceptions:

  1. His regeneration and also his strength is directly tied to his hibernation, as he has to periodically enter it to rejuvenate, and if he is interrupted mid-process or finishing, he emerges far weaker than normal. This explains some of the examples of inconsistency of his regeneration, as he dies surprisingly a lot. 

  2. While he can regenerate from a drop of blood, it requires some preparation of organic matter as well as a ridiculously long waiting time to finish. Due to this, if Apocalypse gets reduced to say… a puddle of blood it’ll count as a win for Black Adam, as he would’ve just won and left the fight despite technically not killing Apocalypse.


Going further into the laundry list that is his abilities: his original mutant power of molecular control allows him to alter his own body to whatever contortion he needs to be, in the context of this fight, this would allow him to adapt to Adam’s more brawler style moveset by say; putting holes in his own body in order to dodge attacks as well as giving him a certain sense of unpredictability with his moves.


While Adam has shown resistances against telekinesis and telepathy, he hasn’t shown immunity, as he still got affected by Martian Manhunter’s telepathy at the end of World War III after MMH was able to fix himself mentally, meaning Adam could be affected, just not to an extreme extent. 


With his teleportation he can retain a great amount of battlefield control, however, what really matters is his abilities of possession and absorption. While it is arguable that Black Adam is much stronger than him, his ability to absorb Adam’s electric attacks in order to rejuvenate himself could allow him to keep up and possibly close the stat gap, though that’s dependent on whether you believe if Adam is faster or not, which is addressed in the previous section.


What’s arguably more useful in this fight, is his ability to transfer bodies which he can do in two ways: either with the Finch or by transferring his essence. While the latter takes quite a lot of time and power, and would thus be very unreliable against someone like Adam, the former is faster and not something Adam has any resistance to, and would allow Apocalypse to instantly win the fight, provided he is fast enough to pull it off.


Speaking of resistances, while Teth has some resistance to Apocalypse's powers, the inverse is also true. Particularly, Adam’s transmutation can be countered by The Eternal One’s molecular alteration, which has prevented him from being affected by the Techno-Organic Virus, which similarly transmutes matter into inorganic material. Moreover, given that Apocalypse has survived magical lightning attacks from both Thor and Jane Foster, it is unlikely that he would be fried by Adam's own lightning. 


In terms of arsenal, Adam has got nothing on the absurdity of Apocalypse’s wide arrangement of equipment. Apocalypse’s robot and army would most likely be steamrolled through, but would at very least provide a distraction. The Finch is especially useful as stated above. And the Techno-Organic Virus is uniquely useful as well, due to the fact that Adam hasn’t shown any resistance to anything similar to that. While it takes quite some time to fully affect the victim, it would still decrease Adam’s ability to fight properly if the fight is prolonged, which Apocalypse is completely capable of doing (e.g. making a force field around Adam and sending him away). 


Then we reach everyone’s favorite hated part of the High Lord’s arsenal: the Death Seed! Now there’s no denying that this mistake by the Celestials can grow to absurd amounts of power, enough to compete with the Celestials themselves and even the fiery red space bird herself: the Phoenix Force. Earth-295 Apocalypse was able to utilize this power to take over America!…and that’s it.


But the important question is whether mainstream Apocalypse would actually use the Death Seed on himself, since in the 616 timeline he surprisingly never did, only giving it to certain mutants to create Deaths (as in the Horseman). In fact, it’s questionable if he knew the full extent of its power, as it is stated before that he lacks a lot of knowledge about the very stuff he has been using literally most of his life. His seed has never shown potential comparable to their 295-counterparts, as seen with 616 Archangel, who has never quite shown infinite multiversal breaking biz before. Nonetheless, Apocalypse still has the ability to win with or without this seed.


In summary, Adam has got nothing on the absurdity of Apocalypse’s wide arrangement of abilities, haxes and equipment. This isn’t to say Adam hasn’t got his own ways to win, of course. His lightning is a solid solution to Apocalypse’s tricky regeneration, by just frying the blood to literal nothing. Perfect really. But that isn’t really gonna save the Kahndaq ruler, who isn’t a Galaxy Defender. UP YOURS ARSENAL! Apocalypse has this advantage in the bag.

Tertiary Factors

Apocalypse and Black Adam are both thousands of years old, but have spent large portions of their respective life spans incapacitated. Apocalypse ultimately possesses a more scientific and tactical mind, but Black Adam has superior training and skill when it comes to martial arts, having overcome the goddamn Batman in hand-to-hand combat whilst depowered.


The Wisdom of Zehuti is also capable of compensating for any intellectual disadvantages that Teth may face, but does not negate Nur’s own tactical talents. By-and-large, neither is going to be winning this fight off of skill or intellect alone, so it ultimately isn’t too relevant. Both can keep up well enough.

Conclusion

To conclude, it’s clear that Apocalypse can match Adam in stats. They’ve both been able to go against some of the strongest S-tiers in their respective franchises such as Thor, Hulk, Superman, and Shazam who have feats ranging from the universal+ ranges up to the multiversal+ ranges. With volume scaling, yes, Adam would be stronger, but that’s only one method to scale and in more situations than not, it’s clear that Apocalypse can at least keep up to some extent. The Celestial armor of his is also extremely helpful as it allows him to take hits from Black Adam even if he’s weaker.


Even in the case that Adam is helpful, the armor of Celestials can easily hold up against attacks from entities who are far, FAR more powerful than multiversal+. For example, a strike from Jarnbjorn did massive damage to Gorr the God Butcher, who was able to tank a massively powerful energy attack from Old King Thor, a version of Thor who had the Odinforce longer than Odin ever had. That same strike from Jarnbjorn left a scratch on Apocalypse’s armor.


Similarly, while Black Adam’s lightning strikes are extremely powerful, Apocalypse has been able to take magical, conceptual lightning from Thor Odinson and Jane Foster, whose lightning has been able to hurt the Phoenix Force, Gorr, and the Demogorge. Sure, if Black Adam actually manages to fry Nur’s blood after beating him up into a puddle, then yeah, maybe Apocalypse won’t return. But once again, the Celestial armor is a good counter. As for Adam hitting parts of Nur’s body that aren’t covered by the armor? Not only is Apocalypse durable enough to take the attacks, but also has a relatively quick-paced healing factor.


Apocalypse is also smarter and haxxier than Black Adam. Yes, Adam can resist telepathy but Apocalypse has several more abilities. He has multiple methods of ranged attacks and has some absolutely, ludicrously powerful matter manipulation. He can manipulate his own body’s structure to shapeshift and create holes in his body. This would be helpful in avoiding Adam’s attacks.


His energy manipulation and absorption would be helpful in countering Adam’s lightning attacks and potentially even turning them back on Adam. He can fly, just like Adam, and create force-fields to prolong the fight. He has telekinesis and telepathy, which, while Adam can resist for a good chunk of time, there is always the small probability of Apocalypse getting through. Especially when stacked on his other powers. Most importantly though is Apocalypse’s absorption.


This is where Celestial technology becomes important. In the case that Black Adam does get through Apocalypse’s defenses, En Sabah Nur could use the Finch to completely replace Adam’s biological makeup with his own, essentially turning Black Adam into himself. Hell, Apocalypse has biological manipulation with the Techno-Organic Virus, though Adam can likely counter it with his magic transmutation. Apocalypse could even potentially mess with Adam’s soul, though the extent to which he could do such a thing isn’t elaborated on to a massive degree.


In the end, it’s just unlikely that Adam can make it through Apocalypse by just punching him. Apocalypse has counters to the magical lightning and while Adam does know several magical spells, so does Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur, with his similar stats, better abilities, and experience fighting characters similar to Adam should take the win after an extremely difficult fight. Just think of how we Adam up together, it just lypse’s over itself.

Final Tally

Black Adam (6) - AgentRedhead, Drhippotime, Clockboxxer, Rina Antiqua, Robin, SneedFormerlyChuck

Apocalypse (5) - Akhil, Cyber, eXoRy, MomoUra, Yuix
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