A great deal of interest is being shown toward Adam Strange this month, and the timing is right: Why not release a Silver Age reprint? Something old to set the stage for something new? DC has released a Facsimile printing of a 1961 title, Mystery In Space #75. At $3.99 for a full colour reprint of the entire issue, including the letter page and the ads, it’s a great deal.
(Read my review of the relaunched Strange Adventures title starring Adam Strange, elsewhere on this Fanboy Factor site today!)
Anyway, back to this facsimile: it’s written by Gardner Fox, with artwork by Carmine Infantino, inked by Murphy Anderson. The artwork is splendid, with Infantino’s elegant poses, economically arranged panels, low horizons. It’s classic SciFi, and Anderson lends his careful ink rendering to the images.
The story is a bit uh ‘strange’, from our vantage point 60 years later. Bad guy Kanjar Ro, trapped by the Justice League on a planet with three other terrible beings, has managed to free himself a year later. Now, he’s taken a Viking sailing ship through outer space and set up a training camp. You see, he’s annoyed with being kept prisoner, and wants revenge. He has a plan to attack Superman! Meanwhile Adam Strange and his ‘sweetheart’ Alanna are doing scientific research. They stumble upon some Zoorans who are taking prisoners! Wait, isn’t that Kanjar Ro over there??
And so it goes, stretching credibility and expanding our entertainment dollar. It’s fetched just about as far as possible, but things keep happening, heroes do heroic things, and page after page of space mysteries are unraveled before our wondering eyes. It’s science, it’s fiction!
Just the thing to whet the appetite for today’s other Adam Strange release….
DC Mystery In Space Facsimile Edition, $4.99 for 25 pages of content, plus all original ads and house ads. All ages, or Teen
Newsdesk