Line #27 ComicBook/AdamStrange


1	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1559587807097833700
2	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
3	%%
4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/as_2.png]]
5
6	Adam Strange is a Creator/DCComics [[RaygunGothic space hero]] character from the [[TheFifties 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).
7
8	Adam was an ordinary Earthman, an archeologist who was [[TeleportersAndTransporters 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.
9
10	In other words, this series was essentially a [[MediaNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]], MediaNotes/ComicsCode-friendly version of Literature/JohnCarterOfMars.
11
12	Adam is a long-time ally of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, though not a member. (At least until recently.)
13
14	Eventually, a way to make the z-effect permanent was found, and Adam stayed on Rann, and married Alanna.
15
16	A two-issue story in the Creator/AlanMoore run of ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' 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 Creator/MarkWaid, who revealed Alanna was [[DeathIsCheap 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 CanonDiscontinuity.
17
18	In the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'', Adam and Alanna are members of Justice League United, and their origin is tied to the team's. However. Alanna was given a RaceLift as a black female from Earth, [[spoiler: at least HalfHumanHybrid child of Sardath born on Earth by Issue 16.]]
19
20	Adam returned to prominence in a 12-issue miniseries as part of the Creator/DCBlackLabel, ''ComicBook/StrangeAdventures2020''. Written by Tom King, with art from Mitch Gerads and Evan "Doc" Shaner, the novel focuses on a recently-retired Adam Strange, the things he did on Rann, [[{{Deconstruction}} and whether or not those were war crimes.]] Adam and Alanna try to hold their lives together, on Earth and on Rann, as the Pykkts prepare a new invasion force and Earth's superhero community tries to figure out the truth.
21
22	No relation to Professor Hugo Strange from Franchise/{{Batman}}'s rogues gallery, or the Creator/{{Marvel\|Comics}} character [[ComicBook/Warlock1967 Adam Warlock]] or ComicBook/DoctorStrange.
23
24	----
25	!!This series provides examples of:
26
27	* AdventurerArchaeologist: Adam is an archaeologist but it rarely plays into his adventures.
28	* AfterTheEnd: Rann suffered from a nuclear war that plunged the civilization into collections of warring city-states, except for Ranagar which still retained its technological advances and attempting to restore the remnants civilization into a more pristine state. In Alan Moore's ComicBook/SwampThing, the entire planet suffered from drought-borne famine and declining birth rate from lingering radiation.
29	%%* BattleCouple: Adam Strange and Alanna.
30	* BadassBookworm: Adam is quite smart but also pretty tough.
31	* BadassNormal: Alanna, who did not have the same aptitude as her husband Adam but still able to hold out on her own.
32	* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Ranagar's neighboring planet of Anthorann was colonized just before the apocalypse in the same first issue. Their descendents also help out the restoration of their post-apocalyptic civilization.
33	* DarkerAndEdgier: Adam's two issue appearance in Creator/AlanMoore[='=]s ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' and the three-issue miniseries "The Man of Two Worlds". Although Moore is often blamed for driving this change, [[WordOfGod it was revealed in the letter column of]] ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' that the mini-series was already in the works when Moore came to write his stories, and he was asked to reflect its nature.
34	* DeathByChildbirth: Alanna until {{Retcon}} by Mark Waid in his [[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA]] run with her being in coma after giving birth to their daughter.
35	* FasterThanLightTravel: The Zeta Beam
36	* GeniusLoci: Adam once fought Yggardis, a sentient planet that stole other lifeforms to populate itself, which then died within 24 hours.
37	* GoalOrientedEvolution: The Rannians are further along than Earth humans (no appendix, no hair except on the head), leading to the "ape" epithet for Adam in the Creator/AlanMoore comics.
38	* GuileHero: As fits a DC Comics hero of MediaNotes/{{the Silver Age\|of Comic Books}}, Adam mostly defeated the menaces he encountered with science and trickery.
39	* HalfHumanHybrid: Aleea Strange is half-Rannite and half-Human.
40	* HappilyMarried: Adam and Alanna soon became betrothed later in the comics.
41	* HardLight: For a while during Infinite Crisis and its lead up stories, Adam would utilize some new ordinance comprising of which created by his father-in-law Sardeth to better aid him in fierce battle.
42	* HumanAliens: The Rannians. As typical of DC, no explanation for this was ever given. Though ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' made them a little more alien.
43	* InconvenientSummons: Often happened at the end of many stories: just when the crisis in question is over, Adam and Alanna barely have any personal time when the Zeta Beam would wear off and send him back to Earth.
44	* JetPack: Adam Strange has one of these.
45	* MeaningfulName: Adam is the first human on Rann.
46	* MightyWhitey ([[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace In Space]])
47	** Adam used Rannian technology to fight his enemies. Why couldn't they do likewise? Because they're not as well-suited to heroics and violence as Earth people.
48	* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Alanna (subverted in that Sardath isn't mad, in most versions of the character.)
49	* MonsterOfTheWeek: The oddest variety this side of {{Toku}} shows. (Example: a giant flying magnifying lens.)
50	* NotQuiteDead: Basically how Alanna is brought back to life after her apparent death in childbirth; Adam explicitly notes later that she was declared dead by a human doctor who was inexperienced with Raanian physiology, giving her father hope that some alien civilisation would be able to bring her back to 'life'.
51	* ObfuscatingInsanity: When the telepathic En'Tarans tried to acquire zeta beam technology in exchange for his resurrected wife Alanna, Adam was able to use a mentaliser headband to project insane thoughts and give the impression that Alanna's return had driven him mad, coming up with a complex plan to drive the En'Tarans away while disguising it as a mental breakdown.
52	%%* PlanetaryRomance: In some versions.
53	* PoisonousPerson: The GeniusLoci planet, Yggardis, gave off radiation that would kill anyone on its surface (meaning it [[WhoWantsToLiveForever lived for centuries totally alone]]).
54	* RayGun: Adam Strange has one of these, too.
55	%%* RaygunGothic
56	* RoguesGalleryTransplant: Kanjar Ro went from fighting the Franchise/{{Justice League\|of America}} to repeatedly clashing with Adam for awhile.
57	%%* ScienceHero
58	* StarterVillain: The Eternals, a race of aliens who attacked Rann for a rare mineral soon after Adam first teleported there, and are trapped in the Fourth Dimension at the end of the issue.
59	* TeleportersAndTransporters: The Zeta Beam.
60	** MassTeleportation: Later, the vastly improved if short lived [[InterdimensionalTravelDevice Omega Beam]]
61	* TookALevelInBadass: Alanna Strange would become less of a DamselInDistress thanks to her relationship with Adam Strange.
62	* TookALevelInJerkass: Rannians after The Crisis have turned into [[AbsoluteXenophobe spiciest jagoff's]] who regularly mock and jeer whenever Adam has his back turned, even still when he's [[IHeardThat within earshot]]
63	* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Inverted: he ''wanted'' to stay on Rann, but couldn't for long.
64	* UngratefulTownsfolk: In the modern age, the Rannians are a lot less thankful for Adam's help and a lot more {{Jerkass}} on account of him being an alien ape. Strange is well aware of this fact but being the HumbleHero that he is, coupled with his wife living there, he does what he can to help them anyway.
65	* WarpWhistle: The Zeta Beamer module, a mobile teleportation drone developed by Sardeth which enables remote instantaneous transport across the universe without [[InconvenientSummons its effects wearing off]] like previous.
66	** WeaponizedTeleportation: Adam uses this to rather lethal effect while on the hunt for the missing Rann star system during '''Planet Heist'''. Once he used it to fight off a [[ForcedTransformation Durlan mercenary]] by warping him into a supernova.
67	* WeaponsThatSuck: One enemy alien race used this form of sucking weapon.

Context ComicBook / AdamStrange