#jsa: strange adventures

[somewherefornow]

TED GRANT/WILDCAT & AL PRATT/ATOM in JSA: STRANGE ADVENTURES (2004)

[shieracarter]

Carter and Shiera in JSA: Strange Adventures ✨

[thevindicativevordan]

Do you have some recommendations for someone who wants to know more about Mr Terrific?

Usually Holt has been like Martian Manhunter: a supporting character on the JSA or a leader of a team rather than a solo character. The big recent exception was King’s Strange Adventures mini which I expect to become the foundation story for Holt going forward. I recommend that to start and then from there I’d say Johns JSA and The Terrifics are the next best runs to read.

[soranatus]

Mr. Terrific WIPs by Mitch Gerads & Doc Shaner

[dc-trinity90s]

DC Tales Of New Earth - It Was A Dark And Stormy Night By John Watson

[balu8]

JSA Strange Adventures #2

by Kevin J. Anderson; Barry Kitson; Gary Erskine; HI FI and Rob Leigh

DC

[cantsayidont]

August-September 1947. One thing that made Batman's posthumous accusations about the JSA rather strange was that the Golden Age Batman had had only limited involvement with the Justice Society. In the late '70s, the JSA origin in DC SPECIAL #29 established him as a founding member, but, barring a very brief cameo in ALL-STAR COMICS #7, the only Golden Age story in which Batman (and Superman) actually participated was this one, "5 Drowned Men!" in ALL-STAR COMICS #36. Moreover, the late Jerry Bails argued that this story (whose author remains unknown) originally featured the Atom and Johnny Thunder, whose chapters were redrawn at the last minute to substitute the higher-profile characters. The Earth-2 Batman later appeared in only two JLA/JSA crossovers, and was generally described as being in "semi-retirement" as a costumed hero.

This issue was the first time Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman all appeared together in the same comic, even on the cover, and the only one until the debut of the Silver Age Justice League more than a decade later. The "Trinity" concept that DC tries to push today with those characters had no Golden Age precedent to speak of, although Superman and Batman appeared together on the covers of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS (years before they actually shared any of the stories inside) and by this time were occasionally costarring on the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN radio show.

[sebeth]

Who's Who In The DC Universe #1: Adam Strange, Aegeus, Air Wave I, Air Wave II

Adam Strange by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson

Adam was fleeing from South American natives when he was struck by the Zeta Beam, a “beam of energy sent from the planet Rann in hopes of communicating” with Earth

The Zeta Beam teleported Adam to Rann instead

Adam meets a scientist named Sardath and Alanna, his daughter

Adam became the Rann’s first citizen and savior and later married Alanna

Rann is a planet of contradictions: “Some of its divided city-states possesses science far in advance of Earth, while others exist in almost barbaric splendor”

Adam teleports back to Earth whenever the Zeta Beam wears off, he then has to calculate where the next Zeta Beam will strike (always south of the equator) to return to Rann

I’ve always loved Adam Strange. How can you not enjoy an archaeologist who has space adventures? I’d recommend the Adam Strange miniseries that came out shortly before Infinite Crisis (no, not the Rann-Thanagar War mini-series, the “Adam Strange” mini-series that preceded it. It was excellent!

Aegeus by Don Heck

A Greek national who was planning acts of terrorism when he met Bellerophon (yes, the one from Greek mythology). Bellerophon had become an Olympian-hater so he gave Aegeus a magical bow and arrow, six daggers of Vulcan (shouldn’t he be called Hephaestus (?), and Pegasus. Aegeus then decided to pick a fight with Wonder Woman and the Amazons. It doesn’t end well for him.

For such a long-running character, Wonder Woman’s rogue gallery does not have the depth of a Flash, a Batman, or a Spider-Man. Aegeus is D list. Has he even been seen post-Crisis?

Air-Wave I and Air Wave II by Alex Saviuk & Dick Giordano

Did you know Hal Jordan’s cousins were heroes? And not of the Green Lantern variety?

Lawrence (Larry) Jordan was a native of Earth-2. He developed a helmet and belt that allowed him to into any radio wave, project his voice through radio waves, among other abilities. He created the Air Wave persona, battled nazis, and joined the All-Star Squadron.

Larry traveled to Earth-1 under “unknown circumstances”, became a district attorney, married a woman named Helen, and has a son named Harold (Hal). No, not that Hal Jordan.

Criminals later shot and killed Larry as revenge against his crusades as a district attorney.

Hal inherited the Air Wave equipment and persona from his father.

His mother had a breakdown after the murder of his father and was confined to an institution. Hal was taken in by his cousins, Jack and Jan Jordan.

Hal received some coaching on heroics from his cousin Hal (yes, that Hal), Green Arrow, and Black Canary.

The only appearances of either Air Wave that I’ve read were when Larry or Hal made appearances in the All-Star Squadron or JSA series. They were okay.

I suppose a quick detour is needed for younger readers about the various earths that will be mentioned in the Who’s Who:

Earth-1: The earth of the Silver Age heroes to 1985/1986: the home of Barry, Hal, Katar, Shayera, etc

Earth-2: The home of the Golden Age/original versions of DC’s iconic heroes: Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Carter Hall. Also, the home of the Justice Society, All-Star Squadron, Infinity Inc, etc. Bruce, Clark, and Diana among other will have versions of themselves on both Earth-1 and Earth-2. The difference is the Earth-2 versions can age, marry, and have children while the Earth-1 versions stayed young and single.

There were multiple other earths, this is off the top of my head so the designations may be wrong, but a few more were:4

Earth-3: The home of the Crime Syndicate (reverse world where the Justice League are evil, and the villains are the good guys)

Earth-F: Home of the Fawcett heroes

Earth-C: Home of the Charlton heroes

Earth-Q: Home of the Quality heroes

DC simply created another earth when they bought out another company and then plopped the newly acquired characters on it rather than try to insert the characters on a prior earth. Crossovers between earths were frequent. DC eventually decided the continuity was too complicated and thus the Crisis on Infinite Earths was born. I don’t know, I was nine years old when the Crisis began and I understood the continuity just fine, so how complicated could it be?

[vermiculated]

Strange Adventures (2020)

A primer:

Strange Adventures (2020) is a comic book about an adventure story, drawn by Evan Shaner, and a political thriller, drawn by Mitch Gerads. In the end, the stories become one another and the hero dies. The premise of all of these stories is Adam Strange, with his jet pack and ray gun, is trying to win a war against the Pykkts, who have attacked the planet he lives on some of the time, called Rann. The original Adam Strange comics are treated as backstory to this war, and Strange Adventures is partly meant to emphasize how brutal and lonely war really is, even in a planetary romance setting: Adam’s been fighting pointless wars for decades, but this is the saddest of them all. 

source: why-i-love-comics

The several parallel stories that make up this comic are meant, at least partly, to give two underwritten characters some depth: Adam’s squeeze, Alanna of Rann and Mister Terrific, Michael Holt. Alanna is a scientist who meets Adam when he is transported to Rann by the zeta beams, which run on an irregular but predictable schedule, serving the same purpose as the sword between Tristan and Isolde. In most Adam Strange comics, Alanna is lovely and smart: the general arc is that Rann has been put in danger, Adam shows up, Alanna provides the necessary exposition, and she plays lovely assistant to Adam’s science hero. There’s some later complications to this, including the addition and subtraction of Adam and Alanna’s daughter, Aleea, and their appearance in other superhero stories, usually to indicate that all of space is looking in on this conflict. 

source: why-i-love-comics

Michael Holt is a genius decathlete polymath who, after the death of his wife Paula, took up the mantle of Mister Terrific, vacant after the initiator of the title died, and started working with the JSA. His “superpower” is being naturally good at everything and usually in stories, his role is to provide background information on whatever threat the heroes are facing, and explains whatever science is being used to fight the bad guys. He works with the T-spheres, robots who further his pedagogical theme/approach, and allow him to test his knowledge at random.

source: why-i-love-comics

Michael and Alanna have chemistry, they visit the Walker Art Institute’s sculpture garden together and talk about their problems:

source: why-i-love-comics

The twist to Strange Adventures is that Adam, to save Rann, bargains away Earth. He does this by promising to the Pykkt that he will sabotage the Justice League’s efforts to defend Earth, which is the next planet that the Pykkt intend to invade. The Pykkt guarantee this bargain by holding Aleea hostage. In order to keep this deal and its condition secret, Adam lies and says that the Pykkt killed Aleea. He and Alanna come to Earth in the wake of this deal and publish an autobiography of Adam’s time at war, and try to raise the alarm about the invasion. Adam, out of hallucinatory guilt, shoots a guy who he interprets to be a Pykkt scout: he goes to Batman and asks to be investigated, and Batman sets Mister Terrific the task of figuring out what happened. Mister Terrific goes to Rann and figures out that the Pykkt made a deal with Adam, and that Aleea is still alive. When the Pykkt do invade, Adam allows them to break the cordon and bomb Phoenix, Arizona. The war goes poorly, and Michael tells Alanna what really happened to Aleea. Alanna confronts Adam, they fight, and Adam is killed. Mister Terrific takes custody of Aleea when Alanna returns to Rann to face a renewed Pykkt attack. 

you may say, these themes seem very familiar to me as a person who enjoys nine panel therapy comics. THOMAS. This is substantially darker than Mister Miracle (2017) or The Omega Men, as the nature of the story itself is deconstructed, and the hero is pushed to make a deal that is antithetical to continued heroics, so what is he; whereas Mister Miracle answers that question by saying, he’s a good person who doesn’t care about the story in the end, Strange Adventures says when a hero’s no longer heroic he is dead. 

shorter: I would have made this amazing transformative work my summary.

This is how I win: after the fixit, Adam’s back on Earth in time for 2022’s vampire-fighting arc and the promised dinner party at the Frees’. 

[cheese0spider]

Good night everyone tomorrow is Despicable Me 4,DC Event Absolute Power,IDW Sonic,Amazing Spiderman Annual,Miles Morales,Deadpool,JSA,Doctor Strange,Shazam,My Adventures With Superman Comic,Venom,Annihilation 2099,Birds Of Prey,Xmen Blood Hunt Psylocke,and Werewolf By Midnight Blood Hunt :D

[somewherefornow]

AL PRATT/THE ATOM + CALLING TED GRANT/WILDCAT “BIG GUY” in JSA: STRANGE ADVENTURES (2004)

+TED CALLING AL “LITTLE GUY”

[ufonaut]

finally completed jsa: strange adventures (with first issue signed by gary erskine!) :')

[thevindicativevordan]

it’s a shame that after Tom King’s Strange Adventures clearly positioned Mr Terrific as the clear avenue character for DC to do modern sci-fi adventure stories, they still never choose to do anything fun or worthwhile with the guy outside of the short lived Terrifics and lame ass JSA stuff. he’s SEVERELY underutilized and i’d love for Waid to have him be a big part of the new JL run. personal thoughts on the guy?

I love Holt because he’s such an American character.

We Americans love our trash talkers. Oh we publicly make a big deal about the need to stay humble and respectful, but don’t believe that for a second. Look at our heroes and icons! Only thing Americans really respect are winners, and we love winners who can walk their talk. Michael Holt comes from the proud tradition of American heroes who can do just that. He’s incredibly smart and he knows it. He’s fantastically competent and he shows it. He’s Mr. Terrific! - able to cut through the bullshit with his mind or his fists as need be. And he doesn’t take crap from anyone.

Like Hal Jordan or Barry Allen before him, Holt might not be the first character to hold the mantle, but he’s the one who made folks respect the name. No offense to the Terry Sloane fans out there (if you exist), but there’s a reason Holt is the only Mr. Terrific who ever gets used. He’s simply cooler than his predecessor in every way. His backstory, his design, his attitude, his powers, despite sharing the name I even hesitate to call Holt a “legacy character”. He’s more in the vein of a Hal Jordan, taking the title but reinventing the concept, than a Barry Allen or Wally West who is steadfastly trying to live up to a pre-existing ideal. How many people even know that Holt wasn’t the first Mr. Terrific? Who would care if they did know?

Holt is living in the timeline that John Stewart fans wish they had gotten after the DCAU. Far as the general public is concerned, there’s only one Mr. Terrific. Which I would be happy to see DC continue to act as if that were the case, I know this rubs against how most people view legacy as central to DC, but I don’t believe that any story about Holt “struggling” to live up to his predecessor’s example will ring true. Besides, it’s unnecessary.

Mr. Terrific already has plenty of baggage on his own to deal with. His unresolved trauma over the deaths of his wife and their baby, his mentally disabled older brother dying young also, his need to excel at anything he sets his mind to, his atheism in a universe where the gods are not only real but actively involved, the all but stated fact that he might be smarter than Bruce and Lex, but put himself in third place to not attract attention, and leading his own team the Terrifics. Returning to OP’s statement, I too bemoan Holt being trapped on the Boomer Squadron. Yes it’s expected given Geoff Johns created him to be part of the team in the first place, but like Wally on the Titans, Holt has outgrown his original team.

Making him the leader of his own team simply makes sense. Unlike most of his peers you can justify all sorts of adventures for Holt on the basis of SCIENCE! or simple adventure-seeking. The JL are not wont to taking field trips but the Terrifics have no problem doing that. Holt became an Olympian athlete simply to prove he could. He’s exactly the type of character who can easily justify a trip to space or through time simply because he felt like doing that. DC made it explicit but Holt always has been the natural counterpart to Marvel’s Reed Richards.

DC struggles to create teams that don’t languish in the shadow of the League. No matter the protestations to the contrary the Titans and the JSA absolutely are stuck in said shadow. Mr. Terrific and his Terrifics however don’t have to be. Market them as explorers and adventurers rather than crime fighters and they would have a niche that isn’t covered by anyone else at DC, with a mandate to go anywhere and do anything.

[soranatus]

Mr. Terrific on the covers of Strange Adventures, with art by Mitch Gerads

[littlemonstert-blog]

Mr. Terrific

He a character I hope they use more. Come to find out he's a legacy character too. But never really saw the first one just this one. I mean he is a more intresting character then the first in my oppinion.

One of the smartest people in the world

They did him so scandlous in the tv show Arrow.

I'd say cartoon shows did him justice.

Justice Leaque Unlimted/Justice Leaque Action

Injustice the movie: The movie really wasn't that good felt like cliffnotes. They replaced him with Flash & had him debate with Superman in chess. They seem to forget that they could have used his expereince with the lost of his wife & child just like Superman. Have him connect with Superman on a level.

Comics runs that are great for his character & to get started:

The Specture (New Earth)

Strange Adventures (Prime Earth)

Dceased (Prime Earth)

JSA (New Earth)

Justice Society of America (New Earth)

Man, I checked & he was going to make an appearance on Stargirl if it wasn't cancelled.

[balu8]

JSA Strange Adventures #2

by Kevin J. Anderson; Barry Kitson; Gary Erskine; HI FI and Rob Leigh

DC