the boys has Homelander. Invincible It has its main character and his father. Marvel has several characters that clearly count as Man of Steel riffs. It seems like every generation, and every generation’s top comic creators, try to reinvent Superman for their own times. That includes Alan Moore and, unsurprisingly, no one else has done it like him, before or since.
Moore wrote some memorable stories for DC Comics starring the real Superman, including “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Which was published in 1986, just a few months before the debut of Alan Moore’s transformative superhero series. watchmen. (If that title sounds familiar, it’s because The man of tomorrow is the name of James Gunn’s next Superman movie, which will arrive in 2027.)
That said, Alan Moore also created his own archetypal Superman character, during an often overlooked period of his career: the late ’90s. As legendary as Moore is, fans often focus too much on his mid-to-late ’80s career, including watchmenas well as Batman: The Killing Jokeand its titles from the late 2000s, such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
But Moore’s output from the 1990s is equally fascinating and worth returning to, and as it always was, it was ahead of its time. For proof, look no further than Tom Strong, who is the author’s equivalent of Superman, and also possibly the truest “superhero” ever created by Alan Moore.
Only Alan Moore could create a Superman like Tom Strong
Tom strong debuted in the spring of 1999, with an issue aptly titled, “How Tom Strong Started.” Alan Moore, who created the character, wrote the hero’s continuing adventures through Tom strong #22, published in late 2003. From then on, the series continued for another fourteen issues, with a rotating list of writers replacing Moore. (Some notable names on that list include Geoff Johns, Brian K. Vaughn and Ed Brubaker.)
As a hero, Tom Strong must evoke the spirit of Superman, especially the character’s early days. Strong’s backstory explains how he was raised to be a superior type of man. Physically, mentally and also morally. Notably, Tom strong The stories are less cynical (or less “realistic”) and more fantastical than the stories with which Moore is most closely associated. Tom strong showcases Moore’s love and expertise in genre storytelling, a testament to the fact that writers have to know a type of storytelling inside and out before deconstructing it.
Just as Superman does with Metropolis, Tom Strong acts as protector of Millennium City. Like Superman, Strong has an extensive superhero family. And what made it especially forward-thinking was the series’ extensive use of the Multiverse as a narrative trope, at a time when Marvel and DC had not yet fully embraced their own Multiverses like they do today.
Alan Moore explored the multiverse years before it became all the rage in comics
They say Wayne Gretzky was a hockey phenomenon because he skated to “where the puck was going” next, instead of where he was on the ice at the time. The same kind of sentiment applies to Alan Moore as a writer, especially when it comes to superhero storytelling. One way or another, Moore’s work would go where the genre was headed, before everyone else in the industry knew it.
That was the case with watchmen. It was also the case of Tom strong. Especially with its Multiversal elements that jump around the timeline. That’s worn out in superhero storytelling these days, but it was still territory that hadn’t been fully exploited for its potential when Moore made it in the late ’90s and early ’00s. Combined with an imagination as deft as Alan Mooreand the result was a classic, if short-lived, superhero series, their version of Superman This is too often overlooked by modern readers.
What do you think of Tom strongreaders? Tell us below!
- Created by
-
Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel
- First appearance
-
action comics
- Alias
-
Kal-El, Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent
- Alliance
-
Justice League, Superman Family
- Career
-
kryptonian
- Franchise
-
DC