Countdown To Adventure – Issue 2

While stopping a burglary, Animal Man exhibits a power similar to heat vision. When he reaches work, he finds Champ leaving via Zeta Beam for the planet Rann. On Rann itself, Adam Strange, stripped of his planet protector status works in a factory while Champ deals with any threat with lethal force. He returns home to his family but a moment later sees his daughter’s nanny being attacked by Rannians, claiming Strange is a leech and a parasite. Back on Earth, Starfire witnesses a car going out of control but, as she has lost her powers, cannot do anything to stop it. Animal Man arrives in time but they are then both attacked by the driver who turns out to be Animal Man’s postman. He, like Champ Hazard and Animal Man’s son Buddy, displays an instantaneous rage and utters the phrase “Believe in her.” Adam Strange steps in to protect his daughter’s nanny but the fight is broken up by the arrival of Hazard and a company of his troops who kill the crowd Strange had been arguing with. Strange confronts Hazard who flies off, also saying “Believe in her.” On the planet Soad, a group of Rannians ask the natives to act as brokers between the Rannians and Thanagarians. The meeting is a ploy, however, for the Rannians to pass on whatever contagion has struck the planet as the natives quickly begin proclaiming “Believe in her!” Another space ship arrives and the crew determine the planet to be infected. They destroy the entire planet before setting course for Earth.