Adam Strange - Publication History

Publication History

Created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, Adam Strange is reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series. Both characters have origins in which they are chased by threatening aboriginal peoples only to find themselves mysteriously transported at the last moment to distant planets where they become heroic figures. In Carter's case this is to Mars, while Adam Strange is transported to Rann. Both characters long to travel to a strange world to fight alien opponents and be united with a beloved woman who resided there. Although the John Carter stories depict a raw sort of adventure that includes swordplay, physical action, nudity, and bloodletting, these are absent from the Adam Strange stories.

Like most other comic book science fiction stories of the 1950s, the problems and their stories are contrived, the solutions often based on haphazard application of simple scientific principles. After his initial 3-issue run in Showcase (#17-19), came a move to Mystery in Space (#53-100, 102), drawn by Carmine Infantino and most often inked by Murphy Anderson (although Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella and Sid Greene did a few issues each). As of #92, Jack Schiff replaced Julius Schwartz as editor of MIS and Lee Elias became the artist for Adam Strange. He later appeared in Strange Adventures (reprints in #217 through 244, except for #222, which instead had a new story with Strange, written by Denny O'Neil, while #226 had the addition of a new Strange text story, by Fox, with illustrations by Anderson).

One award-winning story, however, resulted from a continuity gaffe in the Justice League of America comic book, in which the Flash mentions Adam Strange as a possible new member for the Justice League, a group he had not met and who could not have heard of him, as all his heroics took place on Rann. When a letter to the editor reported this, Gardner Fox wrote a story showing how the JLA came to Rann and how Adam Strange got them out of the traps that Kanjar Ro set for them there.

For years, the character was a regular presence in the DC Universe. By the 1980s, the acclaimed author Alan Moore provided a more cynical reason for his visits to Rann. Apparently, the population of the planet, the majority of whom viewed the Terran with contempt, is sterile, and the real reason for Adam's presence is to be a breeding stud. This new situation is further illustrated in a 1990 limited series, The Man of Two Worlds, where Adam learns of the population's opinion of him and Alanna died giving birth to their daughter Aleea. In JLA #20 (July 1998), Alanna is revealed to be alive, and, at the end of the story, she is reunited with her husband and daughter, albeit briefly, as Adam is transported back to Earth soon after Alanna's arrival.

It should also be noted that Moore got the situation on Rann wrong; children were visible in several of the earlier stories (MIS and the Strange Adventures text story). His story remains a curious (if well-written) quirk in the Adam Strange series.