Broken Frontier

As the search for Rann continues, Adam and his new allies find themselves wanted by intergalactic law.

Joining forces with the Vegan freedom fighters known as the Omega Men, Adam Strange is still searching for clues about the disappearance of his adopted homeworld. On an abandoned space station, they find a massively powerful teleportation device "fueled by the very fabric of space-time itself." This machine would explain Rann’s disappearance, but the heroes realize its applications could have even more dire consequences for the galaxy. They have little time to contemplate this, though, when they are attacked by the Omegans’ enemies, the Spider Guild, and hunted by the intergalactic police force known as L.E.G.I.O.N.

Andy Diggle continues his brilliant revamp of the space ranger hero and still has me on the edge of my seat five issues in. Lately, I’ve been feeling dissatisfied with the stretched-out "write-for-the-trade" approach of many superhero and action comics. Not so with Adam Strange. Diggle achieves an excellent balance between plot, action and characterization, juggling exciting sci-fi battles with further details of the ongoing mystery. The revelation of the Omega Device and its capabilities adds a whole new sense of scale to the conflict in this story. Adam is beginning to realize this could be bigger than just one missing planet (as massive an event as that is) and the growing conspiracy is very intriguing. Diggle’s reintroduction of DC’s various space heroes has been well done and manages to breathe new life into these characters. While I suspected the identity of the mystery man later in the issue, I’m still perplexed about his involvement and anxious to find out what happens next.

As exceptional as Diggle’s script is, the artwork by Pascal Ferry is perhaps even more amazing. Ferry has an impressive sense of design that makes the locales and characters look quite alien and bizarre. The soft subtle pencil lines combined with Dave McCaig’s muted and surreal color palette make the images look unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The art team also employs a variety of interesting lighting techniques and motion blurs, plunging the characters into an atmosphere of swirling lights, colors and frenetic action. Unlike many science fiction comics, Adam Strange is not filled with generic machines or creatures that look like they were lifted from Star Wars. Ferry and McCaig’s vast imagination truly achieves the unearthly look of another world.

With a fresh new spin on many of DC’s forgotten space heroes and a fantastic look, Adam Strange is one of the company’s most innovative and entertaining miniseries.

-Eric Lindberg