Showcase #101

While in orbit around Earth in his starship, Hawkman gets a distress signal from Adam Strange. Strange is being hunted, and needs Hawkman to rescue him before he is captured by an alien race called the Vantors. Strange blasts a hole in Hawkman’s ship, enters, and the two seal off the hole before the Vantors can board. Then, the two and Hawkwoman launch the ship into Hyperdrive, allowing them to escape.Only the shadow knows...Strange tells the Hawks that all of the various foes of Adam Strange over the years, the Vantors, the Kirri, the Arvese, and the Dust-Devils, all rose up to conquer Rann, the planet under Strange’s watch. Strange came to Earth to recruit the help of the Justice League. As the Hawks prepare to leave Hyperspace to retrieve the rest of the Justice League, a navigation console on the ship explodes. The circuits are now fused with a setting for Rann.Hawkman leaves the ship to repair the ship’s systems from the outside, when he is attacked by another alien race. The races that have been hunting for Strange have found him, even in Hyperspace. This race, the Arvese, attack the ship, forcing it to leave Hyperspace for Rann.Hawkman at first suspects that Strange has been the saboteur all this time. However, noticing an unusual shadow, Hawkman figures out the real culprit behind the sabotage is the Shadow Thief. We find out that Carl Sands, the villainous Shadow Thief, was released from prison by the U.S. Government to pilot an experimental spaceship. While in space, a voice ( Byth ) guided him to Hawkman’s ship, and instructed him to capture the ship and pilot it to Rann.In order to fight the Shadow Thief, Hawkman uses tech on his ship to enter the Dimension of Shadows. Once there, he easily defeats the Shadow Thief, bringing them both out of the Dimension of Shadows. As the fight ends, Hawkman’s ship leaves Hyperspace to enter Rann orbit, and finds the entire planet surrounded by Thanagarian starships about to attack.