April 1969: The Return of Adam Strange

I had just turned 5 when Adam Strange’s ongoing Mystery in Space series appeared on the newsstands in June 1959.

While I was old enough to love the title’s flashing colors, I was not really old enough to fathom its stories, which were fairly cerebral for a comic book.

The first time I risked a dime on Adam Strange was issue 68, cover-dated June 1961. I couldn’t resist that cover, which showed a horned alien tiger springing at a damsel in distress even as the colorful rocket-belted hero faded away back to Earth.

Happy days, then, when DC decided to reprint the interstellar archaeologist’s earliest adventures in 1969. At 15, I could fully appreciate what I’d missed.

And now, instead of Mystery in Space, the feature appeared in DC’s venerable title Strange Adventures — Adam Strange Adventures. It seemed meant to be.

And most of the reprints included the visual treat of new covers by Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, Murphy Anderson or Nick Cardy. 

Comic book art styles had evolved in the few years since Adam Strange had been first published, becoming less benign and more alarming, for one thing. But Strange Adventures 242 sported the original Infantino/Anderson cover art from Mystery in Space 82 (March 1963). That striking split image — showing Adam Strange torn between stopping a gigantic magnifying glass menace burning Rann and a hydrogen bomb explosion on Earth — could not be improved upon. 

Having an American city casually vaporized by a mushroom cloud in the background was scary enough, even for the late 1960s.

DC published an odd house ad to promote the reprint series, inviting the reader to “Journey to the world of the future!” But the Adam Strange stories weren’t set in the future. They were contemporaneous with the era in which they were published, the late-1950s to the early 1960s. 

The error was understandable, though. The trappings of the feature — those alluring ray guns and rocket belts — were futuristic.

October 1966: When Gorillas Fly

During the 1960s, American children were already thoroughly familiar with sinister flying simians, The Wizard of Oz having aired annually on CBS beginning in 1959.

And ape-happy DC Comics was always ready to give them another helping.

In Lord of the Flying Gorillas (Hawkman 16, Oct. 1966), the high priest of the mirage-hidden Australian city of Quaranda, Ruthvol, sends his winged gorillas to capture Hawkman and Hawkgirl as a sacrifice to his god, Involos.

Written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Murphy Anderson, the tale also involves interplanetary teleportation, with Hawkman playing the role of his friend Adam Strange here. He comes up with an invention that will save an alien race from being overwhelmed by moth-men.

In mid-story, after a lot of frantic action, Hawkman takes off his wings to rest on an otherworldly bed.

“This ‘air mattress’ formed by jets of air sure is relaxing,” he thinks. “I think I’ll whip one up for the apartment when I get back to Midway City.”

In fact, this marked the third set of winged gorillas that DC Comics had dished up for its readership in recent years. 

In The World Where Evolution Ran Wild (Hawkman 6, Feb. 1965), our heroes teleported to the parallel world of Illoral, a place radiation had populated with tiger-men and flying gorillas. The arrival of the bird people sorted everything out. 

The flying gorillas in Hawkman 16 are eventually revealed to have come from Illoral.

And a little earlier, in The Flying Gorilla Menace (Strange Adventures 125, Feb 1961), readers were treated to warlike Kong-sized winged apes from a planetoid that is stealing Earth’s atmosphere.

However, the super-simians proved no match for human pluck and ingenuity.

September 1965: Animals and Aliens

I was 11 when those aliens gave stunt man Buddy Baker his animal powers in DC’s Strange Adventures 180 (Sept. 1965), courtesy of writer Dave Wood and artist Carmine Infantino.

I enjoyed his adventure then and in The Return of the Man with Animal Powers (Strange Adventures 184, Jan. 1966), despite the fact that his super powers caused cognitive dissonance even in a child.

For example, how could you “borrow” the flying ability of an eagle without also acquiring wings or an avian bone structure? Superman’s powers — mostly amplifications of human abilities — seemed almost plausible by comparison.

But Infantino’s clean-lined, graceful art was always refreshing to the eye, and I also found it refreshing that Baker chose to go into super-powered action without fancy dress. 

Much as I love superhero costumes, the cliché was already becoming a bit shopworn by 1965. I had been attracted to Gold Key’s quasi-omnipotent Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom in 1962 in part for that reason, and my interest waned when he put on red spandex in his fifth issue.

I breathed another small sigh of regret when, in Strange Adventures 190 (July 1966), Baker put on his costume. I didn’t read him much after that. In part it was because with the Batman craze in full swing, we had an embarrassment of superheroic riches.  Just as we have today.

Meanwhile, over in House of Mystery 153, the Martian Manhunter had settled into his first cover-featured run, fighting a giant version of his old archenemy Professor Hugo (introduced battling Batman in Detective Comics 306, Aug. 1962).

“A 1964 editorial shake-up resulted in J’onn J'onzz’s ouster from Detective Comics in favor of a Flash supporting character, the Elongated Man,” noted comics historian Don Markstein.  “The Martian was transferred to House of Mystery, which had hitherto carried only non-series sci-fi/fantasy stories. He started in the 143rd issue (June 1964). After over eight years in comics, he finally held down a lead feature.”

January 1961: You Had Me at ‘Orange’

A disguised Space Ranger menaced by a huge red cat-bear thing in Tales of the Unexpected 68?

Okay, fine.

A guy with a solar orb for a head melting and burning everything around him in My Greatest Adventure 52?

Even better. Made sense that the guy seemed wearing only his briefs, because having a sun for a head must be a sweaty business.

But the most tantalizing cover in that 1961 ad was for Strange Adventures 124, which spotlighted a giant, orange, blank-faced alien who was firing lightning beams at state cops.

I had to know what that was about — but wouldn’t for several years. Such were the vagaries of newsstand distribution in those days.

I’d learn later that his “Face Hunter” wasn’t just from Saturn, but from Klaramar, a sub-atomic world within an atom on Saturn that operates within a different temporal field than Earth.

The first Faceless Creature was Klee-Pan, a benevolent alien who seems to steal the faces from terrestrial monuments. In fact, he is seeking a bomb that will destroy the solar system, one that has been locked by the evil Chen Yull into a vault that can only be opened by some giant head.

Visiting Mount Rushmore (where else?), Klee-Pan teamed up with two South Dakota highway patrolmen, Jim Boone and Bob Colby, to save our worlds. As a reward, Klee-Pan enabled the two police officers to telepathically communicate with each other. The pair would come back in Strange Adventures 142 (July 1962) to battle Chen Yull himself, and then Chen Yull would return to threaten humanity again in Strange Adventures 153 (June 1963).

Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino and Gil Kane did the artistic honors for the Gardner Fox stories.

Come to think of it, as a kid I had a particular affinity for giants, for things colored orange and for blank-faced characters (the Human Torch and Negative Man were favorites). No wonder the Faceless Hunter from Saturn was a shoo-in.

November 1960: Dragons and Dinosaurs

In We Fought the Earth’s Last Dragon (My Greatest Adventure 49, Nov. 1960), a locked trunk purchased at a Connecticut auction sends two treasure-hunting Yankees to Oregon’s Saddle Mountain — and a confrontation with a dragon.

One is greedy, the other responsible and altruistic, and they have to learn to work together to use the contents of a sorcerer’s strongbox to stop the menace they’ve unwittingly unleashed. Nick Cardy provides the art.

Meanwhile, over in Mystery in Space 63, Adam Strange is busy being turned into a gas and vacuumed up — very much the kind of peril that would plague the Flash, also drawn by Carmine Infantino.

Strange Adventures 121, my favorite issue of that title, featured stories by Gardner Fox — The Wand That Could Work Miracles, a “Space Museum” tale called The Billion-Year Old Spaceship and Invasion of the Flying Reptiles. All offered science fictional wish fulfillment.

A hole opens in time, releasing invulnerable pteranodans from a hundred million years ago over Washington, DC.

Yikes.

Luckily, a plucky husband-and-wife team of scuba-diving scientists, Jim and Rhoda Trent, have found a plesiosaur frozen in ice (Schwartz’s titles were always resolutely feminist, their female characters smart, stylish, cool-headed and brave).

Befriending the revived dinosaur, whom they nickname Ol’ Pleasure, the Trents — by offering themselves as bait on water skis — are able to use the plesiosaur to defeat the pteranondans.

My favorite part was the last panel, with the Trents happily tossing fish to their plesiosaur pal at a seaquarium. 

The story was probably popular, because the Trents returned to help giant undersea frog people in Strange Adventures 130 (July 1961). And the cover idea — flying dinosaurs coming through a hole in the sky — was recycled for Green Lantern 30, cover-dated July 1964. 

April 1960: Moon Monsters and Jewel Men

To me, the appeal of DC’s science fiction titles ran a close second to my true love, the superheroes.

Here we have titles that were on the newsstands during January and February 1960 — Strange Adventures 114, House of Mystery 97 and Tales of the Unexpected 47, starring its own superhero, Space Ranger (many readers generally seemed to prefer Adam Strange, over in Mystery in Space).

January 1960: Big Purple Beasts and the Borg

I wonder if the purple simian-ish creature in I Was a Bodyguard to a Beast (My Greatest Adventure 39) counted toward DC’s monthly maximum quota on gorilla covers?

I’m guessing not.

Meanwhile, in the Space Ranger story in Tales of the Unexpected 45, artist Jim Mooney shows us a criminal’s “army of specially trained interplanetary beasts” that might have made appropriate foes for the Legion of Super-Pets a couple of years later.

Come to think of it, Space Ranger’s Cryll and Chameleon Boy’s Proty were a lot alike. Cryll and the Martian Manhunter’s Zook might have fit right in with the Legion of Super Pets.

Such are the kinds of thoughts that jolt me awake at night.

Strange Adventures 112 includes a Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky cover story and a Space Museum story, Revolt of the Spaceships!

“The Space Museum tales center on a 25th Century museum filled with objects commemorating heroic deeds leading to the conquest of space,” noted comics historian Michael E. Grost. “Each tale would involve a visit by Howard Parker and his young son Tommy Parker. Howard would tell Tommy the story behind one of the objects in the museum.

“The Space Museum tales sometimes contained science fiction mysteries; near the end of each tale, Howard would pause, and urge Tommy to find a clue that would solve the mystery. The effect is similar to Ellery Queen’s Challenge to the Reader.”

The issue also includes a John Broome/Sid Greene story intended to underline editor’s Julius Schwartz’s running theme about celebrating the intellect. 

In Tomorrow’s Hero, mutant Ral Grayson has the ability to understand things instantly by just seeing a portion of the process, a power he employs to stop an alien invasion.

The invaders’ name? The Borg.

July 1958: Totalitarians from the Stars

In Mystery in Space 45 (Aug. 1958), Gil Kane’s cover spotlights the story Flying Saucers Over Mars by writer Joe Millard and artist Carmine Infantino.

“Martians begin to see flying saucers in the sky, which they suspect are from Earth,” wrote comics historian Michael E. Grost. “Amusing role reversal story, with many ingenious twists. The story takes place entirely on Mars. The Martians are friendly, normal beings, and not at all the monsters they were sometimes depicted in prose SF and movies. There is perhaps a bit of a political allegory here: people in other countries and other races are a lot like us.”

Inside the issue is a house ad for a new hero, Space Ranger, who would soon take over as the cover feature of DC’s Tales of the Unexpected.

Meanwhile, one year later — in August 1959 — Adam Strange would become the cover feature for Mystery in Space.

And the Adam Strange formula is anticipated in Strange Adventures 94 (July 1958).

The story Elevator to the Future! (writer Gardner Fox, artist Murphy Anderson) features a protagonist who, like Strange, is whisked away to an alien environment by fantastic means, and manages to resolve a crisis there.

Proofreader Tom Jackson steps off the elevator in his office building and finds himself in the future, where he helps free humanity from alien control.

“(T)he aliens are motivated by the same forces that cause 20th Century Earth dictators such as Hitler and Stalin to enslave people,” Grost observed. “Stories like this are about the terrible menace of totalitarianism, a subject that weighed deeply on the minds of people in 1958. This whole approach is typical of Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures.”

January 1958: Strange Mysteries of Other Planets

Even in the superhero desert of the 1950s, a lot of comic book stories might be described as “superhero adjacent.”

Super powers never really went out of fashion, only costumed crusading did for a while.

For example, take the story Bodyguard from Space! (Strange Adventures 88, Jan. 1958). Writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino give us a tale about an alien visitor from the planet Klysistron who can levitate objects, turn invisible and intangible and communicate telepathically. He announces that he has “journeyed across three billion light years of space” to protect news cameraman Jim Carson. Unknown to himself, Carson carries telepathically implanted information vital to revitalizing the alien planet’s dying sun.

Meanwhile, over in Mystery in Space 42 (March 1958), writer John Broome and artist Sid Greene provide us with Mail Rider to the Stars, an interstellar version of the Pony Express.

“A lone rocket pilot delivers mail to far-flung planets, despite all obstacles,” recalled comics historian Michael E. Grost. “It is notable for being one of the first depictions of a ‘black hole’ in fiction.

“Probably one of the best features of this story is Sid Greene’s art. There is some of his distinctive future architecture. One tower has a spiral ramp around it, reaching to its top.

“There are also some good shots of the rocket ship zooming around through the asteroids. The combination of the curving lines of the rocket exhaust and the circles of the asteroids makes for some pleasing visual patterns. Such scenes of space flight often recur in Greene’s tales.”

The issue includes The Dual Identity World by Greene and writer Otto Binder. “This is another Binder mystery about a hard-to-interpret planet: here two explorers literally see the world in two different ways,” Grost reported. “This is a most ingenious tale. It has elements of an allegory and a fable, and should be better known: it would make a great proverb, to illustrate some important ideas about perception.”

February 1951: When They Can’t See You

Working in his small basement lab, optician Thurston Tidwell solves the secret of invisibility in Strange Adventures 5 (Feb. 1951).

Accidentally discovering that fact, a wanted criminal known as “The Professor” forces Tidwell to use the untested device on him. 

Quickly bored with stealing cash and steaks, the Professor decides to hunt other criminals, both for fun and to make up for past misdeeds. But in a shootout between police and robbers, the invisible man accidentally gets in the way of a fatal bullet.

In their story, writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino reversed the myth of the Ring of Gyges recounted in Plato’s Republic. 

Like Tolkien’s One Ring, this magical device permitted the wearer to become invisible at will. The point of the myth is that by freeing the wearer from the fear of punishment or disgrace, the ring would necessarily corrupt anyone who wore it. Morality being merely a social construct, superhumans could not be trusted.

But Socrates argued that justice is more than a social construct, and that the wearer who abused such a power would end up a miserable slave to his appetites. A wise person would refuse such a ring and, by remaining rationally in control of himself, be happier, Socrates said.

In other words, with great power comes great danger.

For an entertaining parlor game, ask your friends which super power they would prefer: invisibility or personal flight? 

The results will be telling, and generally spark an interesting discussion about expediency, ethics and life goals.

In the This American Life radio program, writer John Hodgman asked people that question. “He finds that how you answer tells a lot about what kind of person you are,” host Ira Glass noted. “And also, no matter which power people choose, they never use it to fight crime.”

By the way, although I concede that invisibility would be more useful in practical terms, I would nevertheless choose the very symbol of freedom — flight.