In Review: Strange Adventures (2020-2021) #12

Synopsis: This month on Strange Adventures. Mister Terrific hasn’t just dug into the past, he’s jackhammered it to pieces, exposing Adam Strange’s deepest, darkest secrets. If Adam did commit war crimes, he needs to be punished, but how do you pull a hero off the field of battle when he’s staving off an alien invasion that supposedly only he can stop? Is the truth worth it? And what if Terrific is wrong?

The Story

Everything comes full circle as this epic story draws to a conclusion. With her husband, dead Alanna embarks on a mission with Mr. Terrific to rescue her daughter from the Pykkts. As we pick the story up Alanna along with Mr. Terrific are standing before a Pykkt diplomat. Alanna is given the run around by the Pykkt and she decides to use her own brand of diplomacy, which is basically taking her daughter back by force.

As they travel back to Earth. Alanna informs Mr. Terrific that she is going back to Rann to prepare for another war against the Pykkts. She tells Terrific that she will be leaving her daughter on Earth and that he will be responsible for her. Terrific is not too happy with this, but Alanna tells him that he owes her as it was his investigation that exposed Adam Strange’s crimes and thus tore her family apart. We then get a flashback sequence in which Alanna is writing about Adam Strange’s adventures and making several embellishments to make him sound more heroic.

The Artwork

This final issue highlights what a total badass Alanna Strange is and to that end, Mitch Gerads and Evan Shaner draw her accordingly. I loved the introductory pages where she is stood before the Pykkt’s and Mr. Terrific is translating for her. You can see right away that this will not go well for the Pykkts as the artists do such a brilliant job of drawing Alanna’s microexpression.

We also get another brilliant image when we are shown a flashback to the aftermath of what happened in the last issue. The panel in which we see Alanna leading over the dead body of Adam Strange is presented brilliantly. As it punctuates the conversation that Alanna is having with Mr. Terrific in the present. It’s a wonderful example of how a picture can often convey so much more than words can. And it’s also a great example of what comics do when they are at their glorious best.

Overall

Tom King concludes his story brilliantly by sort of bringing things full circle by ending the book with the same image that started it all 12 issues ago. A flashback of Adam Strange signing his book. It’s a bittersweet ending to a book that has deconstructed a hero and shown that not everything is black and white.