Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #4 – Review

By: Peter Hogan (story), Chris Sprouse (pencils) Karl Story (inks), Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: The man with a sword takes on a biker gang during the end of days.

The Review: Anyone who’s followed this site long enough knows that I try to give every new series a fair shake before making any hard judgments about it.  With this medium, you have to afford stories some time to reveal their hidden strengths, if any lie in wait.  But having given Tom Strong the benefit of the doubt, I can’t say it’s done anything but fulfilled the least expectations people had from the moment it was announced as part of Vertigo’s new line-up.

Even though from the mere look of the series, Tom Strong seemed to be pure, old-school superhero through and through, I assumed that anything with the Vertigo stamp had to have some layer of depth in its makeup, even if you didn’t see it right away.  But I guess not every title can be Astro City, which places itself squarely in the superhero camp even as it expands the genre’s boundaries.  Tom Strong simply roots itself in mystery men tradition, from which it largely refuses to step away.

Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #3 – Review

By: Peter Hogan (story), Chris Sprouse (pencils), Karl Story (inks), Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: In times of crisis, people turn to their gods for help—sometimes literally.

The Review: At first glance, you’d think six issues would be plenty for what appears to be an old-school, superhero romp.  But now that we’re halfway through this series, you’re starting to wonder how Hogan can possibly wrap up his story in just three more issues when you feel like it’s barely started.  For a plot wherein the lives of one important character and millions of other innocents hang in the balance, it doesn’t have much of a sense of urgency, does it?

You’re starting to see that Hogan made a mistake when he chose to involve a Justice Society-sized squad of superheroes in a mini, especially since very few of us even know who these characters are.  Not that it matters; each of them has apparently gone through some fairly significant changes in this plague era on Terra Obscura, necessitating a bunch of introductions for those out of the loop and a bunch of status updates for those in it.

Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #2 – Review

By: Peter Hogan (story), Chris Sprouse (pencils), Karl Story (inks), Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: Tom’s search for a cure leaves him quarantined.

The Review: If you haven’t learned not to judge a comic book by its cover yet, now’s a good time as any to appreciate that lesson.  If you got a quick look at the cover of Tom Strong’s first issue, with Sprouse’s retro linework and the strong-chinned characters, your first instinct is to write off the series as a Golden/Silver Age throwback.  The alliterative title, so fraught with melodrama, almost confirms it.

Well, once you actually crack open the second issue and it greets you right off the bat with martial law and mass graves, you’ll know this is no charming homage to a more innocent age.  On the other hand, there’s no indication that this will necessarily turn out to be a mind-blowing exploration of moral conflict, either.  From what we’ve seen thus far, much of Terra Obscura’s troubles right now fall into your typical worldwide plague woes: panic and crime in the streets, martial law, and desperate attempts to prolong the doom.

Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #1 – Review

By: Peter Hogan (story), Chris Sprouse (pencils), Karl Story (inks), Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: Would you travel the stars for a magic potion to save your pregnant daughter?  Literally?

The Review: Perhaps I read it in an online article or in a comment to one, but I distinctly recall someone scoffing at Tom Strong’s inclusion in the new Vertigo lineup as a strange, even degrading mismatch.  I have to admit, this title is, at first glance, one of Vertigo’s odder additions; it seems like it’d fight right into your garden-variety superhero series.  But with all Vertigo projects, appearance belies the actual purpose.

There’s no escaping the tonal resemblance between Tom Strong and Superman in particular, with their wholesome values and deep, earnest affection for loved ones.  The differences between them, at least from what we can see so far, are slight, but profound.  Tom doesn’t have much of a sense of humor; he’s not humorless or uptight, but he doesn’t have Superman’s jokey side.  At the same time, he has a gentle way about him that gives him Superman’s likability, and the fact he doesn’t have to deliver some winking one-liner every few pages only makes him less hokey.