We begin with our cover feature "Attack of the Flying Gorillas" by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, and Murphy Anderson and reprinted from Strange Adventures #125 (1961). A small planetoid populated by flying gorillas approaches Earth and begins to steal its atmosphere.
Next up is the Atomic Knights in "Here Come the Wild Ones" by John Broome and Murphy Anderson and reprinted from Strange Adventures #160 (1964). The Knights encounter a roving band of boys who want to become outlaws when they grow up. Marene disguises herself as a boy and infiltrates the group.
Kadey and his Blue Belts stumble upon a pre-war invention that turns people into automatons. They use it to enslave the rebel boys until the Knights defeat them. This is the last Atomic Knights story and they will not appear again till Hercules Unbound #10 (1977).
That is followed by "The Martian Masquerader" by John Broome, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Strange Adventures #67 (1956).
Next, we have "Assignment in Eternity" by Otto Binder, Sid Greene, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Strange Adventures #83 (1957).
This brings us to Adam Strange in "The Challenge of the Crystal Conquerors" by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, and Joe Giella and reprinted from Mystery in Space #71 (1961). Adam Strange catches the Zeta-Beam to Rann where Alanna greets him and explains that crystal beings called the Karalyx have arrived on Rann and began immediately attacking the world. The weapons of Ranagar city are ineffectual against the creatures, so she takes Adam to a secret hideout on Crater Island to hopefully design a weapon to defeat the Karalyx. There Adam devises a weapon that uses ultrasonics that he hopes will destroy the invaders. In attempting to use the weapon, it does not work, and "Alanna" reveals herself as Kathifran, one of the Karalyx who has taken Alanna's place. She explains that they are fugitives from the Karalyx's homeworld and they plan to switch bodies with all the humans of Rann so that when the police of their own world arrive, they would destroy the Karalyx bodies that contain the minds of the people of Rann. She goes on to explain that they created a being known as Akabubu an "electro-nuclear brain" that allows them to create this feat. With Adam Strange defeated, the renegade Karalyx plot to not only take over Rann but other worlds as well, including Earth.
Taken to Akabubu, Adam has his body switched with one of the Karalyx, named Tragdol. Now in a Karalyx body, Adam is reunited with Alanna and the other people of Ranagar that have been converted. To their surprise, they are unable to use any of the Karalyx's fantastic powers. Instead, they secure weapons and attempt to attack, however in a subversive move, the fake "Adam" and "Alanna" use it as a way to convince the people of Rann that they are who they pretend to be. The fake "Adam" and "Alanna" then round up all of the Ranagarian's that are trapped in Karalyx forms and dump them in the Lake of Insalla.
Adam realizes this lake is where Ranagar's drinking water comes from, and the group travels into the refinery plant. In traveling through the filtration system they realize the Chlorine that is used to purify the water weakens their crystalline bodies. Realizing that Chlorine is the weakness of the Karalyx and that they can contact Akabubu telepathically, the converted Adam Strange has his soldiers collect bottles of pure Chlorine from the refinery and then orders Akabubu to change them back into humans. Before the now restored Karalyx renegades can command Akabubu to reverse the process, Adam uses Chlorine on them and they are soon defeated. Soon the police of Karalyx arrive and are informed of what happened.
Later, Adam tells Alanna that he planned for the ultrasonic device to fail to begin with because he was tipped off that something funny was going on when the fake Alanna had kissed him. After getting a kiss from the real Alanna, the Zeta-Beam wears off and Adam is once more returned to Earth.
Edited by Julius Schwartz.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment