Tom Strong is a comic book created by writer Alan Moore and artist Chris Sprouse, initially published bi-monthly by America's Best Comics, an imprint of DC Comics' Wildstorm division. Tom Strong, the title character, is a "science hero", with a wife, Dhalua, and a daughter, Tesla, both with enhanced physical and mental abilities and longevity. He lives in a building called The Stronghold in Millennium City. He is also helped by Pneuman, a steam-powered robot, and King Solomon, a gorilla with human characteristics. His greatest foe is tuxedo-clad "science villain" Paul Saveen. The series explores many different timelines and universes, which are a nod to different comic genres. The primary characters are tributes to and spoofs of early pulp heroes.
Spin-offs include Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, Terra Obscura, and the one-shot The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong. A limited series titled Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril was published in 2013 by Vertigo.
Tom Strong appears in The Terrifics, a DC Comics series about a group of the same name formed by Mr. Terrific, Metamorpho, Plastic Man and Phantom Girl.
Fictional character biography
Tom is reared in a high-gravity chamber and given an intensive education by his eccentric scientist parents on the fictional West Indian island of Attabar Teru. His upbringing, plus ingesting a root used by the natives of the island for health and long life, makes him nearly physically and mentally perfect. Though born at the dawn of the 20th century, by the year 2000 he looks as if he is only in his 40s.
Tom Strong frequently has adventures alongside his younger self. There is also a parallel cartoon universe where a talking bunny is a version of Tom Strong, as well as a Western universe, and even "Tom Teen", where characters are similar to those from Archie Comics.
Powers and abilities
Tom Strong has super-strength and is an inventive genius. Strong maintains his physical health and longevity through the regular consumption of a mysterious herb called Goloka Root. He is an explorer with vast personal wealth and has contributed greatly to the technology available in Millennium City.
Publication history
Issues #1–7
The following issues are collected in Tom Strong: Book One: Tom Strong #1 – How Tom Strong Got Started (7 April 1999)w: Alan Moore p: Chris Sprouse i: Alan Gordon c: Tad Ehrlich Timmy Turbo receives his Strongmen of America membership, which also includes the story of How Tom Strong Got Started. As he reads of Tom Strong's origins and upbringing on Attabar Teru, Tom Strong defeats Blimp Bandit in the very cable car in which Timmy is riding, but Timmy is too engrossed in his reading to notice.
Tom Strong #2 – Return of the Modular Man (12 May 1999) w: Alan Moore p: Chris Sprouse i: Alan Gordon c: Tad Ehrlich The Modular Man, the unique mechanical-molecular megalomaniac Tom first destroyed in 1987, returns to Millennium City after two nerds download Modular Man's plans from the internet and accidentally reactivate him. Tom must find a way to stop the Modular Man before he envelops the whole city.
Tom Strong #3 – Aztech Nights (8 July 1999)w: Alan Moore p: Chris Sprouse i: Alan Gordon c: Tad Ehrlich When a mysterious Aztec building materialises in Millennium Park, Tom discovers that it belongs to a brutal futuristic race from an alternate Earth. These Aztecs worship a sentient computer program that models itself after Quetzalcoatl.
Tom Strong #4 – Swastika Girls! (1 September 1999) w: Alan Moore p: Chris Sprouse, Art Adams (untold tale) i: Alan Gordon c: Tad Ehrlich Ingrid Weiss and her Nazi cohorts attack Tom Strong's home, The Stronghold, in Millennium City. When Tom attempts to defend his home and family, he finds himself drawn into a sinister plot. Untold Tale of Tom Strong shows Weiss and Strong first meeting in Berlin in 1945. This is the first sequence of a four-part arc.
Tom Strong #5 – Memories of Pangaea, Escape from Eden! (13 October 1999) w: Alan Moore p: Chris Sprouse, Jerry Ordway (untold tale) i: Alan Gordon c: Tad Ehrlich Having been sent backwards through time to a primordial Earth, Tom Strong must defend himself from its single inhabitant, which spans the Earth's entire solitary continent: The Pangean. Tom's first expedition to ancient Earth, with his wife, Dhalua, in the 1950s, appears in the flashback, drawn to resemble an EC Comics story.