Tom Strong Vol. 1-6
Joel Mangrum on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 If I wanted to create the perfect comic how would I do it?
I would take the pulp-magazine adventure spirit and archetype of Doc Savage, add in the family dynamic and big-screen style science concepts of the Fantastic Four, throw in a helping of great action-oriented artwork by an artist like Chris Sprouse and cover the whole thing in the writing genius of Alan Moore. The problem for me is that Tom Strong has everything I want in a comic; so why did I not enjoy this series more? Before I can answer why this book did not live up to what I feel was it’s potential let’s start at the beginning.
Tom Strong was born on New Year’s Day in the year 1900 on the island of Attabar Teru. His upbringing was not what one would call usual. His father kept him in a room with 4 times the normal gravity of earth and was fed goloka root which would slow his aging process and increase his intelligence. An earthquake killed his parents when he was 8 and he was raised by natives of the island called the Oku. Upon reaching young adulthood he decided to leave the island for Millennium City to become a superhero adventurer for than six decades up until the year 1999 when the series begins. Along the way (but still long before this series begins) his wife Dhalua, one of the daughters of the Oku chief and their daughter Tesla join him in his adventuring. The Strong family are joined by Tom’s companion Pneuman, a steam-powered robot invented by Tom’s father who has a very annoying speech impediment and a mentally-enhanced gorilla named King Solomon.
Now that we have the background let’s talk about what is right and wrong with this series. On the plus side we have Millennium City itself. Much like Kurt Busiek’s Astro City Alan Moore spend a lot of time adding layers and giving his city such a level of detail that the reader has no problems believing that such a city could exist in some alternate time line. But unlike Busiek, Moore does not ease the reader into this world he created but instead he is in such a hurry to get all of the pesky background out of the way that the reader is overwhelmed.
Alan Moore seems to be a writer whose well of ideas runs so deep that he will most likely never be in danger of running dry and this depth is on full display here. How can the reader not be amazed at a series that has its lead character fight parallel-world conquering Aztecs who worship a snake computer program called Quetzalcoatl-9 in one issue and then turns around to fight an invading insect armada intent on over-running the earth in another?
If there is an artist working today who is better at action sequences I would like to know who it would be. Sprouse’s art looks a little on the simplistic side but go back and look at it again, there is detail in every corner. Every idea that Moore throws at Sprouse he hits it right out of the park. Not only does he translate Moore’s ideas wonderfully his art style really does bring to mind the pulp roots that this series owes so much to.
There is a flaw in Sprouse’s art though. For all of the great detail and wonderful concept design there seems to be a problem with emotions. The facial expressions don’t really seem to change all that much. In one issue Tom Strong has been kidnapped by a female Nazi Fraulein Weiss and has been badly tortured before she reveals that years ago she basically sperm-jacked him while unconscious and created a son. Dhalua and company bursts through a wall and announces that she and Weiss have something to discuss. Weiss proceeds call Dhalua a black whore, black bug, a savage, and so on and guess what? Dhalua’s face never changes expression the entire time. I can ALMOST buy that she would want to appear calm when she makes her entrance but Dhalua face looks more like she is asking why there was no sauce for her Chicken McNuggets than she does a woman who’s husband has been kidnapped, tortured and then been racially insulted. The great Warner Brothers artist Chuck Jones believed that if you took any of his cartoons and turned the volume down you should still understand the basics of the story and find it funny and that kind of basic story-telling is missing here.
So why did I not care for this book as much as some other readers? There are a lot of great books that do not have great artwork so that can’t be the only reason. I have worked this over in my mind for a few weeks to try and figure out what my major problem with this series was and still is and then on the way home yesterday it hit me.
The first thing wrong is the character himself. Tom Strong is a smart, strong (of course), resourceful family man whose every adventure seems to stretch the limits of human understanding. I know that after so many decades of dealing with situations like this a person would become jaded to some extent but Moore carries this way too far. I don’t care how much a person has experienced in life if dimension traveling, snake-god computer program worshippers complete with Aztec temples suddenly appeared in a major city I find it hard to believe that Tom Strong would not show or exhibit some kind of awe. Instead he dispassionately assesses the situation and takes on the Aztecs. This is to me the major flaw in this series and it never gets better. No matter what happens to him Tom Strong behaves as if it is just another day at the office. Perhaps that is the tone Moore wished to set for the series and if so then he succeeded but Tom Strong never acts like how I would expect a person to act if they were surrounded by such circumstances and this made it extremely hard to identify with the Tom as a character and by extension care about his adventures.
The first issue of this series starts off exactly how I felt it should in order to help us become familiar with this universe that he has created. We are slowly introduced to the back story of Tom Strong through the official Tom Strong comic that little Timmy Turbo reads on his way to school. Alan Moore uses the viewpoint of the common man (or in this case boy) in this first issue to help ease us into this world that he has created. After issue one is over though he throws us into the deep end to fend for ourselves. To me if a comic is going to use fantastical science adventures and exaggerated, mind stretching concepts as it’s focus then we need the viewpoint of the common man to act as the filter for our understanding.
Let’s take the Fantastic Four as an example for a second. How much enjoyment would we get out of a story involving the Ultimate Nullifier, Negative Zone, or microverse without having good old Ben Grimm (aka The Thing) along for Reed Richards to explain what is happening and why? If a writer is going to be dealing with concepts that are completely unfamiliar to the reader there has to be a character to stand in for that reader and having everything explained to them. Perhaps if Moore had made Tesla into a sidekick just starting out instead of already established this would have given Tom someone to play off of, and explain what was going on to, this problem might have been eliminated.
The last problem I have is that the series loses focus as it goes along. I want you to look at the creator credits on the first trade’s cover at the top of this article and then compare them to the last trade’s cover to the right. The cover of all the trades from 1 through 6 have more and more writers and artists filling in. It is almost as if Moore and Sprouse ran out of time or ideas or perhaps interest in their creation and decided to do something else. Instead of the singular vision exhibited in Moore’s other ABC titles like Top 10 or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen we end up with what feels like a bunch of place-holder issues made by other creative teams. Even though the fill-in issues were done by some of comic’s most talented creators (Jerry Ordway, Art Adams, Joe Casey, et al.) their stories still feel like they are biding time until Moore and Sprouse could figure out how to end the series.
I enjoy most of what Moore has written and when he has his “A” game going there is no one better. When he started his ABC line of comics he was writing all five titles himself and that is a lot of pressure to put on any writer no matter how talented they may be. This series feels to me as if he wrote a first draft and just did not have time to polish it up before having to give it to the artist and that is a shame because there was so much potential in this series that was just wasted.
In the end I guess did I like it? Not really, I was entertained enough to read the next issue and then the next but I was never rushing to pick up the next issue. I would start each issue holding my breath waiting for the Moore magic to kick in and I instead of getting the master magician I was hoping for I ended up with some guy doing card tricks at a children’s birthday party.
Reader Comments (7)
Great article, Joel! My feelings on this book are very similar to yours. As a Moore fan, I'd really like to see you write about Top 10 next!
I HAVE A REQUEST! I was going back and forth between that or some Ultimate Spider-man so Top 10 it is.
Terence, what are your thoughts on Tom Strong? Likes and dislikes?
I really dig on Tom Strong. The fact that it's more of an adventure comic based in science is really great. Some of the execution of the ideas are a little bumpy, but overall it's a fun story. And Chris Sprouse really just kinda knows how to make everything look cool...I'd probably get this book even if i didn't like the story, for Sprouse's art alone. My main complaint is that at times, the book feels stagnant...a lot of the time, the pacing is jerky, and feels forced.
Uh... Tom Strong is never fazed by anthing? Of course, he's Tom Strong, that's part of his character!
I think you were taking the series a little too seriously, and were looking for more weight than was intended. From the opening of Strong's origin with Tomas the unbelievably stereotypical Jamican, and the humourous casualness with which Tom Strong's parent's treat his death, I don't know how you could take any of it without a pinch of salt.
I found it an often hilarious, always tongue-in-cheek science focused throwback to early comics and pulp, with some satisfyingly clever and structured big ideas to keep you engaged beyond the one liners and abundant winking.
Although, I will agree that the series peters out as it continues.
Welcome to the Dollar Bin Paul. Thank you for the feedback on my review. Always nice to hear back from readers.
I prefered good old superman when I was a kid. But I suppose Tom Strong would suffice too! Good article (dude)