Strange Adventures #177
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStrange Adventures #177 holds a firm place in Silver Age DC history as the debut issue of Immortal Man (Klarn Arg), a reincarnating prehistoric hero whose conceptual mirror-image relationship with the villain Vandal Savage gave DC a thematic archetype — the eternal champion set against the eternal conqueror — that writers would return to and expand for decades. The issue planted seeds that eventually flowered into the Forgotten Heroes team, tied the Immortal Man into Crisis on Infinite Earths, and inspired a full Rebirth-era limited series in 2018, demonstrating unusual longevity for a character born in a mid-run anthology issue. As one of a cluster of new continuing features that Strange Adventures introduced between 1965 and 1967 — alongside Animal Man (#180) and the Enchantress (#187) — #177 is part of the concentrated creative surge that transformed the title from a pure science-fiction anthology into a launch pad for the DC Universe's more offbeat corners.
In "I Lived a Hundred Lives!", botanist George Millard grapples with a terrifying side effect of his experimental insecticide: each time he uses it, he transforms into a strange, amorphous creature, emerging days later with no memory of what he did. Written by Dave Wood and illustrated by Bernard Baily, this eerie tale from Strange Adventures #177 (1965) blends science and surrealism in a haunting exploration of identity and loss. The cover by Bernard Baily captures the unsettling transformation with striking, moody detail.
In "I Lived a Hundred Lives!", a man awakens to the startling truth that his life spans millennia, each death and rebirth weaving a thread through time from prehistoric days to the present. The story unfolds as he grapples with the weight of his endless existence and the mysterious powers that come with it.
In "The Prisoner in Cell Block #7," botanist George Millard struggles to control a terrifying transformation triggered by his own experimental insecticide—one that leaves him trapped in the body of a strange, mindless creature, with no memory of what he does when he's not himself. Written by a mysterious hand and illustrated with eerie precision, this tale from Strange Adventures #177 unfolds like a slow-burning fever dream of science gone wrong.
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The issue was edited by Jack Schiff, who had shepherded Strange Adventures through much of its Silver Age run, and its lead story — titled 'I Lived A Hundred Lives' — was drawn by Jack Sparling, who would go on to illustrate all four of Immortal Man's Silver Age appearances in the series. The writer of the debut story has not been credited in surviving records; multiple sources list the writing credit as unknown, though Dave Wood is confirmed as the writer of at least the two later Immortal Man installments (#185 and #190). The cover was rendered by Bernard Baily, with interior art also credited to George Roussos alongside Sparling.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Immortal Man (Klarn Arg), a prehistoric hero with the power of body-jumping reincarnation, whose jeweled amulet travels with him to each new life and preserves his memories across deaths.
- Cover date: June 1965; published by DC Comics (then National Comics) as part of the long-running Strange Adventures (Vol. 1) anthology series, which ran from 1950 to 1973 for 244 issues.
- Art by Jack Sparling (pencils and inks on the lead story); cover by Bernard Baily; edited by Jack Schiff. The writer of the debut story is unconfirmed — the credit is absent from surviving records.
- Lead story title: 'I Lived A Hundred Lives.' The issue also contains two additional stories ('The Man With the Weird Tatoos' and a third short), making it a standard Silver Age anthology format at 36 pages.
- Immortal Man's origin retroactively ties him to Vandal Savage: later stories (beginning with Action Comics #552–553, 1984, by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane) established that both characters were empowered by the same prehistoric meteorite, making them eternal opposites across human history.
- The character returned three more times in Strange Adventures — issues #185, #190, and #198 — with Jack Sparling drawing all four installments and Immortal Man appearing on the cover of each.
- Immortal Man was written out during Crisis on Infinite Earths, sacrificing his reincarnation energy to help save reality, and was later revisited in The Immortal Men (2018, DC Rebirth), a six-issue series written by James Tynion IV.
- The issue's significance was retrospectively noted alongside Animal Man's debut in Strange Adventures #180 — with Strange Adventures #190 (1966) featuring both characters on a shared cover, cementing this 1965–1966 window as the series' most character-generative stretch.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Superman Presents Wonder Comic Monthly #5 (1965), Etranges Aventures #1 (1966), Mars-serien [Metall-klanen] #8 (1968), Super Comics #2429 (1969), Terror Tales Album #14 (1980), Super Comics #14, Super Comics #25, Super Comics #27
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