In Justice League of America 4 (April-May 1961), the Flash proposed Adam Strange for membership, despite the fact that no one on Earth appeared to be aware of the secret spaceman’s interplanetary heroics.
Readers who questioned this got their answer in Mystery in Space 75 (May 1962), and this prequel proved to be one of the better stories in the archeologist-adventurer’s run.
“Adam Strange teams up with the Justice League to fight Kanjar Ro, a villain who uses Rann’s triple suns to give himself Superman-like powers,” noted comics historian Michael E. Grost. “This is a sequel to (Gardner) Fox’s The Slave Ship of Space (Justice League of America 3, February-March, 1961). That tale introduced Kanjar Ro and his battle with the Justice League.”
Kanjar Ro’s powers are, in fact, greater than Superman’s. Justice League superheroes throw themselves against him uselessly while the powerless Strange just stands around, seemingly at a loss.
In fact, Strange is concentrating on the problem at hand.
Just as the alien despot is about to destroy him, Strange hurls one of Kanjar Ro’s old tools, instantly overcoming the tyrant. Strange had reasoned if material from Superman’s home planet weakened him, the same might be true for metal from Dhor, Kanjar Ro’s world.
Strange’s brains bested the JLA’s brawn, prompting Wonder Woman to remark, “To think I felt sorry for you, seeing you standing there — so helpless.”
The spaceman replies, “I had no superpowers to fight with, so I had to take some time out and — think!”
As Mike W. Barr observed, “It’s hard not to be impressed by a guy with no superpowers who nevertheless does a job the entire JLA can’t.”
“I’ve been so frequently disappointed by many of the modern-day appearances of Adam, in which the writers downplay his intellect and basically just make him a Shoot-First-And-Ask-Questions-Later space cowboy,” wrote comics historian Gene Popa. “They clearly did not read and grasp his original stories, sad to say.”
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