We begin with our cover story, "The Day the Earth Split in Two" by John Broome, Sid Greene, and Bernard Sachs and reprinted from Mystery in Space #31 (1956).
Next, we have Adam Strange in "The Fadeaway Doom" by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, and Murphy Anderson and reprinted from Mystery in Space #68 (1961). One day on the planet Rann, high above the city of Ranagar, a message ordering the people of the city to surrender within one day appears. Alanna's father Sardath asks the military's second in command Kaskor to summon all the fighting men to Ranagar. Their unknown threatener, seeing that an army has been mobilized somehow makes all the fighting men disappear. Alanna then goes to the location where Adam Strange will appear via the Zeta-Beam. When he arrives Alannais about to inform Adam of what is going on when they are attacked by a wild Tigrabar, but before it can attack the two find themselves transported to a baron world. There they find the missing soldiers and Alanna has time to tell Adam what happened.
Soon they are attacked by Dust Devils, which tips Alanna to the fact that they have been transported to the planet Rhynthar, which is home to a species of sentient dust clouds. When the creatures attack, Adam learns that they are composed of a form of Sodium that is super-heated, and exposure to sand would turn them into glass. With this in mind, Adam and the soldiers begin to fight off the Dust Devils.
After defeating the Dust Devil's, they are contacted by a pre-established television monitor and soon find that the mastermind behind their defeat was their own second in command, Kaskor, who developed a device based on the Zeta-Beam to transport his enemies onto Rhynthar. He explains when the Zeta-Charge from his weapon wears out they will not be returned to their place of origin, but instead fade into oblivion. Shortly, the original Zeta-Beam that brought Adam to Rann wears off and Adam is returned to Earth.
There, Adam has a duplicate of Kaskor's uniform made in a costume shop and then travels back to Rann on the next Zeta-Beam. Once back in Ranagar, Adam disguised as Kaskor is able to sneak to the palace and confront the real Kaskor. Telling the shocked Kaskor that he is his conscious, the rebel shoots Adam with the Zeta-Ray once more. When nothing happens, Adam grabs the device and uses it to send both him and Kaskor to Rhynthar.
There, in a panic of his own impending doom, Kaskor explains that it's a half-charged blast from the Zeta-Gun that is lethal and that a full charged blast would reverse its effects. With a solution to their predicament in hand, Adam reverses the effects of the Zeta-Gun to return all the Ranagarian's back home. Before returning himself and Kaskor back to Rann, Adam explains he made Kaskor's first shot ineffectual by using a radio transmitter as a jamming device. He then returns Kaskor and himself to Rann. There, Kaskor is sent to prison, and Sardath destroys the Zeta-Ray. With his mission accomplished the Zeta-Beam wears off and Adam is returned home once more.
This is followed by "Dream-Journey Through Space" by John Broome, Gil Kane, and Bernard Sachs and reprinted from Strange Adventures #58 (1955).
Next up is "The Hothouse World" by Gardner Fox, Mort Drucker, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Mystery in Space #13 (1953).
That is followed up by "The Last Television Broadcast on Earth" by Bill Finger, Sid Greene, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Mystery in Space #28 (1955).
Next is "Detour in Time" by Gardner Fox, Jerry Grandenetti, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Strange Adventures #89 (1958).
We end with Atomic Knights in "The Plant That Hated Humans" by John Broome and Murphy Anderson and reprinted from Strange Adventures #150 (1963). A botanist in a nearby town has developed a new strain of plant life capable of growing in the post-war environment. The new plants have telepathic abilities and can walk.
The Atomic Knights discover that the plants plan to attack human settlements. However, they can't fight the plants directly because they are outnumbered. Instead, the Knights strike at a nearby dam, cutting off the water supply to the plant creatures. Without water, the plants die almost instantly. The plant army is defeated, but the Knights continue their vigilance in case they strike again.
Edited by Julius Schwartz.
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