The Story: "The Planet That Came To A Standstill" by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, and Murphy Anderson.
Out story opens with honorary JLA member Snapper Carr relaying an adventure that starts in deep space:
One of them rings some sort of small crystal, which forces Adam and Alanna hurtling into space, where they are soon caught by the planet's orbit. Thanks to Adam's ingenuity, though, they manage to escape and fall over one of Rann's highest peaks, softening their fall.
Adam and Alanna re-engage the invaders, and pretend to be held captive so they can find out who is behind them--namely, Kanjar Ro! Thanks to Ro's experiments, he is now more powerful than ever, and tests his powers on some JLA duplicates:
The Flash finds the ship, and calls in his JLA pals:
Adam and Alanna spy Kanjar Ro leaving his lab, so Adam grabs Ro's gong and strikes it so hard he paralyzes everyone on Rann, including Ro! Then another Zeta Beam brings Adam back to Earth, leaving his body back to normal (got all that?):
Later, Adam introduces the JLA to Alanna:
...The End!
Notable Moments: This story takes place between JLA #s 3 and 4, making it the last appearance of the original seven, in terms of publishing history.
This is a very fun story, but complicated as heck! A bunch of characters, with Adam Strange bouncing back and forth between Rann and Earth like a ping-pong ball. There's so much plot in this issue that if they did this story nowadays, it would take up six issues and be given its own trade paperback.
It was suggested at the time that JLA Satellite.com cover this issue, since its pretty much a direct sequel to issue #3, but I was just starting out and didn't feel the need to take even a momentary diversion into another title (plus I didn't have a copy of the book!). But now that I've decided to bring back this blog every so often, I thought why not start almost at the very beginning of the JLA's career!
Missed this one while I was in Japan, sorry!
ReplyDeleteThis story was always one of my favorites after I found it in a reprint TPB MYSTERY IN SPACE circa 1984.
Oddly enough I always liked Adam Strange as a JLA guest-star, but never liked his solo series. Hmmmm...
My favorite line:
ReplyDeleteKanjar Ro thinks: "You drew a ray-gun on me! That means you're not under the control of the tinkle bell!"
"...the tinkle bell"? Kanjar Ro was going to control the Universe with a "tinkle bell"???? lol