Showcase Presents: Adam Strange, Vol. 1

It's another volume of the Showcase Presents series of reprints that was designated a Volume 1, but never received a follow up. Reprinting the first appearances of Earth archaeologist turned savior of the far off planet of Rann, Adam Strange was very much cut from the same cloth as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, with a twist! Adam Strange could only travel the 21 trillion miles journey from Earth to Rann with the help of a transportation ray called a Zeta Beam. Once the energy dissipated from Adam's body, the hero would vanish from Rann and Strange would reappear back on Earth. Sometimes, the vanishing act would occur at the most inopportune times and Adam Strange would have to wait days, even weeks to return to Rann in order to save the beleaguered planet from a host of threats, both Terran and extraterrestrial.

Adam Strange was created by famed editor Julius Schwartz with assists by Murphy Anderson and Carmine Infantino. After a 3-issue test in the pages of Showcase Presents, the tryout anthology series, Adam Strange would become the feature character of about 60 issues of the sci-fi anthology title Mystery in Space. The writer of all of the stories contained in this book was Gardner Fox. After several artists lent their talents to Strange's appearances in Showcase, Carmine Infantino became the regular artist for the hero's exploits. 

While not Infantino's most well known work, Adam Strange would become Carmine's most favorite project to work on. So much that sci-fi lover Infantino structured his contract to allow him to work on the Adam Strange stories no matter how in demand he was over at DC Comics. The quality of the artwork really shines in the this volume. Unfortunately, the storytelling started to slip around the halfway point.

The first dozen or so stories in Mystery in Space were 8-pagers. They're excellent. After about a year, the page count of the tales would range from 16-32 pages. That's where the quality begins to slip. As impressive it is that an early silver age title maintained a level of cohesive storyline with recurring villains, Gardner Fox seemed to run out of gas in the longer stories. The set up would take forever with a conclusion so fast and clunky that would leave me overwhelmed and unimpressed. Then Fox begins to spread the dangers Adam Strange would face between Rann and Earth. As much as having the hero go back and forth between Earth and Rann is a bit tiring, the quality of those later stories improved.

My dad had quite a few Adam Strange starring books in his collection. They were big favs of mine. I enjoyed this volume very much, flaws and all. A lot really isn't said about how much of a strong female character Adam's girlfriend Alanna was. Rarely a damsel in distress, Alanna often fights without fear on Adam's side. She clearly was an archetype influence on characters like Princess Leia and Ripley. 

I really regret that DC cancelled the Showcase Presents line because I would love to get my hands on the remaining two dozen stories starring Adam Strange. Maybe there's a deluxe 4-color volume available? Or I could try to find those remaining issues of Mystery in Space. Regardless, its not going to be cheap. I can tell you that.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Mystery In Space

  This collection is a literal time capsule of DC's sci-fi anthology series. From the fanciful stories of the wonders of the future from the 1940s to the atomic-aged heroes of the 50s and 60s to the revival of the twist ending in the 70s through to 1981 when DC published it's last sci-fi genre comic- it's all here!
    My favorite stories were of the heroes created during the 50s and 60s. The most famous of these is the earth-man Adam Strange whom become the hero of faraway Rann when a transporter ray teleports him light years away. But where is J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter? Sure, he got his start in the pages of Detective Comics and headlined the 'horror' anthology title House of Mystery, but the green man from Mars was the quintessential DC sci-fi character!
    The stories of the 70s and 80s were phenomenal as well. Featuring art by masters such as Joe Kubert and Brian Bolland, those short stories were gems being both masterfully drawn and well written.
    This book was supposed to be the flagship of a new imprint of anthologies called the Pulp Fiction Library. Collections devoted to DC's horror titles, war books, and other genre series were slated to follow this book. But for some reason, those plans were scrapped. Thankfully, DC created the Showcase Presents line that reprinted in chronological order large runs of classic Silver Age titles. Those black and white collections were much cheaper to produce but that's not the reason why the Pulp Fiction Library went nowhere as this book was published 6 years before the first Showcase title.

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

DC Comics Presents: Mystery in Space #1

A tribute issue in honor of the passing of the great Julius Schwartz, long-time Editor In Chief of DC Comics. Schwartz was known for having concept covers drawn up and then would assign writers to use that idea for use in a forthcoming issue of said title.

In this issue, the First story is a team-up of Adam Strange and Ralph (Elongated Man) & Sue Dibny. I love the Dibnys, God rest their souls. So, to have them pop up here is awesome. That story involves a chance meeting in a remote African nation and the terrible consequences of Strange’s Zeta beam having on global defense in the wrong hands.

The second story is by Batman scribe, Grant Morrison. That should be a great issue. Sadly, it delves into some metaphysical metaphor for how Adam Strange was a catalyst for American’s fear of the bomb and the generation gap in terms of Vietnam. It’s really a stretch and a very confusing and awful tale.

Thankfully, the first story totally makes up for that drivel and makes this book very much Worth Consuming.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.