WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Strange Adventures #12, on sale now from DC Comics.
After twelve issues, Strange Adventures has finally come to its emotional end, closing out the saga of Adam Strange in this DC Black Label maxi-series by Tom King, Mitch Gerads and Evan "Doc" Shaner. A much more divisive tale following its cosmic protagonist than the creative team's past work on titles like Mister Miracle, Strange Adventures was certainly not afraid to get its hands dirty as it delved into the dark, complicated side of Strange's history and his place in the DC Universe. And with the story now finished, what exactly did Strange Adventures bring to the Adam Strange mythos as it deconstructed its spacefaring hero?
Strange Adventures had begun with the inciting incident of Strange being implicated in the murder of a disgruntled man that accosted him at a public signing for his personal memoirs, which recounted his reputed heroic actions during a war between the Rannians and Pykkts. As Strange was investigated by Mister Terrific, the entire veracity of his memoirs and activities on Rann were directly called into question, including the extent of his wartime strategies and the truth behind his daughter Aleea's fate. This would put Strange in direct contention with his old friends on the Justice League and lead to the Pykkts tracking Strange down to Earth to launch a devastating attack. And in Strange Adventures #12 -- by King, Gerads, Shaner and Clayton Cowles -- the fallout of Strange's lies catch up in parallel with the cosmic adventurer's return to Earth shortly before the start of the series.
After the conflict against the Rannians escalated, Strange became increasingly paranoid and erratic resulting in an altercation with his wife Alanna. Alanna had been by Strange's side for the majority of Strange Adventures but, upon learning that Strange lied to her about the whereabouts of their daughter Aleea, the two had an argument that turned violent when Strange pulled a gun on his own wife only to be shot and killed in the resulting scuffle, dying in her arms as his sins finally caught up to him.
Strange Adventures' finale makes it clear that the Pykkts remain a significant threat and, with nothing to keep her tethered to Earth, Alanna decides to return to Rann to rally her people's defenses in preparation for the Pykkts' inevitable retaliation after she and Terrific raid the Pykkts' base for Aleea. This suggests that the wartime wounds Strange exacerbated between the two civilizations are doomed to continue on and escalate even after his death while Terrific cares for Aleea from the safety of Earth, away from her surviving parent. And more heartbreakingly, Strange Adventures ends how it began, with the revelation that it was Alanna that wrote the untrue memoir to celebrate her husband, inadvertently setting up the cosmic tragedy in the first place.
Adam Strange has certainly had a complicated history with the Justice League, even in main DCU stories, sometimes going as far as to kidnap the superhero team when the fighting on Rann grew desperate and needed their help to turn the tide from extraterrestrial invaders. The Adam Strange of Strange Adventures -- which itself likely takes place outside of the main continuity due to its Black Label publishing designation -- goes one step further as a definite villain given how much blood he has freely shed but one caught up a lie that snowballed until his reputation was in tatters and he himself was consumed by it. Terrific dryly observes that characters and empires like Strange kill themselves and, given the premise, Strange Adventures was always going to end with Strange paying the ultimate price for his actions and attempts to cover them up.