
Did he just notice his costume?
Adam Strange is a
DC Comics space hero character from the
1950s, who still appears occasionally in their comics and cartoons. He was created by
Gardner Fox, and first appeared in
Showcase #17 (November, 1958). After three try-out issues in
Showcase, he became a regular feature in
Mystery in Space beginning with #53 (August, 1959).
Adam was an ordinary Earthman, an archeologist who was
teleported to the planet Rann (located in the Alpha Centauri solar system, the closest to Earth) accidentally after being hit by the zeta beam, a communications beam invented by a Rannian scientist named Sardath that was somehow altered en route to become a teleportation effect. Adam fell in love with Sardath's daughter, Alanna, but it turned out that the zeta-beam's effects only lasted a few hours, and then he was returned to Earth. Adam then calculated where the next zeta beam would strike Earth, and made sure to be at that spot so he could return to Alanna, even if only for short intervals at a time. In addition, he helped protect Rann from various menaces, monsters and aliens, using a Rannian jet pack and a raygun, plus, most notably, his wits and scientific knowledge.
Adam is a long-time ally of the
Justice League of America, though not a member.
Eventually, a way to make the z-effect permanent was found, and Adam stayed on Rann, and married Alanna.
A two-issue story in the
Alan Moore run of
Swamp Thing stated that Adam was not transported by accident, but rather that the Rannians needed him to help repopulate their species as nuclear war had rendered them sterile. The idea was further developed in a three-issue miniseries by Richard Bruning in which Adam learned the truth, Sardath went mad, and Alanna was killed off. This
Retcon was quietly undone in the late 1990s by
Mark Waid, who revealed Alanna was
still alive and casually had Adam mention curing Sardath's madness. The "sterile Rann"
Retcon has gone unmentioned since, and associated miniseries seems to have tacitly slipped into
Canon Discontinuity.
Has nothing to do with
professor Hugo Strange or the
Marvel character
Doctor Strange.
This series provides examples of: