How It Got Started (Tom Strong #1)

I'm not a fan of Alex Ross but this cover has a stark, iconic quality that fits the series.

Art by Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon, Tad Ehrlich, and Todd Klein

The first issue opens with Timmy Turbo receiving his membership packet from the "Strongmen of America" including Tom Strong #1, the very same issue we're reading right now. Timmy is a visual alien when compared to the detailed retro-futuristic city he lives in and the classic Tom Strong adventure that appears inside. On closer inspection the other people in the "Timmy sequences" are also drawn in a looser, cartoonier style like him. This suggests a bit of what is to come in the series when guest artists start appearing to render tales from Tom Strong's past.


Chris Sprouse is the sole penciller behind this issue and the lead artist on most of the series. He's a good hand when it comes to storytelling and does a great job of drawing strapping heroes like Strong, wacky gadgets like the kind Strong invents, and the mysterious Attabar Teru where young Tom Strong was reared.

Attabar Teru brings up one of the more difficult elements of the series. Tom Strong's origin in this issue feels like it could have been directly lifted from a classic pulp adventure story. That makes sense given the tone of the series but this story also appropriates some of the more unfortunate racial politics of early twentieth century pulp. In 1899 Tom's future parents Sinclair and Susan are on an expedition seeking out the rainbow shrouded island of Attabar Teru when their ship is wrecked on that island's shore. West Indian sailor Tomas, the only other person aboard their ship, is killed in the accident after successfully getting the Strong family to their destination, and inspires the name of our protagonist. Sinclair Strong uses a steam powered robot to build a home where he and Susan conceive a child. During the birth his parents are assisted by the island's native population. The Ozu people raise Tom Strong after his parents are killed, teaching him about the magical life extending Goloka Root. Tom repays them by creating a generator and bringing electricity to the island before he leaves to become a hero in America.

Tomas could easily be construed as a "Magical Negro" archetype, the Ozu are a tribe of noble savages with mysterious knowledge that most white men don't possess, and in modernizing their island Tom Strong takes on the role of white savior. It wouldn't be surprising to be discussing these kind of things in a story written by Edgar Rice Burroughs but this comic was released in 1999.  Moore could have written a pulp flavored story without this level of commitment to capturing the racism and orientalism that modern readers might associate with this era of writing.

I think Moore's choice to introduce those narrative elements is deliberate (whether or not it's the right approach is open to interpretation). I think it's possible that Moore intended to comment on the racist origins of similar characters when he introduced these ideas to the mythology of the series. Moore clearly cares about Tom's Ozu wife Dhalua and their daughter Tesla. Does respecting those characters as humans subvert their origin story? That's certainly something I'll be thinking about as I make my way through future issues. Readers who are already familiar with this series might be aware of the "Tom Stone" arc that appears in later issues which is definitely a commentary on race in the world of these stories. Was that story something Moore had been planning since the beginning? Regardless of the answers to those questions, the story in this issue presents those stereotypes at face value.

If you can get over those elements, this is an entertaining first issue. There are some interesting ideas presented here to establish the potential of it's setting even if the characters themselves haven't been fully fleshed out. This issue is also pretty funny which is something I forgot about going into this new review.

Art by Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon, Tad Ehrlich, and Todd Klein

That said, the best thing in the whole issue is Moore's essay about the history of Millenium City. I'm already a sucker for comic book backmatter but this essay engages in even more world building and more allusion than the actual comics contained in this periodical. Check it out:

Tom Strong #1 (June 1999) was written by Alan Moore with art by Chris Sprouse, Al Gordon, and Tad Ehrlich as well as lettering by Todd Klein

Strongmen of America - Revisiting Tom Strong