Leviathan (Back Up) Theory - Adam Strange

During the San Diego Comic Con news blitz, it was announced that a new Strange Adventures title, starring Adam Strange, would hit the racks some time in 2020. The creative team was a powerful troika of Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Doc Shaner. Here is a news blurb:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dc-announces-new-series-strange-adventures-1225899

Now King and Gerads hit a home run out of the park with Mister Miracle. And Shaner's art is always stunning. So I am all in.

But I was puzzled a bit by the dual cover images that were sent out with the announcement.One is a 'clean', classic take on the Strange character right out of the Silver Age by Shaner. The other is a grungy darker take complete with skeletal features and graffiti calling Strange a liar and a killer.

You would think that a new series touting the character on the horizon would make him not be a possible suspect to be Leviathan. But those dual covers struck me. What if Strange doesn't know he is Leviathan? Or what if another version of Strange, right out of the multiverse, has  replaced him. It might explain why there are two cover versions. One, the heroic 'true' Strange. The other, the dark reputation of him once it is revealed he is Leviathan.

So settle in for another back-up #LeviathanTheory.

Leviathan is Adam Strange.

Let's look at the evidence.

One thing that keeps getting brought up is how anyone at the attack sites needs to be considered a suspect. Anyone who survives an attack site needs to be considered a suspect.

Remember, Adam just happened to be near the DEO when Leviathan demolished it.

Was that luck?

I'll also add that in the Bendis run on Superman, Strange's father-in-law Sardath is part of the Circle, a group of interstellar beings who try to control the events of the galaxy. While the goal of this group seems noble, some have twisted it to mean total control, right down to genocide as an option.

Perhaps Sardath's ways have impacted Adam's outlook?

Much as Strange was at the DEO, he also has been around more than usual in the Superman title.

Here he is at STAR labs when scientists there accidentally shunted the Earth into the Phantom Zone.

Why was he hanging around there? Was he, perhaps, there to try and grab the Phantom Zone technology that was being experimented with?

One thing we know about Strange is that he is reliant on the Zeta Beam to get him from Earth to Rann. And we know that the beam basically runs off of a schedule. Strange knows when and where the beam will be firing. He knows he needs to be there to head to Rann.

So Batman saying that Leviathan's attacks have high impact and run to a clock sounds like the sort of timing reference we would get with Zeta Beam technology.

And then Superman describes the energy used by Leviathan as a sort of a beam that made things 'not be'. Imagine if the beam was some sort of amalgam between Zeta Beam technology and Phantom Zone projection. It would be a way to not only unmake something but teleport it as well.

Motivations are key.

You can look at Leviathan's take on Earth as being broken in two ways.

One, in some continuities, Rann is a disaster, a barren world with dwindling population. Perhaps he looks at Rann as the broken world he is trying to stop Earth from becoming.

In other continuities, Rann is a futuristic paradise. Perhaps he sees Rann as an ideal. He was born in the broken world of Earth and sees Rann as what Earth should be.

To be honest, I don't know which Rann is current. But either works for this sentiment.

And, given all the adventures he has had, Strange would know Plastic Man. He would know him from the Justice League. He would know the heroes and wouldn't want to hurt them.

He would want the heroes to join him.

One look at the finned helmet of the Leviathan army and you can see how this feels like Adam Strange.

Now I still think Leviathan is Ted Kord.

But you can make a pretty compelling case that Leviathan is Adam Strange as well.