Strange Adventures #7 - "It should happen to everybody"

[laughing_tree]

I think the thing I didn’t want to do the most was become stale. My first three books, Sheriff of Babylon, The Vision, and Omega Men were all about the Iraq War experience. My next books, Batman, Heroes in Crisis, and Mister Miracle were all about trauma and family and romance. I was super scared, I’ve done my best work, so the idea was to get experimental and do something weird and off and just not sit still. Not be a dying shark, to keep going. -- Tom King

Comments

[themajesticmoose]

"I killed someone but it's okay because I didn't think he was human just another sentient being"

Is a hell of a defence in a fictional universe where the only reason the universe still exists is entirely because of people who aren't human

Are we meant to hate Adam and Karen Strange in this series?

Because if so, the writer has done a great job

But if we're not meant to utterly despise them then yeah, they probably should learn how to write better

[silverhammerman]

We're definitely supposed to be deeply, deeply skeptical of these characters. Tom King's got some blindspots and flaws, but he's not so bad a writer as to do the above scene and without the intent that readers are taken aback.

[aperturedreams]

Yes, we are meant to be deeply skeptical and not just blankly side with the characters. An enormous plot of the series is the investigation into their actions. I'm really surprised sometimes by how many comments I see equating a character's dialogue or choices with the writer's opinions, morality, or intent. Plus, Aleea Strange has a name.

[deathcrist2000]

According to a recent podcast King was on, yes, we're supposed to find the relationship to be fucked.

[tcampbell1000]

Don't know how much you've read of the rest of the series, but the issue is not whether non-humans have a right to live. If Adam is right about everything-- big if, and we'll come back to that-- then the person he killed was an enemy agent, part of a military that nearly destroyed his adopted planet and now threatens his homeworld. If he's right, then I'd have to say that killing that guy would be as justifiable as killing stormtroopers on Endor. Sure, every death's a tragedy, but war is war, and the best you can do in war is kill a relatively few fighters to save the innocents who aren't on the front lines, and your fellow soldiers, if possible.

But what if Adam's not right?

He admits that he checked the body and saw no evidence he was correct. Recent circumstances have made him think he was right after all. But we the readers probably aren't so sure, and I don't know if Alanna's sure either.

A few facts are not in dispute. Some time in the past, Adam Strange started fighting in a war to save his adopted people from the Pykkts. As far as he knows, and as far as Alanna seems to believe, that was a fully justified war of survival against an imperialist, existential enemy. During that war, he committed acts of great bravery. He was also captured and tortured, and that torture may have damaged him in ways he's unwilling to admit.

And now, on Earth, he's a celebrity, and celebrity has its own reality-distorting features. And somewhere in his head, he never stopped fighting that war. That's something that happens to a lot of soldiers, even those who joined up for the best of reasons. Some have nightmares. Some have emotional imbalances, suicidal depression. And many of them have paranoia, to the point where they can't enjoy the July 4 fireworks of the country they defended because their instinct tells them every explosion is a bomb. Call it PTSD or cannon fever, but the war stays with them, sometimes to the point where they see it more clearly than they see the present.

Has that happened here? Have Adam's wartime experiences twisted him into someone who'd mistake an innocent person (albeit an aggressive one) for the enemy? We don't know yet. This could indeed be a plot by a foreign power to discredit and destroy the one person who's most successfully defied them. Or it could be... what it looks like.

Even in the worst-case scenario, I wouldn't hate Adam. He's still trying his best, as best he knows how, to defend the innocent. But one can do that and still be a danger to them if one loses touch with reality. And reality, in King's best work, can be slippery.

[lordultimus]

Calling it: Adam gave Aleea to the Pykkts as part of a secret ceasefire. It's ending because she's an adult now and has been raised to kill her father.

[blueprintstyles]

Oooo, that'd be a cool twist

[bruinsfan]

I think Sardath has to be in on whatever's hinky about Aleea's "death" from how he acted toward Mr. Terrific. I think Alanna truly believed what she was told, but is now beginning to doubt.

[aperturedreams]

That quote seems awfully odd considering Strange Adventures has proven itself to be largely, even if not solely, about war and family.

[tcampbell1000]

Yeah, I like this series, but... "I wanted to do something offbeat and distinct from my early work about war and family. Unfortunately, as you can see, I failed completely, but oh, well!"