The war on Rann is over. Adam Strange and his wife Alanna are trying to start a new life on Earth. Very quickly though, that new life is upended in a brutal fashion. Spoilers for Strange Adventures #1 follow.
Strange Adventures was the book I was most looking forward to this year. Not because I love the character of Adam Strange or anything, but because of the creative team. Tom King and Mitch Gerads have struck gold with everything that they’ve done together. From Mister Miracle to The Sheriff of Babylon to “Rooftops,” everything has been top-notch quality. And when Tom King and Evan “Doc” Shaner have worked together before, they produced one of the best Green Lantern stories ever, “Will You be My God?” Suffice to say, this is an absolute powerhouse of a creative team and they do not disappoint.
This issue immediately sets the tone for the series both for plot and theme. This will be a murder mystery surrounding an altercation that Adam had with someone at a book signing. The man ended murdered, seemingly by a weapon similar to Adam’s. This is a pretty simple story that drives the plot forward. The reason that this plot is immediately investing though is because of how Adam Strange is written here. He’s the one seeking to clear his name. Not by himself, but with others who can do it for him. This turns the “clearing your name” cliché on its head in a nice way that works really well.
But digging deeper into the issue is where the meat of it resides, the themes. This issue alone explores conspiracy media, loss, and, unsurprisingly as this is Tom King, ex-member of the CIA, war. Nothing is really fully explored in-depth as of yet, nor should it be. This is a debut issue of the series and it does what a debut issue should do, set-up. And what it does set-up, it sets-up spectacularly. This really is the makings of another series in the vein of Mister Miracle.
What could’ve made this issue fall flat though is having two artists involved. Both Gerads and Shaner are brilliant and create gorgeous artwork in everything they do. However, their styles are radically different from one another. They shouldn’t flow well, like at all. Yet, they do. Their art compliments each so incredibly well in this issue and flows incredibly well. There are times where they even share pages, which shouldn’t work, yet it does fantastically.
Gerads ends up handling everything happening on Earth in this issue while Shaner handles everything on Rann. This is perfect as the settings compliment the artists so well. Gerads’ style is heavily grounded with a purposeful rough edge to it, while Shaner’s feels a bit more classical DC Comics. Something more akin to George Perez than Jim Lee. Because of that, Gerads and Shaner get to play to their strikes, both creating gorgeous imagery that magnificently tells the story being told and expounds on the themes involved.
Every single page in this exudes a fantastic amount of energy as well. Everything from a simple book signing to a fighting a war against giant aliens pops off the page. Every single panel exudes life in some form or another. Whether it be anger, fear, sadness, or passion. Gerads and Shaner carry that forth with their art.
And, as both artists do their own coloring as well, the differences in coloring make the setting differences stand out really well. Shaner’s colors are a bit more saturated, creating almost this safe vibe throughout his pages, even though he’s drawing a war. Gerads on the other uses a lot of yellow, which in comics, creates this off-putting feeling throughout the issue. It’s a great contrast between their two styles.