Editing Adam Strange (section)

==Creation==
In 1957, [[DC Comics]] editorial director [[Irwin Donenfeld]] held a meeting with editors [[Jack Schiff]] and [[Julius Schwartz]] in his office, asking them each to create a new science fiction hero, one from the present and one from the future. Given first pick Schiff chose to create one from the future, [[Space Ranger]]. Schwartz was happy with the pick feeling that readers would more readily identify with a hero from the present.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Markstein |first1=Don |title=Adam Strange |url=http://www.toonopedia.com/adamstr.htm |website=Don Markstein's Toonopedia |access-date=1 April 2020}}</ref> He conceived the idea of an Earth man repeatedly traveling to a planet in the [[Alpha Centauri]] star system by using a "Zeta-beam" altered by space radiation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schelly |first1=William |title=American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1950s |date=2013 |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |isbn=9781605490540 |pages=188–189}}</ref> Since Adam Strange was the first Earthman on another planet, he named his character Adam after the [[Adam|Biblical first man]].<ref name="Archive1">Amash, Jim (2003). "Foreword" in ''The Adam Strange Archives: Volume 1''. Pages 5–8.</ref> When asked about the inspiration behind the character, [[Gardner F. Fox|Gardner Fox]] stated "I suppose you could say that [[John Carter of Mars|John Carter]] was in my subconscious, you had to think of some interesting way to transfer him to from earth up to the planet Rann before you even got started in on a plot, but it was fun to do."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barr |first1=Mike W. |title=The silver age sci-fi companion |date=2007 |location=Raleigh, North Carolina |isbn=978-1-893905-81-8 |page=28 |url=https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=565}}</ref>