Welcome new and regular readers to the Crisis on Earth-Blog Challenge!

If you’ve made your way here from another challenge, then congratulations on your right answer

For those of you that are new to the challenge, here’s how it works.  Throughout the internet, a bunch of us blogging-types who talk about DC Comics characters have gotten together, and set a fiendish (and not so fiendish) set of puzzles.    Each blog will be based around a certain character and contain a section of a larger piece of art containing their character.  Correctly solve the puzzle on the blog, and you’ll move onto the next blog and their challenge, until eventually you find your way through the twisty maze of blogs and challenges to find the final, complete artwork featuring all the characters you’ve visited on your travels.

Of course, if you’ve found your way here from another challenge, you already knew all that, so on with the challenge

Adam Strange: Defender of Rann is no stranger to the readers of this blog.  An archeologist on Earth, he found himself caught in a Zeta beam which transported him across the galaxy to the planet Rann, a world of great scientific achievement, where he quickly found his quick-thinking and cunning tactics put to use defending them from alien invaders.  However the Zeta Beam would invariably wear off, returning him to Earth at the end of each adventure.

Some time later, a way was found to imbue Adam with Mega-Zeta radiation which kept him on Rann permanently where he stayed, raising his daughter after his wife Alanna was thought dead.

A long-time ally to the Justice League, imagine their surprise when one day, they suddenly found themselves scooped up in a Zeta Beam and transported to Rann.   Only things were definitely not right.  Adam was no longer the defender of Rann, instead he had become its dictator.  Having joined forces with the En’taran Slavemasters after discovering his wife was alive, he was intent in restoring Rann to its full glory in preparation for Alanna returning.  The population of Rann had been enslaved by Adam and the telepathic En’tarans. However, realising the work would not be completed in time, Adam had decided to kidnap the JLA to ensure things would be ready.

To find their old friend so unhinged was a big shock for the JLA. However as they planned their escape, they found themselves betrayed by another of their own who decided to switch sides and help Adam in his mad scheme.  So the question is, which member of the JLA betrayed the rest of the team?

A) Firestorm

B) Mister Miracle

C) The Martian Manhunter

D) The Atom

E) I Don’t Know

So who was it that betrayed the rest of the team?  Well, surprisingly it was JLA-stalwart J’onn Jones The Martian Manhunter.  But why would he do such a thing?

Well, needless to say there was something else going on.  The En’tarans had managed to bring Alanna back from her near-death state and had discovered the lingering zeta radiation in her body.  Realising the possibilities for conquest the zeta technology offered, they had Alanna bring Adam to them.  Adam, suspecting something was amiss had used Rannian technology to shield his mind from their mental powers, seemingly scrambling his thoughts and making him appear insane to them, but Adam knew he’d have to trick the En’tarans to rid Rann of their threat permanently.

As their invasion force moved towards Rann, he returned via Zeta beam with the small force of En’tarans and enacted his plan.  Acting unhinged he set about remodelling Rann’s architecture into a giant zeta beam projector which he could power with his own Mega-Zeta radiation.   Recruiting the JLA, he was able to inform J’onn of his true plans as J’onn’s own powers would protect him from the En’taran’s telepathy.

As the might of the full invasion force arrived at Rann, the JLA were successful in helping Adam complete his plan and use his Mega-Zeta Beam to transport the entire force away while Superman freed Alanna (and her father Sardath) from the En’tarans.

This story represented a big moment in the Adam Strange mythos.  Bringing back Sardath and Alanna, while also Adam lost the mega-Zeta Beam radiation which had kept him permanently on Rann, meaning while Alanna looked after their daughter, Adam would find himself back to chasing after other Zeta beams so he could revisit his family.

But what of the DC Challenge?  Well, not a problem.  Adam Strange’s story continues here:
http://dcbloodlines.blogspot.com/2010/01/adam-strange.html

or all you have to do is pick another blog from the list below and have a go at one of the other characters, and their challenges.  Good luck!

Aquaman @ the Shrine
The Atom @ Tiny Titan
Batgirl @ The Anti-DiDio League
Black Canary Challenge @ Girls Gone Geek
Captain Comet @ …nurgh…
Doctor Fate Challenge post @ Once Upon a Geek
Elongated Man & Zatanna @ Justice League Detroit
Firestorm Challenge post
The Flash @ Crimson Lightning
Green Arrow @ Dispatches from the Arrowcave
Hawkman/woman @ Being Carter Hall
He-Man and Battle Cat @ Pretty, Fizzy Paradise
Martian Manhunter @ The Idol-Head of Diabolu
The Metal Men @ Comics Make Me Happy
Mister Miracle @ random picture day
The Phantom Stranger
Plastic Man @ The Continuity Blog
Sgt. Rock @ when is evil cool?
Supergirl Comic Box Commentary
Unknown Soldier @ El Jacone’s Comic Book Bunker
Wonder Woman Challenge @ Girls Gone Geek

Welcome new and regular readers to the Crisis on Earth-Blog Challenge!

If you’ve made your way here from another challenge, then congratulations on your right answer

For those of you that are new to the challenge, here’s how it works.  Throughout the internet, a bunch of us blogging-types who talk about DC Comics characters have gotten together, and set a fiendish (and not so fiendish) set of puzzles.    Each blog will be based around a certain character and contain a section of a larger piece of art containing their character.  Correctly solve the puzzle on the blog, and you’ll move onto the next blog and their challenge, until eventually you find your way through the twisty maze of blogs and challenges to find the final, complete artwork featuring all the characters you’ve visited on your travels.

Of course, if you’ve found your way here from another challenge, you already knew all that, so on with the challenge

Adam Strange: Defender of Rann is no stranger to the readers of this blog.  An archeologist on Earth, he found himself caught in a Zeta beam which transported him across the galaxy to the planet Rann, a world of great scientific achievement, where he quickly found his quick-thinking and cunning tactics put to use defending them from alien invaders.  However the Zeta Beam would invariably wear off, returning him to Earth at the end of each adventure.

Some time later, a way was found to imbue Adam with Mega-Zeta radiation which kept him on Rann permanently where he stayed, raising his daughter after his wife Alanna was thought dead.

A long-time ally to the Justice League, imagine their surprise when one day, they suddenly found themselves scooped up in a Zeta Beam and transported to Rann.   Only things were definitely not right.  Adam was no longer the defender of Rann, instead he had become its dictator.  Having joined forces with the En’taran Slavemasters after discovering his wife was alive, he was intent in restoring Rann to its full glory in preparation for Alanna returning.  The population of Rann had been enslaved by Adam and the telepathic En’tarans. However, realising the work would not be completed in time, Adam had decided to kidnap the JLA to ensure things would be ready.

To find their old friend so unhinged was a big shock for the JLA. However as they planned their escape, they found themselves betrayed by another of their own who decided to switch sides and help Adam in his mad scheme.  So the question is, which member of the JLA betrayed the rest of the team?

A) Firestorm

B) Mister Miracle

C) The Martian Manhunter

D) The Atom

E) I Don’t Know

The title is new to me, but its been getting a lot of acclaim, and with soaking up these two characters (especially Adam Strange), and a well-publicised upcoming Blackest Night tie-in, it seems obvious to me that DC is leverage the book as  a cornerstone of their cosmic storylines.

The current story arc revolves around a reinvention of the classic DC menace, Starro.  While I’m coming into the story late, I’m still managing to follow roughly what’s going on, as Starro has been revealed as an alien dictator who uses the evil mind-controlling starfish we’re used to, to enslave worlds.  Brainiac 2 has been separated from LEGION somehow and is now being thrown together with a ragtag group to fight off Starro, to which end he’s now recruited Adam and Comet.

Interestingly here Adam is identified by Kanjar Ro as being from New Rann, so I guess the plot line of the secret survival of the Rannian population has been dropped.  That’s understandable here though, given these are two characters coming into another ongoing storyline.  I can always keep my fingers crossed for a mini-series down the line that tackles some of the dangling plotlines left by the Starlin series.

So far I’ve picked up this issue, and the Annual which filled in the backstory of Starro, and the series seems pretty enjoyable.  I’m not that up on the history of LEGION or REBELs, so there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve, although so far I can see there’s going to be a lot of fun with Brainiac 2, who’s a complete git.  I’m looking forward to the next issues in this and see where it goes.  Of course, my main interest is with Comet and Adam Strange, but there’s a good story going on here, and like Peter Tomasi over in Green Lantern Corps, I can’t help but be impressed by how the writer is juggling an incredibly large cast.

Sadly, its because the series really has gone off the boil for me.   The abundance of versions of Synnar who keep turning up has gotten dull, and the storyline hasn’t really gone anywhere.  I mentioned in my comments on issue 3 that I assumed the Aberrant Six would be key to this series, but instead all we’ve really had is the usual “Woo you’re part of the Aberrant Six” dialogue from Synnar with still no real idea what that is.

More annoying is how Starlin is now ignoring his own plots.  He clearly established in the last series that Comet is pretending to be his own nephew, and allowing to believe everyone believe that the original Captain Comet is indeed dead.  However the fact he was resurrected was mentioned by Synnar infront of Adam Strange in issue 6, and in issue 7 while in the Weird’s conciousness its a big part of the story that Comet is facing off against his older self.  Despite this, Adam doesn’t bat an eyelid about the fact he’s been lied to.  Instead of addressing this plot, Starlin seems to just be completely ignoring it, so you have to wonder why he bothered with it in the first place.  Even a “we’ll discuss this later” line from Adam would’ve helped.

I guess my frustration with this series stems from the fact that there’s elements to these characters that really deserve to be explored.  Gavyn is dealing with the destruction of the Throneworld and its subsequant repopulation by the Rannians.  The Rannians are suffering from their relocation and attempts to rebuild their civilisation as Adam works to keep their survival secret.  Yet these plots have scarcely had a look in since the initial issues.  I’d much rather we’d have gotten an Adam Strange 6 issue mini series focusing on these aspects.   Likewise the plot of Captain Comet pretending to be his own nephew and being a lot more, well, cowardly following his death/resurrection I thought made the character pretty interesting (even if it did jar with his Mystery in Space characterisation).  Yet as mentioned, its been ignored.  These are plots that Starlin himself has setup as well so it would’ve been nice to see him play with them more.

We now know that Strange Adventures is the last in this series of minis from Starlin.  Sadly I can’t really see many of the plots he established being addressed at all by the last issue.  Even more sadly I find myself not bothered.   I’m pretty burned out on the Synnar stuff now, so I’m actually quite glad that story will be taking a break.

Comet and Adam Strange are slated to appear in R.E.B.E.L.S. next, so I’m guessing DC is now seeing that series as something they want to push, to focus on the non-GL cosmic side of the DCU.  Which in itself is also a bit of a shame.  While I won’t really miss Synnar, as I say, an Adam Strange, Comet and Prince Gavyn 6 issue series focusing on the situation with New Rann would be something I’d jump on.  Still I’ll be picking up the R.E.B.E.L.S. issues to see what happens next with these characters.

so, this series is heading for a Comet vs Captain Comet clash.  However, this raises a heck of a lot of questions, given that they’re the same guy.  Is this Captain Comet a clone?  Or the original turned up via some time mangling?  Or is it all just Synnar screwing with our heroes?  Of course, it could be Synnar screwing with our heroes using a clone of Captain Comet.   Deacon Dark (who works for Synnar) does have a history of cloning Captain Comet, although Comet destroyed his original body to stop the clones being produced back in Mystery in Space.

One thing I’d mentioned in previous posts about Strange Adventures was the ongoing, and largely ignored, plot thread with Comet pretending to be his own nephew, taking on his uncle’s role after his death.  Of course, we know that Comet is infact the original Captain Comet, resurrected in a new body via the Weird’s powers after his original was killed by Lady Styx.  I’m assuming this means that this plot thread is definitely going to be addressed in this series, as you have to assume Comet will be forced to tell Adam Strange the truth when faced with his older self.  I can’t imagine Strange will be overly pleased with being lied to.  Ideally it’ll also see Comet take on his full name again of Captain Comet.  I much prefer its retro sound

Its no secret I’ve been looking forward to this. Power Girl’s been a fun character for a while, probably shining most recently in her pre-Infinite Crisis mini-series, that re-established her Earth-2 origin.

The series picks up with Power Girl having decided to rebuild her life on New Earth. After discovering (the new) Earth-2 has its own Power Girl (in the JSA annual) she’s realised she needs to build a life for herself outside of the JSA and so has set about rebuilding her Karen Starr secret identity, along with her Starrware company when New York is attacked by robots which seem to instil fear in anyone near them.

As an introductory issue this works well. I’ve only really read some of the early Power Girl stuff from the recent trade, and her later appearances around Infinite Crisis, but Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray do a good job of quickly re-establishing the character, who she is, and her motivations following recent events. Her company looks like it’ll be a good backdrop as well, with it being a large R&D company attracting its fair share of experimental technology and nutter scientists.

As always, Amanda Conner’s art is perfect for this series. Her art was the real highlight of the mini-series and shone in the recent Terra mini as well. She’s got a great style which really brings out the facial expressions of characters and really adds to that fun feeling and the more comedic moments in the series. The colouring is really brilliant as well and adds a lot of extra pop to the art.

Things are going from bad to worse for everyone in the Invincible Iron Man title. Despite escaping Namor last issue, Tony is finding his Iron Man suit increasingly difficult to pilot as his intelligence deteriorates. To that end, he is trying to put together the parts he needs for a scaled down version, when he comes under attack from someone looking to cash in on the bounty Osbourne’s put on his head. Thankfully its a rookie, so Tony easily out maneauvers him and escapes.

The main focus of this issue I found was more on the supporting cast. We deal with Maria Hill having stumbled upon the Controller, and more interestingly, Pepper, after she’s been detained by Osbourne and HAMMER last issue. Osbourne is keen to get his hands into Pepper’s armour, however its automatically shut itself down. Here we learn that despite finding Tony’s armoury in Avengers tower, Osbourne and his team are struggling to unlock Tony’s technology, and so Norman is incredibly keen to get Pepper’s repulsor unit. Again, we see Norman start to loose his grip, as he’s quick to start threatening Pepper’s family when she rightly points out that Norman’s allegations of her suit’s weapons are empty.  Its a great scene for Pepper, as she comes across calm and in control, despite being surrounded by Norman and his troops.   Of course, Norman is eventually forced to let her go, as her suit contains no weapons, and Tony ensured she was registered before he lost his position.

As I’ve said before, I’m really intrigued by how Matt Fraction plans to wrap up this story arc.  It really feels like our heroes’ backs are against the wall here.   This series is doing a great job of showing the danger everyone’s in from Norman’s authority and in these days where you’re used to the safe knowledge that our heroes will win through, I think its a testament to Fraction’s writing that I really am seeing no way out for Tony.

The final issue I’ll mention was Strange Adventures #3. Adam Strange discovers that the Weird (or at least, a being that appears to be the Weird) is behind the missing stars. After finding himself overpowered, he makes a beeline for Comet to recruit his help.   Arriving on Hardcore Station though, Adam finds it not as easy as he thought, and soon finds himself beaten and mugged for asking about where to find Comet.  I must admit, I found this quite amusing, and it did help to underline just how dangerous a place Hardcore can be.  Heck, even Comet spends most of his time in the Hole these days.   We’ve very rarely seen him using his flat.

The mystery regarding Synar continues.  We know his plans have gone wrong, as his essence has ended up merged with the Weird’s physcial form.  However there’s also what appears to be the Weird causing Stars to vanish, and a more familiar Synar turns up at the end of the issue in Comet’s flat.   Exactly what the ramifications of the events of the end of Holy War were clearly have yet to be fully explained.

Meanwhile there’s some nice scenes with trouble brewing on New Rann with Sardath and Alanna starting to really question Adam’s sanity over the missing stars.   Fortunately when Prince Gavyn finally has time to look at the readings as Adam asked, he also confirms the stars are going missing.  Obviously its all related to Prince Gavyn and Adam being part of the Aberrant Six, but what exactly the Aberrant Six are, I presume is going to be key to this series.

I’m still greatly enjoying this series.    The reduced cast has helped immensely, bringing the story squarely to focus on Adam and Comet, the two characters I enjoy the most.  Its given the book a tighter focus that I think was maybe missing in Holy War, which just had too many characters to juggle.

Instead, for me the big DC release this week was Strange Adventures #1.

Replaying the pages seen in the preview, Adam is on (Old) Rann scavaging supplies and technology needed for New Rann, before he and his team level all the cities on the planet to ensure that Thanagarians can get any of their technology. On Rann meanwhile, the vote to bring criminal charges against Adam for Rann’s destruction is shot down by the council, thanks in part to Prince Gavyn’s testimony that Adam had no choice, since Rann’s destruction was unavoidable anyway.

Not long after Adam returns to New Rann, a scavenger ship is tracked entering the system. Knowing that they have to convince people that Throneworld is still populated despite Lady Styx attacking them, Prince Gavyn and Adam use some of the remaining Throneworld ships to head off the scavengers, noting that they hope that once they head off a few more, world will spread that Throneworld was not in fact attacked (whereas we know that it was, and the residents are now the Rannians).

Meanwhile Comet (I still miss the Captain part) is back on hardcore station, but also runs into trouble. He’s approached by some local heavies who saw him at lunch with Tigor the previous day. Sadly it turns out that Tigor was scamming them, and led them to believe Comet was his cohort in obtaining some data for them. They manage to surprise Comet with their telepathic defenses, but fortunately his new teleporting ability allows him to retreat to the Hole once again (I wonder how long its going to take before his teleport power becomes common knowledge? He’s not been that shy in using them). With people tracking him on Hardcore, Comet once again discusses with Tyrone the possibility of heading away from Hardcore to lie low for a while.

Using the same format as Mystery in Space, we also have a backup story, that I’m assuming will dovetail with the main story as things go on. The focus here is on Deacon Dark, who is attempting to locate and learn about the Aberrant Six, as he knows they’re important to Synnar. However, the spell he casts goes wrong, and he instead sends Bizarro to another dimension, who is informed by someone who appears as Superman (I’m assuming its Synnar), that the timelines have been altered and Bizarro must replace Hawkman as the warrior in the Aberrant Six.

Its a great start to the series, and I’m glad to see the cast greatly reduced, as to be honest, Holy War really felt too busy, with its large cast. Here the Mystery in Space backup helps a lot, as it allows Starlin to develop the story as two separate (for now) plots, and keep the cast members separated. Which also means the main story is allowed to focus on Adam Strange and Comet, which I’m very happy about as they were my favourite characters from the previous minis.

It is a bit of a shame to see Comet being chased off of Hardcore so soon however. The same thing pretty much happened in Holy War, but I enjoyed Hardcore as a setting in the Mystery in Space mini, so I’d like to see it being used more. However I can also see that the situation with New Rann is possibly going to offer more story possibilities with both the rebuilding effort, and the attempt to keep the true nature of the population secret (and talking about the rebuilding, that’s a heckuva city that’s already sprung up – I was sure Throneworld had been virtually levelled).

The backup storyline follows up the Holy War threats with Deacon Dark and the Aberrant Six, but is possibly a bit less interesting than the main storyline.  However I expect this to change as the two plots crossover more (in the same way the Weird backups became more significant as he got more involved with the Church, and their prescence was more felt in the Comet main during Mystery in Space).   It is interesting to see how Hawkman has been removed from things however.  I felt Bizarro was much more interesting during Holy War, and the Hawkman special seemed to put off a lot of readers by muddying up Hawkman’s origin once again.  I’m guessing the events of that special will end up as Synnar messing with Hawkman’s head, and quietly forgotten.

So overall, a really good start.  The art’s really nice, and the reduced cast is very welcome.   Looking forward to issue 2.

Newsarama have put up a preview for the new series here and I must admit its looking good.  I’m really liking the new art, which reminds me a lot more of Shane Davies’ stuff in the Mystery in Space series as opposed to the Ron Lim art from Holy War, which I never really took to (surprising as I usually really love Ron Lim’s art).  Definitely going to try and get that Ed Benes cover as well.

I’m intrigued to see where this goes.  From the hints we saw in the Adam Strange special, and events here, it does look like Adam’s going to be exiled from New Rann, so I’m interested to see what direction they take the character in.   I reckon we should see him helping out New Rann in his own way, from off-world but it’ll be interesting to see how Captain Comet features into things (and if anyone ever figures out that he’s actually the original and not his nephew).

Roll on Thursday and this coming out

First up, it looks like there’s no issue of GL.  Well that sucks, especially with them building up the Blackest Night at the moment.  I daresay the issue will be more than worth the wait, but I hope its the last delay for a while.   They’d done a cracking job of getting the delays sorted out after Infinite Crisis with the one-arc-on, one-arc-off rotation for Ivan and a guest artist.  Its a shame to see them creeping back into the title (although, in fairness they’ve already hit the Rage of the Red Lanterns arc).

GLC sounds excellent though, with a riot in the Sciencells leading to GLs versus Sinestros versus Red Lanterns. Wonder how that comes about. I think I’m right in saying that as it stands, its only yellow Lanterns in the Sciencells at the moment, so either the GLs manage to capture some Red Lanterns at the end of the current story arc in GL, or the Red Lanterns attack Oa looking to get some revenge over the Sinestro Corps. Either way, we’ve just seen just this kind of showdown taking place on Ysamault (only with the two blue Lanterns thrown in). The idea of this conflict taking place on Oa itself adds a level of danger to things, but it’ll be interesting to see how it comes about.

Strange Adventures is another no-brainer for me. I’ve been loving Jim Starlins take on the other side of the DCU’s cosmic tales, so I’m interested to see where he’s going to take things in this series. The idea of Rann being rebuilt in secret that he setup in the last series will be interesting to see played out here. Its looking like it’ll be a reduced cast as well, without the Hawks, or Space Team from the previous book.

Another no-brainer is Power Girl #1. I previously blogged about looking forward to this series here, and so I’m glad to see it finally hitting the shelves.

Of course, we now know that my speculation about it being set on Earth-2 was way off, although how Power Girl’s trip to that alternate world will affect this series will remain to be seen.  I personally felt the Earth-2 stuff in JSA didn’t really work (I’m sure I’ve previously ranted about the mess Earth-2 is in the DCU at the moment) but if this series can do something good with that mini-arc, then so much the better.

Of course, in the comments we’ve already mentioned the latest developments in the Superman New Krypton arc.  Just what could have led Superman to the point of joining up with Zod’s army on New Krypton?  I’m really not sure what I think of this direction, but we’ll see how it goes.  While I appreciate them taking Superman off in a bold new direction, I’m not sure how much I’m actually interested in Superman taking a prolonged stay on New Krypton, especially if he ends up in their army of all things.   I’m going to give it a few issues though to see what I think of the direction.

Other things that caught my eye are the Battle for the Cowl books (most of them I’ll be skipping for budget reasons, but I’ll probably nab the Oracle mini, even if I’m terrified for what it’ll do to the excellent Birds of Prey series).  Flash Rebirth #2 finds Barry Allen hiding yet another Dark Secret.  Again, not sure what to make of this solicit.  Is it really necessary to have Barry hiding a dark secret?  Afterall, Geoff did that fairly recently during Identity Crisis.

Final Crisis Aftermath Run and Dance should be interesting as well.  I’m interested to see what they do with the Human Flame (although again, perhaps similar to the recent Rogues storyline following Bart’s death?), and The Super Young Team were a lot of fun in Final Crisis, so what happens to them next should be fun.