As the Justice League faces pressure from one of its own, a key friendship may be at the heart of the internal strife.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Strange Adventures #3, by Tom King, Mitch Gerads, Evan “Doc” Shaner and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Strange Adventures already has the iconic superheroes of the DC Universe at odds with one another, as a murder investigation implicating Adam Strange threatens to uncover some deep, uncomfortable secrets. What began as a seemingly routine case to clear Strange’s name quickly escalated to fractured friendships, public swear campaigns and even potential legal action, as Mister Terrific continues his examination. The core of Strange’s longstanding ties to the League is his deep friendship with his teammate, Hawkman.
This may not seem likely at first, but Hawkman was revised at the start of the Silver Age to be significantly more science-fiction-oriented, to capitalize on changing interests at the time. Instead of being an archaeologist who discovered he was the reincarnation of an Ancient Egyptian prince linked to Nth Metal, the soaring superhero became interstellar space cop Katar Hol, from the planet Thanagar. He divided his time between Earth and his home planet. This wholesale revision set the stage for the first-ever team-up between Hawkman and Adam Strange, shortly after the latter first met the Justice League.
In 1964’s Mystery in Space #90, by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, Adam and Alanna Strange met Hawkman and Hawkwoman for the first time on a cosmic adventure spanning Earth and the Stranges’ usual stomping grounds on the planet Rann. Over the course of the team-up, the two couples struck up a friendship, relating with one another and bonding over their mutual cosmic background.
However, this dynamic was challenged both before and after Crisis on Infinite Earths, when their respective planets went to war. In the Bronze Age, the villainous Kanjar Ro manipulated a war between Rann and Thanagar, with his plot exposed and the conflict defused by Hawkman, Hawkwoman and Adam Strange in 1978’s Showcase #101-103, by Anderson, Jack C. Harris and Al Milgrom.
The idea of the two interplanetary civilizations going to war was revisited and expanded upon in the 2005 miniseries Rann-Thanagar War, by Dave Gibbons, Ivan Reis and Marc Campos, in the lead-up to Infinite Crisis. After Superboy-Prime moved the two planets together and forced them to relocate, eventually leading to war, Strange led his fellow cosmic heroes to stop the conflict. His friendship with Hawkman helped bridge the two cultures and show peaceful coexistence was possible.
This friendship comes to the forefront in Strange Adventures: When other League members refuse to divulge certain details of the investigation of him, Adam learns those details from Hawkman. This insider information is what tips off Strange that Terrific is asking pressing questions about his and Alanna’s allegedly deceased daughter.
He inquires about ending the investigation through legal action, then launches an extensive swear campaign against Terrific and Batman, to discredit the two detectives as they get closer to the truth.
While it may be unlikely that Hawkman continues to secretly feed Adam information as they dial up their anti-Justice League rhetoric, his old friendship confirms Adam’s worst suspicions how the investigation is going, potentially calling Adam’s bestselling memoirs of his time on Rann into question. The two heroes’ friendship has survived literal wars, but this investigation may be the one that fractures it for good.
