Retro-Review: Science Fiction Comics with Adam Strange!
First Impressions!
Mystery in Space 91 is typical of the DC Comics' early science fiction comics. Peppered with exclamation points, silly stories of love and sacrifice, the bad guy always loses and the kids are educated way better than any Wiki article on the Internet could match! And the art & pencils from the greats Carmen Infantino and Sid Greene with editing chores by Julius Schwarz made for some fine throwaway entertainment!
Synopsis
Puzzle of the Perilous Prisons!
Art by Sid Greene; pencils by Murphy Anderson.
Adam Strange and his babe Alanna are flown to Earth by hitchhiking on Hawkman's spaceship. Great way for DC to advertise their other characters with a cross-over or two, eh?
Anyway, Alanna comes to Earth and then mysteriously disappears. Why? Because the bad guy Mortan did it! As the editors point out, he was already beaten twice in issues 62 and 80. Unusual to have recurring villains in these one-shot stories.
Mortan invented this radiation weapon that is a Negative Zeta Beam radiation that he shown upon Alanna without her knowledge. When she hugs Adam, his positive energy and her negative energy will cause an explosion, killing both! Dastardly!
Interesting properties of this negative energy made the story very farfetched (nevermind this is a comic book!):
- The radiation affects Alanna by making her feel negative towards Adam, so she not only rejects him physically but mentally as well.
- Second, the energy gives her telepathic powers, including creating matter from the mind!
- Third, it gives her power over tornadoes!
Despite the convoluted story, the bad guy comes to a bad end, and Alanna gets to hug Adam. The end -- *sigh*.
The No-Name Planet
Interesting space tale about a bounty hunter who lands on a goofy planet to save a shipwrecked survivor of said planet. The reader is entertained by the strangeness of the planet and the fact that the bounty hunter marries the shipwrecked female survivor within days of meeting her. Ah, comics!
Our Strange Universe
Something that is missing in modern comics are the little snippets of science we used to read as kids. Discussions of the sun's rotation, what a globular star cluster is and the collision of galaxies is discussed.
Overstreet Price Guide Near Mint Price: $110.00!