Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Strange Adventures # 1 (of 8)

By Koppy McFad
March 13, 2009 - 22:51

The Rann-Thanagar and Holy Wars are over but now, an unknown menace faces Adam Strange, Captain Comet and Starman-- something that can apparently steal stars from the sky.

This is an entertaining, if fairly lightweight space opera with lots of explosions, fist-fights and spaceship combat. There is nothing very new going on-- Starlin has used the old 'Star-thief' gimmick before and the new villain-- an alien gangster who acts and dresses like a 70s pimp, is enjoyably chessy. The story is lively enough and even has a hefty amount of drama in the scenes of Adam Strange being forced to destroy his old home.  But Starlin's tales aren't the deep, heavy cosmic dramas that he clearly wants them to be. Sometimes, he resorts to huge scenes of mass death and destruction to give them importance but nowadays, death and the destruction are almost boring in the world of DC comics. If Starlin could just put aside the cosmic overtones for awhile and present a straight Flash-Gordon-type adventure, maybe his stories would be more enjoyable.

The art tries to ape the style of Starlin that was seen in his CAPTAIN MARVEL, WARLOCK and DREADSTAR stories years ago-- even to the point of using longtime Starlin inker Al Milgrom.  Like the story, the art is entertaining, exciting and even very moving at times. But like the story, there is an excess of shadows that attempt to make some scenes look weightier than they really are.

There is also a back-up feature where Bizarro is told he has some great destiny ahead of him. This part, drawn by Starlin, is very cryptic so it is hard to judge it on its own-- although the art is well-done. By the way, despite all of Bizarro's space travels, he is also shown on Earth in such books as ACTION COMICS and in the SOLOMON GRUNDY miniseries.  Is this just a continuity glitch we can ignore or is it a sign of some twist  coming down the line?

 

 

Rating: 7 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12