Monday, April 1, 2013

A to Z: A is for Adam Strange! / Music Monday



Today, for those of you who may not have heard (and, if not, where have you been?), is the start of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. The 'challenge', as it were, is to post an entry a day, each day in the month of April. The only exception is Sunday, giving us twenty six posts. Each post corresponds to a letter of the alphabet.

Today is "A"...tomorrow, "B", etc., etc.

The list of bloggers participating is pretty impressive....over 400, according to the sign-up list. A lot of these bloggers are going with themes to make it a bit easier to bring it all together, which I thought was a great idea.

My theme is going to be 'Obscure Superheroes'. Some of these men and women you may have heard of, but I'm pretty confident in saying that I'll have a few that you haven't.

To kick things off, A is for Adam Strange.

A       



Adam was  a D.C. comics character created in the late 50s by Gardner Fox. Fox was asked to come up with a 'science fiction' hero and came up with his answer to Flash Gordon. Strange was an  archaeologist who was zapped by the 'Zeta Beam' from a planet called Rann (a la Jon Carter). Stuck on a strange world, Adam found friends with some of the natives and fell in love (ah, good, ole, space opera). When the effects of the  beam wore off, Adam was zapped back to Earth. Strange had all sorts of adventures on Rann as well as becoming and adventurer on Earth and mingling with the likes of Superman and Batman.



Strange had no powers, per se, just advanced technology (jet pack, laser pistol), skill in hand to hand combat (as any self respecting archaeologist would), and a heroic spirit.

The character remains active to this day, as far as I know.

Tune into tomorrow for...."B"!

Just because it's the A to Z Challenge doesn't mean I still can't throw in a quick Music Monday selection.

A little something to get your feet tapping... Twisting By the Pool, by Dire Straits.


69 comments:

M.J. Fifield said...

"...skill in hand to hand combat (as any self respecting archaeologist would)" <--- Love that.

Happy A to Z-ing!

Robin said...

Adam Strange is new to me, but I LOVE your theme. He "mingled" with Batman and Superman. I imagine it was at cocktail parties... you know where all superheroes hang out. That, or crime scenes. Whatevs.

Mel Kinnel (@TizMellyMel) said...

I have never heard of Adam Strange and I'm pretty old. LOL! I just want to know--did Adam have to leave the love of his life when he was zapped back to Earth?

By the way, I'm loving your theme!

Brett Minor said...

I had heard of Strange, but couldn't tell you anything about him.

Dropping by from A to Z Challenge. This is my first year participating.

Brett Minor
Transformed Nonconformist

Mark Means said...

@M.J: Heh, thanks...very Indiana Jones-ish, I would say :)

@Robin: lol..Yeah, you know, like a bunch of Mad Men..that sort of thing. :D

@Mel: If you're not a comic book reader then, yeah ,you might have missed him. Actually, Strange married a girl from Rann and, yes, he did leave when the beam ran it's course. Quite a few of his stories revolved around him missing his wife, etc.

@Brett: This is my first 'official' year, as well...best wishes and thanks for stopping by :)

Mary Kirkland said...

I've never heard of Adam Strange but thanks for the interesting post.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big DC Universe fan so I barely know the regular heroes of that universe, nevermind Adam Strange. I love your theme so I'm looking forward to tomorrow. :3

sdk_2010 said...

Nice, I have to admit I wasn't much of a comic geek (I'm still a geek however as you can tell from my own A-Z this year lol) but I look forward to reading more of your obscure superheroes here. This guy sounds like a Batman type character though, no special powers. Nice Monday Music aswell, I cut my teeth on Dire Straits =) - Blog now followed.

Misha Gerrick said...

Oddly, his name rings a bell. I think there was a cartoon with his name when I was a kid. Not sure if it was about this Adam Strange, though.

Laura Clipson said...

Never heard of him, but he sounds interesting! Love your theme :)

Anonymous said...

Nice theme! I must admit, I'd never heard of him, and it'll be interesting to see what heroes you come up with from he rest of the alphabet! :D

Sheena-kay Graham said...

Think I heard the name somewhere. But I think this great, some superheroes never get enough credit. Welcome to the A-Z Challenge poster(er?) family.

S.P. Bowers said...

Wow, who knew there were enough obscure superheros to do a whole month of this. I'm ready to be educated.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Big DC fan here - I remember reading Adam Strange comics!

Ella said...

I had not heard of Adam Strange!
I love your theme-what fun~
Happy you are part of the challenge :D

Anonymous said...

Great subject - this is going to be an education!

Sally said...

Interesting theme - I look forward to hearing about more obscure superheros.

Al Diaz said...

Any self-respected archaeologist is an expert in hand to hand combat? HAHAHAHAHAHA. My first laughter of the day. That was good!

Regina said...

What a fun theme! I've always been partial to obscure superhero sidekicks like Aqualad :)

jaybird said...

(1) I'm baaack
(2) Dude- I'm loving your A-Z theme!
(3) Wicked awesome choice!

Lisa said...

I read Adam Strange when I was younger (as in much)! My sister still collects comic books, so our family has an ongoing love affair with superheros. So glad they are bringing some of them to film... Great post! I'll be back to see who B is! Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment! Lisa

Mark Means said...

@Mary: Yep, he's an obscure one, alright :) Love your avatar, too...Forever Knight was an awesome show!

@Capillary: Thank you and never fear, tomorrow someone from the Marvel Universe shows up! :)

@sdk: Oh yeah, he was Batman-ish, he just lacked the intensity :) And, yes, Dire Straits rocked! Thanks for the follow :)

@Misha: Hmm...I'm not sure. I'd have to look that up...but, if so, I had never heard of it!

@Laura: Thank you, glad you enjoyed :)

@Amber: Thanks! I managed to find one for each letter, believe it or not :)

@Sheena: Thank you and, you're right, some heroes never get the press they deserve!

@S.P: There's probably enough for a whole year!

@Alex:Very cool and I'm sure you may know some of my future entries, as well :)

@Ella: Thank you and likewise....looking forward to more of your crafty-ness theme, as well :)

@bridget: Thanks and we'll see :)

@Sally: A whole month's worth is on the way :)

@Al: Haha...well, if it's good enough for Mr. Jones... :)

@Regina: That could be next year's theme...hmmm :)

@jaybird: And it's about time, young lady! Very glad to see you're back and thanks, I hope you enjoy the rest of the month, as well :)

@Lisa: Ah, so you've already been initiated...great! I've been buying comics, off and on, for about 30 (cough, cough)-something years and, like you, I'm glad they're bringing them to the big screen. Something I could only dream about when I was a kid. Thank you for stopping by :)

Laura S. said...

Hello, Mark! I love superheroes! I was always a big fan of the X-Men. I'm not so familiar with Adam Strange. Cool theme this month!

Happy A to Z-ing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines

Donna L Martin said...

Nice post and great video...love me some Dire Straits! Good luck with the challenge! I participated last year and had a blast!

Donna L Martin
www.donasdays.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Could you imagine if he had today's technology at his fingertips...(oh, maybe he does)........quite a super hero indeed, methinks!

Jeremy [Retro] said...

intriguing... i have not heard of this cat, which is the theme... awesome... i think the confusion for me is that people don't know that howard the duck is marvel, so he is the godfather... wow that has nothing to with anything, just my thinking of it... :)

Jeremy [Retro]
AtoZ Challenge Co-Host
Oh No, Let's Go... Crazy

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Sometimes super powers aren't needed to be a superhero.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I can tell I'm going to like this theme. I remember hearing the name, Strange, but I didn't know anything about him.

Manzanita said...

Mark
Loved the vid..... shades of old Ester Williams movies. I couldn''t keep my feet still when I heard that toe tapp'n music.

Because of a generational thing, I can't usually get into comic books or the zoombie thing BUT you made that comic book guy sound so interesting that I wanted to hear more. No kidding. Good job, Mark

Julie Flanders said...

What a fun theme. I can definitely say I've never heard of Adam Strange. I feel kind of bad for him and the rest of the obscure gang!

A Daft Scots Lass said...

I always return to blogs that post and love music or comics but music AND comics. Brilliant!

Great theme by the way.

A Daft Scots Lass said...

I always return to blogs that post and love music or comics but music AND comics. Brilliant!

Great theme by the way.

klahanie said...

Mark? The challenge that brings further awareness of the alphabet starts with the letter "A"? Oh, interesting :)

That certainly is an obscure superhero! Even more obscure than me.

Have fun, Mark.

Gary :)

LD Masterson said...

This will be an interesting theme for me. I go back a ways (a.k.a. - I'm old)and I was quite the comic book fan back in the day. Don't remember Adam though.

Elise Fallson said...

Excellent theme! The list of obscure superheroes is huge. Can't wait for the rest. (:

Mark Means said...

@Laura: Thank you and same here...I've always been a comic fan, I think. Thank you for stopping by :)

@Donna: I've always found them to be a, truly, underrated band. I'm sure I'll have the same experience with A to Z that you did :)

@M.J.: That's true...though we're still missing those jetpacks we were promised! :)

@Jeremy: Heh, thank you and, while I didn't include Howard on my list, he's -very- obscure, for sure. I think Marvel even tries to forget he's their property after that awful movie they made :D

@Diane: So very true!

@Susan: Thank you and you probably have heard of him, if only in whispers...he's been around for a long while :)

@Manzanita: It's funny you should mention one of my 'Old Hollywood' crushes...Esther Williams. Yes, that video does evoke the old water spectacles of the Busby Berkeley era. Thank you for the compliment, too :)

@Julie: He's in good company...you'll see :)

@A Daft Scots Lass: Hey, thank you and hope you come back for the rest of obscure bunch :)

@Gary: Heh, I wouldn't call you obscure at all...well, when compared to Penny...yes, maybe :) Always a pleasure to have you come by, my friend :)

@L.D: You might recognize some others I have planned, so stay tuned :)

Nick Wilford said...

This is a great theme! I've only really heard of the big boys (and girls). Ready to be educated.

Mark Means said...

@Elise: Thank you and, you're right, it's a pretty big list. Too bad I only have 26 days :)

@Nick: Thanks! I hope you enjoy the rest.

John Wiswell said...

Brave and the Bold was such a fun show. You reminded me how much I missed their campy Adam Strange.

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

Oh AWESOME! I shall forward this to my comic book loving son!!! I cannot wait to see if he knows Adam Strange...but I bet he does!
As for the musoc, Dire Straits is one of my favs and I used to listen to the Walk of Life constantly. When I had more time...
Telegraph Road!
Jean Yates!

PK HREZO said...

Cool1 Wasn't familiar with Strange. Glad we've met and I can die fulfilled now. :D

Nancy Thompson said...

Interesting! Obscure, huh? I barely know the popular one. :/

Chancelet said...

Sounds like he was the superhero of nerds - technology, gettin' it on with the girls! Never heard of that one. Great post.

Sylvia Ney said...

New follower here. I'm stopping by from the "A to Z Challenge" and I look forward to visiting again!

Sylvia
http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/

Christine Rains said...

A superhero I've never heard of! I think I'm going to learn a lot here from you this month. :) Great start to the Challenge!

Cynthia said...

I might consider having a heroic spirit as a "power." When life challenges us, a positive attitude can come in quite handy.

mshatch said...

Excellent theme - I'll be looking forward to learning about superheroes I don't know :)

Michelle Wallace said...

Dire Straits is a great band. The best bands came from the 80's...
Great theme Mark!

Unknown said...

I love, love comic books and superheroes! but I wasn't familiar with Adam Strange.

Mark Means said...

@John: Oh,I know. I didn't like it when I first watched, but it really grew on me and, to this day, is one of my favorites. It was smart, well done, and cancelled way too soon.

@Jean: Thanks! If he's read any D.C. Comics then he may have heard of him...Strange has been around for a good while :) Agreed on Dire Straits...great band!

@PK: My work here is done, then...glad to have helped :D

@Karen: You're welcome and, the way I see it, there's plenty of 'blog love' to go around...even if they're not doing A to Z :)

@Nancy: LOL...funniest comment, so far :D You and my dad would be good company...he barely knows the 'well known' ones either.

@Nancy L: I've never thought of it like that, but you could be right :)

@Sylvia: Thank you and welcome aboard. I hope you enjoy the rest of the ride :)

@Christine: Thanks and take notes...there may be a quiz in May.. :D

@Cynthia: Very true!

@mshatch: Thanks and I hope you enjoy!

@michelle: Totally agree...absolutely nothing beats music from the 80s!

Mina Burrows said...

Adam Strange is an excellent A to start with. Love it!

Golden Eagle said...

Adam Strange sounds like a fun character!

I'm looking forward to reading about more obscure superheroes this month. :)

Empty Nest Insider said...

I've also never heard of Adam Strange, but I enjoyed learning about him.

Julie

cleemckenzie said...

It had to be the heroic spirit that tipped the scales in his favor, right? Love your theme.

Mark Means said...

@Adriana: Great! You'll love the rest of the month here, then :)

@Mina: Thanks, though he was easy...X and Z were challenges :)

@Golden Eagle: Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

@Julie:Glad you like it,thank you :)

@C. Lee: Yep, that was it, I'm sure :D Thank you!

Unknown said...

This is going to be an interesting theme! Adam Strange, I do recall some little detail from the past of him.

Jenny said...

Great theme! Thanks to my sons, I've heard of many obscure (to me) superheroes, but I bet you know even more. Looking forward to the rest of the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jenny at Choice City Native

Lucy R said...

I think my 7-year old will enjoy all your heros!

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Kids Math Teacher

Tyrean Martinson said...

An archeologist with combat skills - very cool! I had never heard of Adam Strange before, but he sounds like an awesome character!

Unknown said...

Mark--LOVE the theme you're going with. Definitely one of my favorite ones. So cool. Can't wait to see the rest of your superhero posts. :)

Amanda - The Southern UnBelle said...

What a cool theme! I've never been a big follower of comic books, but I'm looking forward to this!

Unknown said...

All these A to Z posts are making me wish I had boarded the train. Then again, I'm kind of fond of my hair, so maybe it's smart I didn't join up. Still, I'm clapping my hands for you and the rest of the bunch. I love superheros, so I'm glad I can stop by and get educated. Maybe Marvel (Disney) will make a movie about Adam Strange! :)

Mark Means said...

@C.M: He gets around, a little :)

@Jenny: Maybe you'll see a few you recognize :)

@Lucy: I hope so, I know I do :)

@Tyrean: Very Flash Gordon-esque, I think :)

@Karen: Thank you and I'm glad you're liking it. At first, I thought some might find it boring, but I've gotten a pretty good response, so far :)

@Amanda: Thank you and I hope you enjoy!

@Celeste: I don't have much hair to lose, anymore, so I'm safe :D I hope you get the chance to stop by and let me know what you think of my choices!

Trisha said...

I love Dire Straits, big time!!

Nice A to Z theme :)

Unknown said...

Loved your theme.

-A fellow blogger from A to Z! :)

Shell Flower said...

Adam Strange's story sounds a tad similar to my A-Z serial story. I had no idea. Cool. Great theme for the challenge, too!

kjmckendry said...

I love your theme! Strange sounds like a pretty neat guy to have around.

Melissa said...

Great idea for a theme.

Congrats on your ninja mention. Well deserved. :)

Mark Means said...

@Trisha: An awesome band, for sure and thank you!

@Me: Thank you very much :)

@Shell: Oh very cool. I'll bet your story is just as cool!

@K: Thank you!

@Melissa: Thanks, I just saw that earlier...Alex is a great guy :)

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