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?
Replies
Jeff of Earth-J said:
MYSTERY IN SPACE #81
"The Cloud Creature that Menaced Two Worlds!"
The cover of this issue (cover dated FEB 63) is similar to my first copy of The Flash (#111, cover dated MAR 60), also by Infantino. It wasn’t so much the Flash cover that attracted me. It was the first issue I saw after “meeting” him in the first JLA story.)
Geography: "The Pacific Ocean area abounds in volcanoes most of which are inactive."
Otherwise called The Pacific Ring of Fire.
When Adam sees Alanna across the street, on Earth, he attempts to abandon his car in the middle of traffic, but officer Boyle makes him park it legally. (Lucky there was a spot on the street nearby.)
We almost lose Adam as he runs heedlessly through traffic.
He rushes over to Alanna, picks her up, then embraces and kisses her. She passes the "kiss test" which is a clear indication that this is not some sort of trick (although it is).
She passes the kiss test because she really thinks she’s Alanna, having been brainwashed.
With "Alanna" now on Earth, there is no need for Adam to catch the zeta beam to Rann.
Just because “Alanna” is on Earth, Rann won’t have another invasion?
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Adam is taking "Alanna" on a whirlwind tour of Earth. She is particularly impressed by San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge because "we have no bridges at all [on Rann]" (!?).
I guess they only have oceans, no large bays of rivers? The colorist, like Jay Leno, thinks the bridge is golden. It’s actually a shade of red. The bay was called the Golden Gate long before the bridge was built.
After that, they travel to India to visit the Taj Mahal, then it's back to New York to open the new Adam Strange Wing of the museum.
It’s not stated, but this must be for his fame as an archeologist, since no one knows he’s a hero. He’s the only hero, AFAIK, who uses the same name as a civilian and a hero.
Two days later, everyone on Earth (except Adam due to a healthy dose of writer's fiat) is turned "as hard and rigid as marble." Switching to his action togs, Adam traces the phenomenon to "the island of Tasmania, south of Australia," where the cyberay reappeared.
He flies to the Pentagon (where he bypasses frozen Security), then all the way to Tasmania. I never realized how advanced his jetpack was.
There he encounters the cloud creature (see cover) and fights it for five and a half pages (which accounts for this story being a "book-length novel" rather than merely "double-length").
During this battle, the cloud creature picks up a mountain and throws it at Adam. It is fragmented and destroyed when it crashes into an erupting volcano. This reminds me of the Silver Age Supergirl stories, except this mountain isn’t restored.
Once back at the museum, he tries to give "Alanna" a big ol' kiss, but Betti has regained her memory and slaps his face.
It just occurred to me that the uncommon spelling of her name was a nod to the model Betti Page, who shared a look with Alanna. Betti somehow remembers that she thought she was someone else. If she'd had sex with Adam, hopefully it would stick in her mind too.
But what of the real Alanna? when she disappeared, she was actually transported to the desolate region of Rann known as "Land of a Thousand Smokes."
On Earth, the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is part of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. It was created in 1912 by an enormous volcanic eruption. The “smokes” are escaping fumes from underground.
They fly to confront Alva Xar on the plain outside Parmaleen. Both Adam and Alva Lar are armed with cyberays. they are pretty evenly matched, but Adam "surrenders" throwing his cyeray to the ground in hope that the cloud creature will appear. It does, and Alva Xar is frozen to the spot.
Not everyone on the planet?
Then the zeta ray wears off, returning Adam to Earth just as Alanna is about to resume her line of questioning regarding Betti Smythe.
Her reaction was what it would have been on TV’s I Love Lucy if Ricky kissed a Lucy lookalike. The CCA censor and the prepubescent readers wouldn’t have come to your conclusion because her questions are in the minds of the readers. Mr Fox may have intended that, but it is purposely vague.
Geez, I hope I covered everything. This story was so convoluted I can't help but love it!
It is a good story.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #82 - "World War on Earth and Rann!"
Zeta Beam: Undisclosed (twice).
As Adam Strange arrives on Rann this time he is greeted not only by ALanna, but also by a group of protesters "from the backward city-states of Rann" who do not realize that correllation does not imply causation. Adam sees their point, however, and checks his ray-gun to make sure it's in proper working order. Alanna has a scedule of quiet activities planned, starting with the annual science fair. Akor Barth of distant Anathul is named "Scientist of the Year" for his radiation detector. In gratitude for having saved Rann so many times in the past, Akor Barth gives a duplicate of his prize-winning device. In the wings, an envious scientist plots to use his invention to conquer Rann.
Days later, a giant "magnifying glass" appears over the city of Aklon and begins to attack. Perhaps because Adam had already been on Rann for a week or so before troble struck, this time the zeta beam wears off and he is returned to Earth before the menace is defeated. All he can do is to wait for the next zeta beam to strike. He is so distracted by the danger to Rann (in general) and Alanna (in specific), that he hasn't paid close attention to the news. A day before the zeta beam is due to strike, he catches a news broadcast concerning "a group of futuristic war planes [which have] appeared over Washington, London, Moscow, Paris" under the control of "science wizard" Manlo Tallifa, who demands to be made overlord of Earth. "By distrupting the radiant layers that maintain the proper flow of time," he is able to "reach into the future and bring terrible war weapons to our own time!"
A duplicate of New York City has been built on an island in the Pacific by a movie studio for one of its pictures. It is that location Tallifa decides to attack and destroy with ray-bomb planes from World War V, obviously drones. (How many world wars is Earth destined to have?) Adam tries to contact the Justice League but they do not respond. He speculates that "they must be somewhere out in space--or time--on another case!" Then he hits upon the idea of using Akor Barth's radiation detector to pinpoint Manlo Tallifa's base of operations. (The story doesn't make it clear, but Adam must have been carrying the device or had it strapped to his belt or something when zeta beam wore off.) He traces the radiation to the Cascade Range of the Oregon Rockies. The attack of the futuristic planes is intense, forcing him to retreat. Torn by his desire to save Rann or to save Earth all along, he then mysteriously deduces, "I just realized--I've got to go to Rann! My only hope of saving Earth--is to first save Rann from that flying lens."
Adam "speeds southard" to redezvous with the zeta beam and is greeted by Alanna on a flying platform. She informs him that, after destroying Aklon, the giant magnifying glass has approached other cities on a one-a-day schedule, but none of them have been destroyed because each one has surrendered. (Typical.) "Whoever controls the lens," according to Alanna, "hasn't even bothered to appear and accept the surrenders." What's more, the invulnerable lens will stay in the sky forever, linked to his hearbeat. If he ever dies, even by natural causes, the weapon will destroy Rann, so he must be captured alive. Adam speculates that the giant magnifying glass must be controlled remotely, and uses the radiation detector to home in on the location from which it might be controlled. (Apparently he carries that writer's fiat device around with him everywhere now.)
Adam suggests that Ranagar surrender to buy time. Meanwhile, Adam investigates the times at which the weapon appeared and departed from each city. Just then, a postal clerk named Lalla appears with a list of "the times when mail deliveries are made by pneumatic tubes from the various city-states" (and does Alanna ever give her the stink-eye!). The next mail tube delivery is scheduled for 4:01 to Berengaria, and the weapon leaves Ranagar at 4:01 exactly, heading for Berengaria. From this information, Adam concludes that the would-be conquerer is in each city directing the threat in person, and is mailing the control device to himself from a city which has just surrendered--to the next city on his list." (The terrorist is aware that the control device can be tracked by the radiation detector, which the the writer's fiat which prevents him from carrying it in his person.) Even in 1963 this is an incredibly inefficient way to conduct a terrorist threat. Now all that's left to do is set up a sting operation at the Berengaria post office.
That works, but Earth is still in danger. Adam decides that the indestrucible magnifying glass can be used to defeat the indestructible future drones, so he keeps his hands on it for the next several days while "Adam is hand-fed by his sweetheart as crowds watch their chapion of champions. I don't know what he does when he has to use the toilet, but the admiration of the crowd is the call-back to the protesters at the beginning of the story. the zeta beam wears off, and from that point it's simply a matter of tying up loose ends as the plan proceeds apace. But I promised something "different" today, so here it is.
Julius Schwartz died in 2004 and, in tribute, DC released one of my favorite "fifth week" events: the DC Comics Presents series of one-shots. As we have discussed, a hallmark of Schwartz's editorial vision was his ability to concieve imaginative covers to serve as springboards for his writers in need of story ideas. for the DC Comics Presents one-shot tribute specials, classic Schwartz "concept covers" were used to inspire new stories from some of comics' greatest creators, two per issue. I always wanted to have a discussion comparing the originals with the 2004 versions so we could vote on the best of the three, but I didn't have all of the originals in my collection. Now, 20 years later, I think the only one I have added (i.e., the only one DC has seen fit to reprint) is Mystery in Space #82. What I would really like to see is a hardcover collection of the DC Comics Presents specials along with the original stories. So now, without further ado, let's look at 2004's DC Comics Presents: Mystery in Space, cover by Alex Ross.
FIRST STORY - "Crisis on 2 Worlds" by Elliot S! Maggin and J.H. Williams III
This is a straight-forward Silver age-type story (with a modern twist) which takes which begins in the "Republic of Swazeria in Southern Africa" and features a "rare East African Harness Zebra." Ralph and sue Dibny are along with Adam Stange, but the two men get arrested by the local authorities. Adam misses the zeta beam, which ends up hitting a kid and his donkey instead. Sue bribes the guards, but Adam's jet-pack is missing. Adam catches the next zeta beam, leaving Ralph to track down the missing jet-pack. Rann is being menaced by a weather-control satellite, and Swazaria by multiple coups. Eventually Adam redirects an eight-kiloton A-bomd through the zeta beam to take out the weather control apparatus.
SECOND STORY - "Two Worlds" by Grant Morrison and Jerry Ordway.
This story is much more modern in regard to its story-telling sensibilities. there are actually two stories being told simultaneously: the one being illustrated, and the tribute to Julius Schwartz being narrated. Here are some excerpts of the latter: "Somewhere in another world there's Julie and Jack Schiff drawing straws over the stewardship of National's latest space heroes, while right overhead are traced the brave arcs of tiny Russian satellites--peeping through the weightless chambers of the night-like baby birds of prey. Entertainers and educators alike have all revieved the same bugle call to arms that says--if we're to compete with the Reds in orbit and beyond all that to the starry endless unknown--then someone has to start pushing the idea of careers in space and now. But how?...
"Julie knows how to pick the characters with staying power--his heroes have something about them--these sleek and fearless pioneers in their modernist couture--armored with science--emitting The Right Stuff like it's blue radioactive testosterone--secure in their relationships with beautiful, brainy career girls--Julie's white-collar superman blueprint a lost self-image of America's 21st century--suggesting a holy pulp fiction future trampled in the unholy rush to get there...
"Adam Strange--lost on a science fiction vision quest to heal the psychoanalyzed traumatized soul of his people--preparing his children not for a glorius space race with Russia but for the alien killing fields of Southeast Asia. Ten years after Sputnik the kids who read Julie's books will march on the Pentegon--stoned and rebellious in their threadbare rocket suits--lost between two worlds--will die in mud--heavy with metals--victims of politics and ballistics--the tensions already foreseen in an image of Adam crucified--suspended in a liminal zone of immaculate indecision--a shcizoid second of syncopated stillness between the wars."
There's more... a lot more... but you get the gist. As dark as the story is, it does end on a positive note.
Every one-shot includes the text of Harlan Ellison's obituary of Julius Schwartz, complete with pictures not only of Julie, but also Ray Bradbury, Stan Lee and Ellison himself, now all dead themselves.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #83 - "The Emotion-Master of Space!"
Zeta Beam: "Several miles south of the New Hebrides." Obstacle: A newly-formed volcanic island. Adam blasts a "tunnel" into the tip of the island so that he can be in the exact place it displaced him, but it's a false dilemma; he could have simply intercepted the beam a few feet in front of where he had been waiting.
When he arrives on Rann he is met by Alanna as usual, but she hates him and fires her ray-gun at him. He flees but is pursued by a contingent of Ranagarians. Giving them them the slip, he gets the story from Lo Pau, an alien from the planet Lorane in the system Shanadar. His planet is being threatened by a platinum-skinned bird called a Kalulla. when the Kalulla eats platimun, it gives off radiation deadly to the Loraneans, who are generally immortal. their solution is to engineer their planet to switch places with Rann. In order to facilitate that process, Lo Pau uses his "emotionizer" to turn the people of Rann against their champion. (Lo Pau's emotionizer can create love, hate, greed and despair, which arguably puts him up on Marvel's Pscho-Man, whose psycho-ray can induce only fear, doubt and hate.) Adam confronts Lo Pau in his very uncomfortable-looking craft, the coilodyne (see cover), but is unable to prevent the planet switch.
As soon as the switch is made, everyone returns to normal and it is up to Adam to find a way to return Ran to the Alpha Centauri system. The first thing they discover is that Alanna's never-before-seen pet puppy is dead, poisoned. It had been eating the plant athatale which became a deadly poison during the transfer due to writer's fiat. Adam dips harpoons into the poison and fires them at the Kalulla but they fail to kill it. He was also taking pictures of it from multiple angle while he attacked, and uses those pictures to create a mechanical Kalulla coated in poison. He pilots it to a platinum deposit and leaves it for "nature to take it's course." The real Kalulla mounts the fake one from behind (which certainly does suggest "nature taking it's course"), but ends up killing it then dying from the poison.
With the danger defeated, the Loraneans agree to switch the planets back. It never occurred to them to poison the Kalulla because they themselves are virtually immortal. (They sound about as self-sufficient as the Rannians.) An "editor's note" in lieu of a "next issue" blurb foreshadows that, in #84, the Dust Devil (#70) will intercept the zeta beam.
I'll catch up tonight with MIS 82 and 83. I’m not sure where we discussed it, but I’ve decided I won’t be involved in reading along if you do a reading project on Doom Patrol. Too many demands on my time.
Thanks for letting me know.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
MYSTERY IN SPACE #82
"World War on Earth and Rann!"
A duplicate of New York City has been built on an island in the Pacific by a movie studio for one of its pictures. It is that location Tallifa decides to attack and destroy with ray-bomb planes from World War V, obviously drones. (How many world wars is Earth destined to have?)
This was a little annoying. Hard to believe we could survive the third one. On Earth, a supposedly uninhabited movie set is destroyed. On Rann, an actual City-State was destroyed in ten minutes. It is not said, but presumably no one got out in time.
What's more, the invulnerable lens will stay in the sky forever, linked to his heartbeat. If he ever dies, even by natural causes, the weapon will destroy Rann, so he must be captured alive.
And why would such a nice guy make this up?
Adam speculates that the giant magnifying glass must be controlled remotely, and uses the radiation detector to home in on the location from which it might be controlled. (Apparently he carries that writer's fiat device around with him everywhere now.)
If he’s carrying it, I don’t think Infantino shows him doing so. “Chekhov’s radiation detector” is destroyed and Adam’s hands are burned just before he can use it on Rann. This guy was fully aware of it and got rid of it. Writer’s fiat is that such a monster wouldn’t just fry Adam as well as the detector.
Adam suggests that Ranagar surrender to buy time. Meanwhile, Adam investigates the times at which the weapon appeared and departed from each city. Just then, a postal clerk named Lalla appears with a list of "the times when mail deliveries are made by pneumatic tubes from the various city-states" (and does Alanna ever give her the stink-eye!).
I’m surprised that Mr Fox didn’t have Alanna challenge Adam for talking to another woman in the middle of this extreme crisis.
The pneumatic tubes were invented in the 19th Century. A few years ago they were using them at a local Costco to transport cash from each check stand to a secure room.
Adam decides that the indestructible magnifying glass can be used to defeat the indestructible future drones, so he keeps his hands on it for the next several days while "Adam is hand-fed by his sweetheart as crowds watch their champion of champions. I don't know what he does when he has to use the toilet…..
There’s no crying in baseball and no toilet use in Code-approved comics.
After I eat dinner I’ll read and comment on MIS 83.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
MYSTERY IN SPACE #83
"The Emotion-Master of Space!"
Adam confronts Lo Pau in his very uncomfortable-looking craft, the coilodyne (see cover), but is unable to prevent the planet switch.
Was Lo Pau saying “screw you” to Adam or was Infantino saying it to someone else?
The first thing they discover is that Alanna's never-before-seen pet puppy is dead, poisoned.
Not only is the puppy never-before-seen, it isn’t even seen here.
He was also taking pictures of it from multiple angle while he attacked, and uses those pictures to create a mechanical Kalulla coated in poison.
It’s not coated in poison. The pre-selected platinum deposit is coated in the poison that killed the puppy and was thought to be deadly to any living thing. Adam tells Alanna “My scheme is to make Kalulla think that a rival space-bird is going to eat its food.” Later, after piloting the fake bird near to real one, Adam thinks “It’s seen me. Now to land on the poisoned platinum.”
The real Kalulla mounts the fake one from behind (which certainly does suggest "nature taking it's course"), but ends up killing it then dying from the poison.
It’s violently angry and smashes into the fake bird, destroying (not killing) it and dies after eating the prepositioned poisoned platinum bait (Try saying that three times fast). In the meantime, Adam has to flee like lightning from both the poison and the deadly radiation the bird emits when it eats.
Was Lo Pau saying “screw you” to Adam or was Infantino saying it to someone else?
I took "coilodyne" to be a portmanteau of an aircraft coil and a dynamo, but that cover image does look rather phallic now that you point it out.
It’s not coated in poison.
Quite so. thanks for the correction.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #84 - "The Powerless Weapons of Adam Strange!"
(My mind was wandering all over the place as I read this story, so bear with me.)
Zeta Beam: 'Directly above Devils Marbles--great stones of the Australian outback"; "Northward along the Molopo River toward the Kalahari Desert near Capetown, South Africa." Obstacle: In both of these cases it was Jakarta the "Dust Devil".
Jakarta of Rhynthar (from issues #68 & #70), who is "supposed to be in a Melbourne prison, kept inactive by a Wimshurst machine), suddenly appears, blows Adam out of the way of the zeta beam and catches it himself. By the time Adam makes his way to the next zeta ray strike point, Jakarta is there, too, apparently already returned from Rann. This time Adam wants to stay and fight, but the Dust Devil blows him into the zeta ray. When he arrives on Rann, Alanna tells him that Jakarta is still there, and Jakarta himself tells Adam that he split himself in two., concentrating all of the zeta ray radiation into one of his selves. Adam begins fighting Jakarta with a series of weapons from Rann's underground wepons cache, but the Dust Devil is able to turn them all to dust (see cover).
Retreating back to Ranagar to study the problem in the lab, Adam bumps into Alanna who is sweeping up the dust, which gives him an idea. "By treating the dust with radioactivity--and blowing it on that guinea pig," he explains, "I froze it motionless!" (He probably also gave it cancer, but that's beside the point.) Now he has to trick the two Dust Devils into letting him blow radioactive dust on them... blah, blah, blah... The End. "No Matter in what state a zeta-beamed object is on Rann, it returns to Earth in the same condition as it left!" I don't know what objective evidence he's basing that conclusion on, but he plans to keep Jakarta in a lead-lined prson this time since a Wimshurst machine will no longer work due to writer's fiat.
“No Matter in what state a zeta-beamed object is on Rann, it returns to Earth in the same condition as it left!” I don’t know what objective evidence he’s basing that conclusion on, but he plans to keep Jakarta in a lead-lined prison this time since a Wimshurst machine will no longer work due to writer’s fiat.
The Wimshurst machine would still work, but only until the next power outage. If they want to use this (lame) villain again, I suppose they’ll get him out of that box. A psychotic prisoner could use a hammer to smash the box.
-
8
-
9
-
10
-
11
-
12
of 29 Next