Tom Strong and the suicidal jumper

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

There are some people who think Alan Moore hates superheroes and couldn't write an unironically positive take on heroism, one not mired in grey and cynicism, if his life depended on it.

Using acrobatic derring-do, Tom manages to grab onto Pete.

Comments

[mechanicaljewel.insanejournal.com]

::falls over ded::

Holy Shit.

Yes, it seems I must read Tom Strong.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

What's great* about it is that the individual stories are so diverse in terms of tone and style that no matter who you are there's bound to be some stuff you'll love.

*And not so great, I suppose, in the sense that there's also likely to at least be some stuff you don't care for.

[_vii_.insanejournal.com]

Tom Strong is awesome. :D I haven't had a chance to read everything yet, but I love what I've seen so far.

[pyrotwilight.insanejournal.com]

This makes me wanna post Jonni Future now.

[grazzt.insanejournal.com]

Yes! Hypnotoad compels you to!

[red_cyclone.insanejournal.com]

Oooh, that is a GOOD idea. I only discovered her the other day - my nickname is Jonni, spelt the same and everything, the fact that an Alan Moore character has the same name as me is so, so cool.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Paul Rivoche, I'm guessing?

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

Yep. Where do you know his work from?

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

That's great art. Especially on Pete. He's so.. weathered.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

All quick-looking brush slashes. Very Johnny Craigish.

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

Need a cig now.

Putting aside Alan Moore's issues with DC, it doesn't seem to me that a lot of the writers who are notorious for being anti-cape hate superheroes* so much they just seem to be in the same boat as a lot of fans in that they're sick of the superhero trends of the last decade or so. They just get paid to turn over their bitching in script form.

*OK, so sometimes I wonder about Garth Ennis, but he's written enough genuinely good stuff that I give him the benefit of the doubt.

Gah

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Oh, don't SAY that! I'm trying to quit smoking and I haven't even finished the first week!

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

I think Moore's issue is with the people in charge, who have screwed him over for the great work he's done. Also, I think there is perhaps a touch of self-loathing in there too - Watchmen having helped push in the 'grim and gritty' era.

ABC in general was an attempt to move away from that, and it was great to see Moore doing more lighthearted and fun books that still had a lot of impact and power. That's the problem with a lot of writers these days - They mistake impact and powerful scenes as requiring tragedy and death to motive them. Moore clearly understood this, and actively works against it here.

*And I think the introduction to the Pro says it all about Ennis' thoughts on superheroes - He sees them more as marketing tools rather than genuine icons, which is true, I suppose, but I don't agree with him entirely.

[triestine.livejournal.com (from insanejournal.com)]

Tom Strong is where I love Alan Moore.

[espanolbot.insanejournal.com]

Ah, love this series. ^^

Pity Rob Liefeld claims that Alan stole it from him, claiming he copied it from Rob's idea of the superhero Supreme and stuff.

[cmdr_zoom.insanejournal.com]

*snorts* Rob's about fifty, sixty years late to be claiming any kind of credit/personal inspiration for Supreme.

I'd say that Tom owes more to the Gladiator, anyway.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Whatever is similar to Supreme in TS is entirely what Moore brought to it, not Liefeld. I will definitely say there's a thread from Moore's SUPREME to this. That said, it's Moore's thread. So that does that.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

That's garbage. Moore specifically stated that what he was trying to do with ABC was comics as they would have turned out if Superman had not dominated the superhero archetype - if, instead, heroes were based upon other, earlier archetypes, such as mythology (Promethea), Victorian literature (the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), or the Doc Savage/Tarzan type of pulp hero (Tom Strong). Mind you, he wasn't too terribly consistent with this - Greyshirt was largely a Spirit pastiche, for one - but that was the founding principle - hence the term 'science-heroes' instead of 'superheroes' in the ABC line. Rob Liefeld couldn't come up with a character like Tom Strong if he had a gun pointed at his head - the man can't even conceive of a hero who occasionally unclenches his jaw and lets go of the gun.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

Well, not quite. Liefeld's claim is that Moore is just regurgitating his own (Moore's) Supreme work on Tom Strong. Which is equally wrong-headed, but there ya go...

[qob.insanejournal.com]

"Bodies fall at the same speed" Finally! Somebody gets it.

[porringer.insanejournal.com]

*Pedantically points out that bodies accelerate at the same rate if there is no drag from the air, but that this is not the same as them falling at the same speed. A feather and a lead weight will not hit the ground at the same time if dropped from the tower of Pisa. If Tom arranges himself in a more streamlined way, he can indeed fall faster than the other man.*

Science!

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Mythbusters proved that you can actually catch up to another falling body, you just need several thousand feet of clearance, presumably not present even in the mythic towers of Millennium City.

I love Tom Strong, but I don't think I got as far as this.

[porringer.insanejournal.com]

I think I read the first 3 books, then thought it was losing some of the magic. But it looks like it was still awesome at this point: which book is it from?

I love the way Tom always solves problems Heroically. So many of the stories, he helps the 'monster' out. He really, truly believes that all lives are as important, and acts on it :)

Re: I love Tom Strong, but I don't think I got as far as this.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Remember the Modular Man? He took care of him by simply pointing out that the "life" he had simply wasn't much of one.

Of course, then Tom gave him a spaceship and his own planet. That might've been bad thinking.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

Rats, I was hoping to hear an inspirational speech written by Alan Moore.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Aww, you left out the best part - the bit where Tom shows him off to the media as the guy who saved his life, and when asked his name he says 'Pete. Pete Dratt' with a slowly growing smile on his face. That's the bit that really makes the story for me.

[arbre_rieur.insanejournal.com]

Hey, gotta save something for when they read the actual thing :)