I'm thinking of reading a few Adam Strange comics from over the years, but I'd like to know what was the best representative story in which he appeared in the 70s?
I know he didn't star in his own stories in the 70s, but perhaps a JLA/JSA crossover, or a Brave and The Bold?
Most importantly, it'd have to be a story that I could reasonably get my hands on, so one that is available in reprint would be good.
Has Adam Strange's first appearance in Mystery in Space #53 - 'Menace of the Robot Raiders!' been reprinted anywhere? What about Mystery in Space #82 "World War on Earth and Rann!" as well?
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Really playing catch-up again.
Welcome back (to this thread), Richard! I'd been wondering where you were.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #76 - "Adam Strange Meets the X-Men!"*
*Just kidding. The actual title is "Challenger of the Rival Starmen!" The cover blurb describes this as "a double-length Adam Strange thriller," but it's only 14 pages. Maybe it double in comparison to the back-up features, but that claim strikes be as a bit disingenuous, especially since last issue's lead was 25 pages.
Zeta Beam: "On a rock ledge of mighty Iguazu Falls in Brazil." Obstacle: None, really, but an alien suddenly appears and stares at him just before the beam hits.
Science: The "Curie Point" is the temperature at which magnets become demagnetized. (Also, that water expands when frozen, I guess.)
When Adam arrives on Rann, the same alien who observed him leave Earth is there when he arrives on Rann, staring at him. The alien soon disappears, though, and Adam doesn't think too much of it. Adam and Alanna attend the Festival of Dyalina. (Do we care? Oh, all right.) "According to thelegend--five thousand years ago a rebel warrior of fabled Pagathann rose up against its tyrant and led its people to freedom here, where they began to build Ranagar City." (Happy now?) The festival is celebrated as their most joyous holiday, and includes "running the flower gauntlet" without losing a flower from the vines. Alanna wins, but is startled into dropping her trophy when the alien again appears.
That night, the alien appears in Adam's bedroom and introduces himself as Xanthos, "co-champion" of the planet Zarala of the star-sun Mizar. His co-champion, Yarnak, have fought several times with no clear winner. Recently, Xanthos learned about Adam Strange "from a friendly policemen of Karalyx" (Mystery in Space #71). "Since you have never been defeated," Xanthos explains, "I've come here to study your battle methods, hoping to learn something which will enable me to defeat my rival Yarnak." Then he makes like Jacob Marley and informs Adam, "You will face three dangers--animal--natural--and intelligent life! I hope you're as good as you're reputed to be, so you'll win out--thus giving me the method I need to overcome Yarnak! I must warn you that if you fail--you'll perish!"
The next day, Alanna and Adam jet-pack to the Gorge of Chrystar. (Now Gardner Fox has me "verbing"!) As they fly southward through the Valley of Summaru, they encounter an alien bird brought the Rann by Xanthos. The bird is a Mizar (or is from Mizar) and vibrates its wings making Alanna dizzy. Adam defeats the Bird of Mizar by tossing some vines around its wings, which probably would have worked against any bird, vibrating of not. I'm not sure what Xanthos learned from this encounter, but Adam passed the first test.
Next they become trapped in the Gorge of Chrystar by a fallen rock. The river Sythaline runs underground there and, over the ages has "worn the gorge wall to the thinness of paper, making it transparent!" I question the possiblilty of that, but it's alien rock so who knows? Anyway, Adam uses his ray gun to destroy this unique natrual formation, but the water rises to its own level and doesn't move the rock. (I didn't think it would.) Adam and Alanna then turn on their suits frigi-controls, freezing the water. As the ice expands, it moves the rock (somehow without crushing their bodies first). The "hot equitorial sun" begins to melt the ice, and their heat control units do the rest (somehow without trapping them beneath the rock as the ice melts). Once again, I'm not sure what Xanthos learned from this, but Adam passed the second test.
Next, Xanthos himself attacks Adam and Alanna, first with "expanding black globes," then with "magnetic clouds." Adam frees himself by firing at the cloud until it loses is magnetic charge. at which point Xanthos creates a duplicate of himself. Adam has only one charge left his his ray-gun at this point, and writer's fiat demands that he fire at the real Xanthos, which he does by forcing the "two" aliens to face the sun and see which ione squints. Funny, I thought it was going to be which one sweats. Either way, I don't buy it. who says an illusion can't be realistic-looking enough to sweat? It's an illusion after all. Adam lectures Xanthos that he relied too heavily on mechanical weapons "when the greatest wepon mam posesses is--his brain!" Xanthos has finally learned the secret of Adam's success and resolves, "I'm goingto make friends with Yarnak, use our weapons--and brains--to help our planet stave off any menaces it may encounter."
Really playing catch-up again.
Welcome back (to this thread), Richard! I'd been wondering where you were.
Ran myself out of time yesterday. I’ll really try to get through #74, 75 and 76 today.
Might as well go ahead and read #77 while you're at it. ;)
Mañana
Jeff of Earth-J said:
MYSTERY IN SPACE #74
"The Spaceman Who Fought Himself!"
Ah, another Silver Age staple: the hero fights a double of himself. "Springboard" covers aside, comic book covers will never again be as imaginative (and descriptive of the issue's content) than those of yesteryear because, as I understand it, covers are due far in advance of publication for solicitation purposes.
As a generalization, today’s covers for years have been unrelated to the story, pretty much posters. Now that original art is owned by the artist, originals are sold for profit. (I’m sure something in this statement will turn out to be wrong or outdated.)
Zeta Beam: Above the Pacific Ocean. Obstacle: Rescuing an outrigger vinta from a typhoon. Local color: "Maui" is the name of the legendary folk hero of the Polynesian people.
For which the island in the Hawaiian chain is named.
The Menticizer has been improved with writer's fiat so that it now enables users to "telepath" their thought s when hooked up to it.
Apparently, telepathy in this form allows the “sender” to only “say” what he wants, just like speech. Otherwise, Adam and Alanna would find out the duplicate is lying.
Hortan Var explains, "I was bathed by Mu radiation which turned me into a living television station."
Analog broadcast, I assume, in 1962.
Hortan’s (does he hear a Who?) excuse for not returning to single-handedly battle the warlords is that his sun is now special and if he is teleported to another system he will cease to be immortal. Dying for a cause isn’t attractive to him. It’s okay with him if non-immortal Adam goes in his place.
It is at that point a voice reveals that the whole thing was a "Big Lie"... Horton Var's exile, the other-dimensional world of Kai, all of it. Horton Var is actually a member of "a group of professional warriors travelling through space looting planets." Horton Var was chosen to get Adam Strange out of the way because of their resemblance. They know that Adam will be returned to Earth when the zeta beam wears off, but they plan to be waiting for him in ambush should he ever return.
I suppose this is a way of showing how confident the bad guys are, while at the same time clarifying the plot to the reader. It would be very stupid of them to provide Adam with all of this useful information.
Now all he has to do is to lure the Kai warriors under it, which he manages to do with little effort.
So he sends the now-mortal Kai warriors to the “lifeless” planet. They will either find food and water or die.
Because he arrived on Rann this time by teleport machine rather than zeta beam, not only won't he return to Earth, he can't.
This isn’t at all heartbreaking to Adam or Alanna.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #75
"The Planet that Came to a Standstill!"
Zeta Beam: "Close to the ruins of the ancient and mysterious city of Zambebwe in the heart of Africa."
At the time of this story, the area surrounding the ancient city was the portion of colonial Africa called Rhodesia. Years later, Rhodesia was renamed Zambabwe, which was spelled incorrectly by DC (not you).
Adam and Alanna (see) Kanjar Ro on the run, and Adam hits the gamma gong hard enough to freeze everyone on the planet, including the three JLAers. Days later, the zeta beam wears off and Adam returns to Earth, where he finds the rest of the JLA still waiting in the African jungle.
While frozen for days, apparently no one on Rann needs to eat or drink. (No other bodily functions are recognized under The Code.)
Then reasoning that Superman is vulnerable to Kryptonite, Adam guesses that Kanjar Ro might be vulnerable to a metal native to his home planet Dhor, so he throws Kanjar's energi-rod at him.
I call shenanigans. Kanjar Ro’s homeworld hasn’t been destroyed, so radioactive metals from it haven’t been created. If just a metal from Krypton could affect Superman, he’d never be able to visit Kandor.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #76
"Adam Strange Meets the X-Men!"*
*Just kidding. The actual title is "Challenger of the Rival Starman!"
Adam has only one charge left his ray-gun at this point, and writer's fiat demands that he fire at the real Xanthos, which he does by forcing the "two" aliens to face the sun and see which one squints. Funny, I thought it was going to be which one sweats. Either way, I don't buy it. who says an illusion can't be realistic-looking enough to sweat? It's an illusion after all.
Nobody said it was a perfect illusion. Xanthos didn’t attempt the level of detail that would have had the illusion squint (or sweat).
Xanthos has finally learned the secret of Adam's success and resolves, "I'm going to make friends with Yarnak, use our weapons--and brains--to help our planet stave off any menaces it may encounter."
They’re going to be twin Adam Stranges for their planet. If their planet is anything like Rann, they’re going to be real busy.
Rhodesia was renamed Zambabwe, which was spelled incorrectly by DC (not you).
I've encountered this before in the course of this discussion. What I usually do is provide a link which leads to the proper spelling. This time I neglected to provide the link. Corrected.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #77 - "Ray-Gun in the Sky!"
There's that "Double-Length" nonsense on the cover again. Every once in a while I'll go to a pizzaria which has two sizes: medium and large. I maintain that, if there are only two sizes, they should be small and large. But the manager of the establishment maintains the size is relative to pizzarias with three sizes. Nonsense. Similarly, if all Adam Strange stories are 15 pages, then a 15-page story is not "double-length" (in comparison to some other reature), but rather regular length. But I digress.
Zeta Beam: The status quo changes once again as Sardath, studying the beam of Kanjar Ro, learns how to send an instantaeous zeta-beam toward Earth through hyperspace, one keyed to Adam's personal aura which can transport him even from the northern hemisphere. Obstacle: The same NYC cop who witnessed him disappear from his car in #72.
Science: Cold makes metal contract and heat makes it expand.
When Adam arrives, he finds that a giant gun had been hovering in the air above the city of Zared for days. Suddenly, a "flattop" spaceship appears in the sky and the gun starts firing. [On Earth, a "flattop" referred to an aircraft carrier during WWII, a name which Chester Gould borrowed for Dick Tracy's best-known villain (and that's me who added that "footnote"... not Julious Schwartz).] First the gun destroyed the Aldavian Hills then the Lake of Klaleel. Next will be Zared itself. Adam leads several attacks against it including rays, acid and a giant net, but nothing works. Then, using one of those intuitive leaps for which he is famous, he determines that the control mechanism must be in the giant ray-guns sight because no one is holding or aiming the gun and the sight serves no function otherwise. That kind of logic shouldn't pay off, but it does, and the gun comes crashing to the ground.
All along, the Rannians had assumed that the gun was being controlled by the flattop spaceship, but you know what they say about those who assume. That's right, they make an ASS out of U and out of Adam Strange. The gun had been conrolled by Sorkhan Vuh and had been keeping the enemy ship of the Arvese, led by Ku Dann, at bay. With the gun disabled, the Arvese were poised to strike. Some time ago, the Arvese learnd of a terrible weapon stored beneath the Rannian city of Zared from a spaceship that crash-landed ten centuiries ago. Sorkhan Vuh's gun, which only destroys inanimate matter, appeared in the sky above Zared to defend it. It didn't start firing until the Arvese arrived, and even then it fired first at the hills and the lake to give the people who lived in Zared, who could be harmed by falling buildings and debris, enough time to flee the city. Sorkhan Vuh's plan was to destroy the city, and the weapons under it, to prevent it from falling into the Arvese' hands.
Because Adam feels responsible for opening up the city for attack, he determines to repair the giant gun because writer's fiat has it that it's the only weaponn which is effective agains th Arvese. He does, somehow, get the gun firing again, but misses the flattop ship. That's enough to cause the Arvese to retreat, however, which is a good thing because Adam was bluffing. He couldn't fix the giant ray-gun, but rather gimmicked with several ineffectual hand-held ray-guns. To make matters worse, after the zeta beam wears off and Adam has returned to Earth, Sardath reveals to Alanna that the only reason his "new, improved" zeta beam worked in the first place was because of the giant gun's "atomi-protonic motor" which is now destroyed. D'oh!
Jeff of Earth-J said:
MYSTERY IN SPACE #77
"Ray-Gun in the Sky!"
I’m guessing this is another example of a springboard cover.
There's that "Double-Length" nonsense on the cover again. Every once in a while I'll go to a pizzeria which has two sizes: medium and large. I maintain that, if there are only two sizes, they should be small and large. But the manager of the establishment maintains the size is relative to pizzerias with three sizes. Nonsense. Similarly, if all Adam Strange stories are 15 pages, then a 15-page story is not "double-length" (in comparison to some other feature), but rather regular length.
Maybe they’re telling previous readers who were disappointed in 7-page Adam Strange stories that they now have 15-page stories.
One of the restaurants (not just a pizzeria) near me has three sizes of pizza. Their “small” is 12 inches, their “medium” is what others (say Domino’s) would call large and their “large” could feed a small army.
Zeta Beam: The status quo changes once again as Sardath, studying the beam of Kanjar Ro, learns how to send an instantaneous zeta-beam toward Earth through hyperspace, one keyed to Adam's personal aura which can transport him even from the northern hemisphere.
This would cut down on Adam’s travel expenses and eliminate the danger of transporting a whale or another alien dinosaur.
His “personal aura” instead of his DNA. DNA was first detected in 1869. Understanding increased over a century. DNA was first used for criminal investigation in 1986.
Obstacle: The same NYC cop who witnessed him disappear from his car in #72.
More amusement and more towing and storage fees.
To make matters worse, after the zeta beam wears off and Adam has returned to Earth, Sardath reveals to Alanna that the only reason his "new, improved" zeta beam worked in the first place was because of the giant gun's "atomi-protonic motor" which is now destroyed. D'oh!
So much for Alanna’s planned date night (or date-year).
MYSTERY IN SPACE #78 - "Shadow People of the Eclipse!"
Zeta Beam: "200 yards above the dense jungles of Matto Grosso in Brazil." Obstacle: "The sun is being eclipsed and--of course! The super-stitious natives below think the moon is a monster or gigantic bird--and to prevent it from 'devouring' the sun, are shooting fire arrows at the bird!" (Do I even have to mention how stereotypally rascist that is?) More likely they're firing at the jack-ass in a jet-pack, you moron!
Science: How stormclouds produce lightning.
When Adam arrives on Rann he is holding two flaming arrows, which is convinient because Rann has been plunged into total darkness, despite it being daytime. Alanna explains that the Vantor (the alien race with the "vacuumizer" weapons from #63) have returned and threw Ranagar into totla darkness, which also had the additional writer's fiat of making the building too hot to stay in and driving the Rannians outside. [She also explains that she had hoped to prepare a platter of Ranagarian Quail for him, "but we can't enter the city to use our stoves." (Keep that in mind.)] Soon, "letters of fire" appear in the sky in the language of Rann. They practically spell out an entire novel, but the practical upshot is that they are going to attack with a new weapon the following day.
The weapon is a "dark disc" which casts a bean that changes people into shadows (see cover). Then they are transported to another world where they become solid again. They are greeted by a ball of energy which explains that they are all, itself included, prisoners on "the planet of Llyrr." "Llyrr, we soon learn, is not the name of the planet but of the being who lives on it. He has led a mostly solitary existance, his only passtime being the absorbtion of visitors' memories and experiences, which kills them. One day, the Vantor landed there and the vacuumizers had no effect on him. They struck a deal with him, however, that if he let them go (leaving half the crew behind as hostages), they would populate the world with other races whose lives he could steal.
The world is now populated by myriad races, the mebers of which Llyrr picks off and absorbs one-by-one. They have tried to defeat him but have always failed. Just then, a thunderhead passes nearby. Reasoning that a thunderhead produces lightning and that "all though is electrical in nature," Adam convinces his fellow prisoners to combine there thoughts to mentally control the storm. (This doesn't work IRL; I have tried.) They cause Llyrr to be kncoked unconscious by lightning, at which point they all turn to shadows again and are returned to their respective points of origin. Once back on Rann, Adam must devise a way to prevent the Vantors from pulling the ame stunt again. Using the Vantors' own vacuumizers, Alanna absorbs all of the people and Adam absorbs the city of Ranagar itself. With nowhere else to seek shelter from the dark discs, both the "Rann-girl and the Earth-man" (as they are often called, in Gardner Fox's somewhat sexist manner) as well as the Vantors run toward the Vantors' ship. Adam and Alanna beat them there, and the Vantors are sent to Llyrr's planet.
Later, as Alanna serves Adam's long-delayed meal of Ranagarian quail, the zeta beam wears off and he is returned to Earth.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
MYSTERY IN SPACE #78
"Shadow People of the Eclipse!"
Obstacle: "The sun is being eclipsed and--of course! The super-stitious natives below think the moon is a monster or gigantic bird--and to prevent it from 'devouring' the sun, are shooting fire arrows at the bird!" (Do I even have to mention how stereotypically racist that is?) More likely they're firing at the jack-ass in a jet-pack, you moron!
Would the zeta beam have transported Adam’s shrunken head?
Yeah, I can buy cavemen reacting this way, but eclipses, partial and full, happen every so often. A lot of the people will have seen one before.
When Adam arrives on Rann he is holding two flaming arrows, which is convenient because Rann has been plunged into total darkness, despite it being daytime.
What a co-ink-i-dink!
Alanna explains that the Vantor (the alien race with the "vacuumizer" weapons from #63) have returned and threw Ranagar into total darkness, which also had the additional writer's fiat of making the building too hot to stay in and driving the Rannians outside.
When there are three suns, how does an eclipse work?
Reasoning that a thunderhead produces lightning and that "all thought is electrical in nature," Adam convinces his fellow prisoners to combine their thoughts to mentally control the storm. (This doesn't work IRL; I have tried.)
Alanna absorbs all of the people and Adam absorbs the city of Ranagar itself.
I realize they’ve never shared census info with us, but how in the world could Alanna gather up everybody on Rann?
…the "Rann-girl and the Earth-man" (as they are often called, in Gardner Fox's somewhat sexist manner)
It wasn’t just Mr Fox. Back then everyone in comics was a girl unless they were very old. This followed the practice in the movies. You would have thought that the word “woman” was obscene.
When I was in basic training in Kentucky, the drill sergeants (cavalrymen) called us all “boy.” Everyone was called that. Equal opportunity, not racism.
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