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Showcase Presents #32
Showcase Presents: Adam Strange, Vol. 1
This value-priced collection features over 500 pages of classic science fiction adventures. After being mysteriously teleported to a distant world by an alien scientist, Adam Strange went from being an Earth archaeologist to a cosmic adventurer. He soon became the hero of the planet Rann, shuttling between his old and new worlds via the Zeta Beam. These tales capture the optimism of the 1960s Space Age as Adam Strange defends his new homeworld from alien threats.
552 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2007
3 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Gardner Francis Fox
1,191 books90 followersGardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic book historians estimate that he wrote more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"
Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"
Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 3, 2015
Adam Strange is one of those creatures of the Silver Age that no one has really manage to get right since then. This book collects Strange's first 30 + appearances from the Late 1950s to mid-1963. This book collect's tales from Showcase #17-19, and Mystery in Space #54-84.
The set up is simple enough. Young Earth archaeologist Adam Strange is struck by a beam of Zeta radiation that takes him 25 trillion miles away to the planet Rann. There Strange meets and falls in love with Alana, the daughter of one of the planet's chief scientists. Adam is returned to Earth after a while and has to plot to fined the next Zeta beam to take him to Rann. Adam has a keen intellect and also is courageous enough to to be the Champion of Rann, which is good because the people of Rann need saving---a lot. Every trip over, there's a new world-challenging peril.
The adventures in the book are a lot of fun. If you like old Buck Rogers stories, you'll enjoy this. At the same time, I do get reviewers who say this book is repetitive. There is a definite formula of events. However, to writer Gardener Fox's credit, he does manage to vary the on-going themes of Zeta Beam his Adam Strange, he travels across space to Rann with little hitches coming up or Adam having to race to meet the Zeta Beam or make a tough choice about addressing another crisis with his spaceman gear or going to Rann that it doesn't feel too repetitive to me.
In addition, the character of Alana and the romance between Adam and Alana is enjoyable. In an age when women in comics were clueless and helpless, Alana was thoroughly competent. and also helped Adam often in his missions. The romance between the two was straightforward and uncomplicated. Given that this was the Decade with Lois and Lana were making fools out of themselves over Superman, while the entire male Marvel contingent was hiding their secret identity from the women they loved and who loved them, this little bit of sweet romance was actually kind of refreshing.
The adventure are mostly quick and easy to read affairs. There are only two comic length adventures. Mystery in Space #75 is the only story here where Adam Strange battled a villain who was anything like a big name in the DC universe as he faced off against Kanjar Ro and Mystery in Space #81 which seems to finally give Adam what he wanted as Alana comes to Earth, but it's something far more sinister. Both of these are great. The first three issues of Showcase printed two stories each that were between 9-15 pages long, the next 17 stories were 9 pages each, and with the exception of the two previously mentioned stories, the other stories in here were between 13-17 pages which means the writing is tight and action packed.
I like how Fox used these fun stories to teach children readers scientific principals. There also was a key message of the book: don't become too dependent on technology. Early on, it's started that that's why Rann and its inhabitants don't know what to do in the face of all of these crisis because they've become too dependent on technology and have forgotten how to operate, think for themselves, and solve their own problems.
The book does have a few repetitive moments. Also, villain quality is pretty low. The villains are mostly one use. They're interesting, but usually they have just a single gimmick. The one attempt of Fox to give Adam Strange a supervillain rivial in the Dust Devil doesn't work.
Overall, though, this is a fun back. It'd be great to read to young kids at bedtime, or to just read yourself if you want to recapture the wonder of better days.
The set up is simple enough. Young Earth archaeologist Adam Strange is struck by a beam of Zeta radiation that takes him 25 trillion miles away to the planet Rann. There Strange meets and falls in love with Alana, the daughter of one of the planet's chief scientists. Adam is returned to Earth after a while and has to plot to fined the next Zeta beam to take him to Rann. Adam has a keen intellect and also is courageous enough to to be the Champion of Rann, which is good because the people of Rann need saving---a lot. Every trip over, there's a new world-challenging peril.
The adventures in the book are a lot of fun. If you like old Buck Rogers stories, you'll enjoy this. At the same time, I do get reviewers who say this book is repetitive. There is a definite formula of events. However, to writer Gardener Fox's credit, he does manage to vary the on-going themes of Zeta Beam his Adam Strange, he travels across space to Rann with little hitches coming up or Adam having to race to meet the Zeta Beam or make a tough choice about addressing another crisis with his spaceman gear or going to Rann that it doesn't feel too repetitive to me.
In addition, the character of Alana and the romance between Adam and Alana is enjoyable. In an age when women in comics were clueless and helpless, Alana was thoroughly competent. and also helped Adam often in his missions. The romance between the two was straightforward and uncomplicated. Given that this was the Decade with Lois and Lana were making fools out of themselves over Superman, while the entire male Marvel contingent was hiding their secret identity from the women they loved and who loved them, this little bit of sweet romance was actually kind of refreshing.
The adventure are mostly quick and easy to read affairs. There are only two comic length adventures. Mystery in Space #75 is the only story here where Adam Strange battled a villain who was anything like a big name in the DC universe as he faced off against Kanjar Ro and Mystery in Space #81 which seems to finally give Adam what he wanted as Alana comes to Earth, but it's something far more sinister. Both of these are great. The first three issues of Showcase printed two stories each that were between 9-15 pages long, the next 17 stories were 9 pages each, and with the exception of the two previously mentioned stories, the other stories in here were between 13-17 pages which means the writing is tight and action packed.
I like how Fox used these fun stories to teach children readers scientific principals. There also was a key message of the book: don't become too dependent on technology. Early on, it's started that that's why Rann and its inhabitants don't know what to do in the face of all of these crisis because they've become too dependent on technology and have forgotten how to operate, think for themselves, and solve their own problems.
The book does have a few repetitive moments. Also, villain quality is pretty low. The villains are mostly one use. They're interesting, but usually they have just a single gimmick. The one attempt of Fox to give Adam Strange a supervillain rivial in the Dust Devil doesn't work.
Overall, though, this is a fun back. It'd be great to read to young kids at bedtime, or to just read yourself if you want to recapture the wonder of better days.
December 6, 2014
A solid collection for the Silver Age DC aficionado, but a word of warning to the casual reader: do not try to read a bunch of these stories in one go. Adam Strange's clever premise was also its greatest curse, and these comics are some of the most formulaic and repetitive I've ever come across. The best way to enjoy these is the way they were originally presented: 8-16 pages at a time with several weeks in between. More realistically, dip in and read a few to get the flavor and leave it at that, unless you're as hardcore a junkie for this stuff as I am.
All in all, this series would have benefited greatly from breaking away from its original concept and could also have used more Flash Gordon-style serialization, but that wasn't par for the course when it came to comics of its era.
All in all, this series would have benefited greatly from breaking away from its original concept and could also have used more Flash Gordon-style serialization, but that wasn't par for the course when it came to comics of its era.
March 13, 2010
I grabbed this from the library when I could find nothing else.
It wasn't bad. Not great either, but not bad.
Adam Strange is an archaeologist that accidentally gets teleported to another world Rann. He meets a girl, falls in love, saves the world from some threat and then fades away back to earth. Rinse and repeat.
Rann is always in some kind of trouble. Always. The first time Adam defeated a threat by getting caught and waiting until he faded back to earth so he could return in a few days with a plan I thought it was clever. The sixth or seventh time he used this trick it was less impressive.
It wasn't bad. Not great either, but not bad.
Adam Strange is an archaeologist that accidentally gets teleported to another world Rann. He meets a girl, falls in love, saves the world from some threat and then fades away back to earth. Rinse and repeat.
Rann is always in some kind of trouble. Always. The first time Adam defeated a threat by getting caught and waiting until he faded back to earth so he could return in a few days with a plan I thought it was clever. The sixth or seventh time he used this trick it was less impressive.
January 28, 2025
A very nice read. Don't read it all in one sitting: Remember, these stories were originally published over a span of five years. Although that doesn't hurt them as much as I thought it might. The fact that ALL of them were written by Gardner Fox allowed him to play with continuity to a degree that most DC books of the period didn't do.
November 22, 2024
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.
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.
October 26, 2018
An interesting concept and almost blandly likable characters make these somewhat generic sci-fi adventures palatable in the face of a lot of storytelling and dialogue writing flaws.
The idea captures the imagination, and the stories often undermine that imagination. Adam Strange (an archaeologist, but that really doesn't matter) discovers these teleportation beams that hit Earth every few weeks (they're explained as specifically Zeta Beams, also not too important), and allow him to visit Rann, a distant planet of hyper-intelligent scientists.
He meets and falls in love with Rann woman Alanna, and the two of them usually take on a monster of the week during Adam's Zeta Beam visits.
The bad: Those monsters of the week, and it's not good it's bad, because they're the plot every week. Water creatures, hyper intelligent aliens, ice guys, hypnotizers, etc. It feels very repetitive, as Adam struggles some and then comes up with a "practical" science solution. Heck, the most recurring bad guy is a talking dust devil!
Even when the JLA show up in a guest spot, the baddie of the week is a short alien with some kind of bug face and a space row boat?
If this was broken up with something else, it'd be better, but as is, it just feels like dreading knowing what's coming and then spending 15-22 pages reading it.
Oh, and the dialogue's cheesy. But this book is written by 1960's DC overlord Gardner Fox, a well meaning sci-fi nerd who wrote the hokiest lines and plots for the JLA and most of the superheroes below that moniker, so if anything, this was better than I expected if still cheesy.
The good: I just buried the plot of the issues, but there is a silver lining. Adam Strange, by not being outright obnoxious, is pretty likable, and you want to have him figure out how to beat the bad guy and to short out the Zeta Beam so he can stay on Rann.
Plus, it's pretty cool that he treats Alanna as an equal kind of, and takes her on a lot of adventures. And sure, she gets pushed out of the way a lot, or put in another place or just beaten by a baddie first, but it is not as obnoxiously gender exclusive as some hero ideas.
And the teleporting to Rann creates a lot of imagination about stories that are possible, even if it's eventually deflated by a big dust devil, it's still an imaginative idea that can create some suspense for the reader, if momentarily.
The artwork is not bad, not worth reading it for either. Mike Sekowsky, a long time JLA co-contributor with Fox, draws inoffensively nice looking versions of real life humans, and humanoid aliens and stuff.. It doesn't build any magic into the writing, but it also isn't an eyesore, meh.
So basically, I enjoyed this story because it broke the mold of what DC was doing in a bad time of the 1960s, and created imaginative ideas and stories, even if they didn't pay off very consistently.
Also, it's a breezy read, which is worse than a dense bad one I suppose
A very forgiving 3/5
The idea captures the imagination, and the stories often undermine that imagination. Adam Strange (an archaeologist, but that really doesn't matter) discovers these teleportation beams that hit Earth every few weeks (they're explained as specifically Zeta Beams, also not too important), and allow him to visit Rann, a distant planet of hyper-intelligent scientists.
He meets and falls in love with Rann woman Alanna, and the two of them usually take on a monster of the week during Adam's Zeta Beam visits.
The bad: Those monsters of the week, and it's not good it's bad, because they're the plot every week. Water creatures, hyper intelligent aliens, ice guys, hypnotizers, etc. It feels very repetitive, as Adam struggles some and then comes up with a "practical" science solution. Heck, the most recurring bad guy is a talking dust devil!
Even when the JLA show up in a guest spot, the baddie of the week is a short alien with some kind of bug face and a space row boat?
If this was broken up with something else, it'd be better, but as is, it just feels like dreading knowing what's coming and then spending 15-22 pages reading it.
Oh, and the dialogue's cheesy. But this book is written by 1960's DC overlord Gardner Fox, a well meaning sci-fi nerd who wrote the hokiest lines and plots for the JLA and most of the superheroes below that moniker, so if anything, this was better than I expected if still cheesy.
The good: I just buried the plot of the issues, but there is a silver lining. Adam Strange, by not being outright obnoxious, is pretty likable, and you want to have him figure out how to beat the bad guy and to short out the Zeta Beam so he can stay on Rann.
Plus, it's pretty cool that he treats Alanna as an equal kind of, and takes her on a lot of adventures. And sure, she gets pushed out of the way a lot, or put in another place or just beaten by a baddie first, but it is not as obnoxiously gender exclusive as some hero ideas.
And the teleporting to Rann creates a lot of imagination about stories that are possible, even if it's eventually deflated by a big dust devil, it's still an imaginative idea that can create some suspense for the reader, if momentarily.
The artwork is not bad, not worth reading it for either. Mike Sekowsky, a long time JLA co-contributor with Fox, draws inoffensively nice looking versions of real life humans, and humanoid aliens and stuff.. It doesn't build any magic into the writing, but it also isn't an eyesore, meh.
So basically, I enjoyed this story because it broke the mold of what DC was doing in a bad time of the 1960s, and created imaginative ideas and stories, even if they didn't pay off very consistently.
Also, it's a breezy read, which is worse than a dense bad one I suppose
A very forgiving 3/5
May 19, 2019
Gardner Fox definitely elevates this mid-Century DC comic above many of its contemporaries. It's still a bit stiff and formulaic, as comics tended to be, but Fox throws in a lot of weird ideas and concepts, and keeps things flowing in a more entertaining way than say Superman or Martian Manhunter. Adam Strange fights a lot of doppelgangers, and a lot of weather. But mostly he fights aliens invading his semi-adopted planet Rann, where his girlfriend lives.
If you're into rayguns and rocketships, or if you're a fan of stuff like Flash Gordon, then definitely give it a read. It's not amazing, but it's entertaining.
If you're into rayguns and rocketships, or if you're a fan of stuff like Flash Gordon, then definitely give it a read. It's not amazing, but it's entertaining.
November 21, 2016
I disegni, per lo più di Carmine Infantino, sono buoni. Pieno stile classico, come del resto ci si aspetta dal maestro americano di chiare origini italiane.
La nota dolente sono le storie: il personaggio non è male ed ha molti spunti, come infatti dimostrerà negli anni 80 Alan Moore nel suo Swamp Thing. Qui è una specie di macchietta e le storie sono di un ripetitivo veramente annoiante.
A parte una o due, sono veramente letture da poco.
La nota dolente sono le storie: il personaggio non è male ed ha molti spunti, come infatti dimostrerà negli anni 80 Alan Moore nel suo Swamp Thing. Qui è una specie di macchietta e le storie sono di un ripetitivo veramente annoiante.
A parte una o due, sono veramente letture da poco.
March 8, 2023
What a great volume! Awesome!
June 20, 2012
Great art, some interesting concepts, but suffers from formulaic plot-lines of the monster of the week (in this case month) kind. This is par for the course in silver age comics, but would have appreciated some more fleshing out of strange and Alana, and their relationship.
March 1, 2009
Fabulous art by Infantino and Anderson; fun but formulaic tales hinging on overly simplified science. Still, it's a wonderful piece of nostalgia.
February 9, 2015
Adam Strange proves that the haphazard application of pseudo-scientific principles is a valid method of superheroing.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews