#11 Justice League of Avengers: Who Would Win? Marvel´s Beta Ray Bill or DC´s Black Adam

by Mason Eddins, Reporter

In today´s edition of Who Would Win, we´ll be pitting a couple of underdogs against each other: Beta Ray Bill and Black Adam. Both these electrifying characters control lightning itself. Both have other abilities, but lightening is their most obvious and reoccurring attribute. We´ll look at their origins, powers, abilities, and greatest battles.

ORIGINS

Before Beta Ray Bill was a hammer wielding god, he was the protector of his species, the korbinites. Bill and the rest of the korbinites lived in the Burning Galaxy. This was before Sutur destroyed the galaxy using his demonic machinations. The surviving korbinites decided to choose a champion to protect and bring the rest of the cryogenically frozen korbinites while searching for a new home world. The name of the ship they used is Skuttlebutt. As the Skuttlebutt was approaching the Milky Way Galaxy, S.H.I.E.L.D., detected the ship and sent Thor to investigate. The ship deemed Thor a threat, and as a result, Bill and Thor fought. The battle was short and ended with Bill picking up Thor´s hammer, Mjolnir, as spoils of battle. Odin then teleported both Bill and Thor to Asgard to resolve the issue of who got the hammer. Odin decreed that the two would fight to the death in Skartheim. It was revealed that Odin gave Bill an advantage to defeat a weakened Thor. However, Bill refused to take Thor´s life. It has been speculated that Odin chose a battlefield to further test Bill´s worthiness and to teach Thor a lesson. Regardless of what might have happened, Odin gave Thor back Mjolnir while Bill got his own hammer, Stormbreaker. When Bill became a ¨Second Thor¨, he changed his name to Beta Ray Bill so he would not be mixed up with Thor.

Before he was Black Adam, Teth-Adam was a slave in Egypt where almost his entire family was killed by dictator, except for his nephew, Aman. Adam managed to save his nephew at the cost of being severely injured himself. Being severely injured bought Aman time to escape. However, Aman refused to leave his dying uncle. While escaping the prison guards, both Aman and Adam were teleported to the Rock of Eternity and greeted by the wizard Shazam. Shazam deemed Aman worthy of taking up the mantle of his champion, and the task to free Kahndaq. Aman accepted under the condition that Shazam healed his uncle. Shazam explained that, with the powers of Shazam, Aman could heal Adam. When both Aman and Adam returned to Kahndaq, they thought of how they could save the city from dictatorship. Adam had the idea that they could use their newfound powers to kill the dictators and exact revenge for their dead family. On the other hand, Aman wanted to save the people of Kahndaq and end all the bloodshed. Adam feared that Aman´s method would not, and killed him to steal his powers.  Adam saw the death of his nephew as a sacrifice for the greater good.

POWERS/ABILITIES

Beta Ray Bill has similar physical attributes to Thor. Beta Ray Bill is also a cyborg. Bill´s strength is so powerful that he´s capable of crushing moons with his fists and shatter entire planets with the force of his blows with his hammer. In terms of running, Bill´s faster than any human. On the other hand, when Bill flies with his hammer, Stormbreaker, he can move faster than the speed of light. Bill has been granted a healing factor and extended longevity due to his advanced cyborg body. Due to his Korbinite biology, Bill excels in hot climates. Just like Thor, Bill can speak in the Allspeak. The Allspeak is a language in which if spoken in, everyone would understand the speaker in their native language.

Like Shazam, Black Adam derives his powers from six gods. The Egyptian gods in which Black Adam draws his powers from are Shu, Horus, Amun, Zehuti (Thoth), Aton, and Mehen. Unlike Shazam who draws his powers of the Greek Gods through The Wizard, Black Adam draws his powers directly from his set of Egyptian Gods. Due to his connection to the Egyptian gods, Adam has divine empowerment. His divine empowerment gives Adam electrokinesis, an accelerated healing factor, and enhanced intellect. The several other powers Adam possesses are flight, immortality, an indomitable will, invulnerability, magical resistance, self-sustenance, super speed, superhuman reflexesagility, stamina, strength, and teleportation. Black Adam has been noted to wear a yellow power ring.

GREATEST BATTLES/FEATS

Beta Ray Bill fought Thor on their first encounter. In a Bill VS Thor fight, Bill would have the upper hand in a hand-to-hand battle because his physical body has been enhanced to its fullest potential with the help of cybernetics. But because Thor had his hammer, he was stronger and suspected to win. Bill being cybernetically enhanced and fighting in his own sentient ship, was able to have a few advantages over Thor, overpowering him and winning.

The greatest feat, and possibly throughout Earth´s history, Black Adam has ever achieved was defeating almost every single DC main universe hero. Adam was capable of achieving this because of his connection to the Egyptian Gods and near unlimited powers. Adam went throughout the world killing any and every hero he could find. He did this as an act of revenge for his dead wife. Black Adam was eventually stopped by Martian Manhunter and Superman when they managed to trick him into saying Shazam backwards.