Now that the character of Atom Smasher from the forthcoming DC film Black Adam is being introduced to mainstream audiences, he’s inevitably being compared to Marvel’s Deadpool — but are such comparisons warranted?
When the first full-length trailer, as We Got This Covered previously reported, for the Dwayne Johnson-starring film dropped Wednesday. it prominently featured many members of the Justice Society of America, including Noah Centineo’s Al Rothstein, AKA Atom Smasher. As part of the promotion for the film, DC announced all-new one-shot comics, according to their Twitter account, centering on some of the characters, including The Justice Society Files: Atom Smasher #1.
Immediately, fans on Twitter predicted that, due to the apparent similarity of the character’s mask with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, comic book novices watching the film would immediately compare him to the Merc with a Mouth after just one joke.
Indeed, the discourse about Atom Smasher being a “copy” of Deadpool has already commenced online.
It got to the point where one Twitter user even made a Deadpool 3 fan poster from the original image, with a bit of clever photo editing.
However, one fan — perhaps justifiably — called the hot takes proclaiming Atom Smasher to be a copy of Deadpool “ironically sad.” Case in point: Wade Wilson himself arguably started out as a parody of the DC character Deathstroke.
While it’s certainly true Atom Smasher will make his cinematic debut years after Deadpool became a smash success when it hit theaters in 2016, what about the comics? It turns out, Atom Smasher made his debut many years before Deadpool. While Atom Smasher’s first appearance was in All-Star Squadron #25 in 1983, Deadpool first arrived on the scene in 1990, in New Mutants #98.
Audiences will just have to check out Black Adam and decided for themselves who ripped off who when it hits cinemas on October 21.
