In "JSA" #45 (2003), Black Adam and his teammate the Atom Smasher both defect from the Justice Society. During the next few issues, Adam forms his own organization, which administers justice the way Adam wants it: "an eye for an eye". His roster includes a mix of DC heroes and villains, including the Atom Smasher, Brainwave (who is possessed by Mister Mind), Northwind and the rest of the society of Feithera, Nemesis, and former JSA museum curator Alex Montez, the human host of the demon Eclipso. Adam's collective executes Kobra, a villain who has been acquitted by the legal system (albeit because his followers had threatened to blow themselves up if he was not released) when the JSA could have spared them his escape and the hassle of a trial by simply killing him when he was first captured. Adam then turns his attentions to his old homeland of Kahndaq, now ruled by a militant dictator whose actions had long been ignored by the United Nations.