Tomorrow Stories Book Two Hardcover Review

Tomorrow Stories Vol. 2
DC Comics - America's Best Comics
160 pages
$24.99 (2004) Hardcover
$17.99 (2004) Trade Paperback
ISBN 9781401201654

Contributors: Alan Moore, Kevin Nowlan, Jim Baikie, Melinda Gebbie, Hilary Barta, Joyce Chin, Dame Darcy, Rick Veitch, Wildstorm FX, Bad@$$, David Baron, Nick Bell, Chris Chuckry, Jeremy Cox, and Todd Klein

Reprints: Tomorrow Stories #7-12 (of 12)

Synopsis: An anthology book featuring the further adventures of a group of exciting heroes:

A young man arrives in Indigo City with big ideas

Greyshirt is the mysterious science-hero of Indigo City.  His origin is shrouded in mystery and he strikes fear into the hearts of the legions of the underworld.  Apparently bulletproof, Greyshirt uses a suit of chain mail under his clothes to give him an edge over the criminal element.

• A taxi driver without a license is driving home one night when he accidentally runs into a pedestrian.  The cabbie doesn't stop and the guy ends up being Greyshirt.  Will remorse get the best of the cabbie and turn him back toward the side of good?
• "Thinx" - A young man arrives in Indigo City to find his fortune, but ends up embroiled in a crime he didn't want to commit.  Will Greyshirt get to the bottom of it and prove the young man is innocent?  
• "Greyshirt the Musical!" - It's a musical version of your favorite grey-clad hero as he waxes poetic over Indigo City's charms.
• "...For a Blue Lady" - Lapis Lazuli is Greyshirt's most deadly and desirable foe.  Learn her bizarre origin when she became a woman made of sapphire.  Greyshirt struggles with his quasi-love for her and pledge to battle crime.  
• "Vermin" - Hitler and all his top Nazis are reincarnated as roaches in an old ladies kitchen.  They attempt a takeover, but don't count on Greyshirt to be a friendly neighbor with a can of roach spray. 
• "Strands of Desire" - Greyshirt investigates the mysterious crime-fighter known as Cobweb.  He gets in the middle of a battle between her and the Money Spider, but ends up looking like a fool.  Will he uncover her secret identity or be outwitted by an experienced fox?

Jack B. Quick is the young genius of Queerwater Creek, a small farming town in the midwest United States. His young age belies an incredibly inquisitive intellect, almost to a point of mad indifference to the laws of nature.  His parents are often unwitting sports to Jack's wild experiments.  What wild invention will he dream up or absolute law of physics will he break next?

• "Why the Long Face?" - Jack sets traps for the kidnapping aliens abducting good, honest people in the midwest.  He catches an alien, but will his quest for knowledge trample extraterrestrial 'human' rights?
• "The Facts of Life!!" - Jack and his friend Teddy investigate the dastardly secret of the 'birds and bees' the adults have kept from them.  Unfortunately for Teddy, Jack uses him to test a hypothesis as they visit Puberty, Kansas.  

Jack makes another amazing scientific discovery

Cobweb is Indigo City's other science hero and equally shrouded in mystery.  Her lithe, beautiful figure glides gracefully through the night wearing only a wispy, transparent costume.  Aided by her lovely and highly-skilled assistant, Clarice, Cobweb takes on the chauvinistic criminal element and looks out for the better interests of the fairer sex whenever possible.

• "Grooveweb - Ye Head Shoppe" - Cobweb and Clarice in the '70s!  They trip the light psychedelic through a tapestry of free love and cleverly disguised exploitation trying to find a place for liberated women in comics.  
• "A Tribal Encounter" - Cobweb and Clarice wander into the jungle in their newspaper comic strip only to meet a group of lost New Jersey housewives who have gone 'native'.  A jungle prince raised by woodlice and manly adventurer appear to claim the dynamic damsels.  
• "Farewell, My Lullabye" - Cobweb is a private detective who is hired for a job to find Little Bo Peep's lost sheep.  She questions Little Jack Horner, three blind mice, three bears, and Little Red Riding Hood to find clues.  Does Bo Peep's story check out or is she hiding something?
• "Cobweb of the Future!" - Cobweb and Clarice give us readers a guided tour through the forty-millionth century where cities migrate on legs, people dress up in naked fat suits to go out on the town, and cleanliness is the highest form of eroticism.  
• "Bedsheets & Brimstone!" - Cobweb and Clarice follow an obsessed art enthusiast who purchased a cursed painting.  They are all transported through the infernal object to a purgatory of physical pleasure and pain.  Can the two heroes escape back to the real world?
• "Shades of Grey" - Cobweb infiltrates Greyshirt's lair and confronts the mystery man.  Will they fight it out or see eye to eye?

The First American and his young teen partner U.S. Angel are genetically-engineered bastions of truth, justice, and the American way.  It's not easy keeping the moral high ground when you represent a government full of liars and cheats.  It doesn't help having an underage partner wearing a skin-tight outfit either!

• "The 20th Century: My Struggle" - FA tells his nephews about his role in the barbaric 20th century.  He basically invented everything and solved all the political problems of the world by himself.  Yep!
• "Justice in Tights!" - FA and U.S. Angel get a camera crew and reality show.  Their lives are completely dysfunctional and they're shameless gloryhounds!  Can the two partners withstand the pressure of fame?  
• "The Origin of the First American" - FA's origin is revealed!  Born in a trailer park and irradiated at a young age, Troy Todd becomes FA.  Joanie Juniper becomes U.S. Angel after FA sees her at a strip joint.  The rest is history!
• "What We Probably Inhaled at the Toilet's Last Cleaning!" - FA becomes president of the United States and ruins the country in two hours.  It's a record-breaking romp of political misfortune.
• "Being the First American" - U.S. Angel discovers a doorway into FA's head (like Being John Malkovich) and abuses her privilege by renting out time to his arch-enemies.  It all backfires when FA finds a secret door into her head too!
• "The Death/Marriage/Son of the First American of the Future!" - U.S. Angel writes bad fiction on her days off and decides to create a story where she becomes the star (over FA's dead body of course).  When FA stumbles her partially finished story he writes in a new twist bringing himself back to life.  Now it's a war of two awful writers who both want the limelight at the cost of their partner's life!

Whose terrible writing will reign supreme!?

Splash Brannigan is sentient, four-dimensional ink created by mad comic book artist Mort Gort.  He was sealed away in an ink bottle for decades until Daisy Screensaver discovers him while toiling away at Kaput Comics.  Now he's making up for lost time as a clueless and horny superhero!

• "A Bigger Splash!" - Splash and Daisy visit a fine art gallery right in the middle of a heist.  He jumps from painting to painting trying to nab the thieves.  It's a massacre of the old masters as Splash gives art nouveau a rinse cycle!
• "Welcome to Coffee Con 2000" - Splash and Daisy attend a comic convention and all heck breaks loose.  Splash battles a darling of the modern comic age - Testostor the Terrible!  The owner of Kaput Comics squabbles over the rights for a crossover.  
• "Splash of Two Worlds!" - Splash and Daisy visit an experimental science exhibition where Splash is exposed to a dangerously untested ray!  He splits into an ink-stained puddle and correction-fluid white avenger.  The two battle it out, but who will prevail and why do we care!?
• "Splash City Rocker!" - Splash tries a career in music and then movies, but alienates Daisy in the process.

Pros: Moore scripts every story and was co-creator of all the characters, a good progression of stories following up the first volume, fun science fiction/crime noir/superhero satire stories, decent art, this round of stories gets a bit more mature than the previous volume

Cons: Very different art styles and characters are jarring to the reader, anthology format, some of the stories are hit-or-miss, not enough Jack B. Quick and too much First American

Mike Tells It Straight: Moore's anthology book from his America's Best Comics line concludes with this second volume.  The series garnered praise and won an Eisner award for best anthology series in 2000.  Moore teamed with prominent creators to produce stories in the same tone as the old pulp comics before superheroes dominated the comic book industry.  The stories felt a bit more mature in this volume than the first (particularly the First American where FA and U.S. Angel are depicted doing a lot of...naughty stuff).

Cobweb has been a very naughty girl!

I think each of the characters has a clever backstory/spin on old concepts and enjoyed at least one of their tales.  Jack B. Quick is a homage to old science fiction stories and I enjoyed both of his stories in this volume.  I wish there had been more tales featuring him.  Greyshirt is a homage to Will Eisner's The Spirit and I enjoyed almost all of his stories (the musical was a bit over-the-top).  Cobweb continued to be somewhat experimental with a newspaper strip format and guest artist Joyce Chin.  I really enjoyed the Greyshirt/Cobweb crossover in the last issue.  Her future story was hilarious!

The First American is a satire piece lampooning superheroes and popular culture in general.  I thought the stories got racier in this second volume with more sex, drugs, and dysfunction.  Probably my least favorite of all the characters, but still fairly entertaining.  Splash Brannigan is featured more prominently in this volume and grew on me as I read more of his stories.  I especially liked the one where he battles a whited out version of himself.

The series ended on a good note and featured some solid stories.  A few were duds, but most were entertaining and intended for a mature audience.  I would suggest this series for those who are sick of standard superhero fare and enjoy a good crime noir/science fiction/satire story.  I doubt we'll be seeing these characters in the future, but they pop up in the other anthology issues from ABC (like the mini-series ABC A-Z, Alan Moore's America's Best Comics, and a pair of specials which were never collected) and Greyshirt got his own spin-off mini-series (Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset) which I'm planning to review.  Stay tuned!


TO BUY and Recommendations:

Tomorrow Stories Book One Hardcover Review

Tomorrow Stories Vol. 1
DC Comics - America's Best Comics
160 pages
$24.95 (2002) Hardcover
$17.95 (2002) Trade Paperback
ISBN 9781563896606

Contributors: Alan Moore, Jim Baikie, Melinda Gebbie, Kevin Nowlan, Rick Veitch, Hilary Barta, David Baron, Bad@$$, Wildstorm FX, Todd Klein, and Alex Ross

Reprints: Tomorrow Stories #1-6 (of 12)

Synopsis: An anthology book featuring a group of exciting heroes including:

Greyshirt is the mysterious science-hero of Indigo City.  His origins are unknown as well as his secret identity.  Apparently bulletproof, Greyshirt uses a suit of chain mail under his clothes to give him an edge over the criminal element.

Get ready for the origin of Greyshirt!

• "Amnesia" - A man awakens with blood on his hands and a dead woman at his feet.  The police are being aided by Greyshirt in finding a serial killer.  Is the man the killer?  He can't remember anything, but the evidence looks damning.  When Greyshirt closes in the man panics, but can he escape the relentless hero?
• "How Things Work Out" - A man and his father get trapped working for a sleazy mobster for decades.  Both of their hopes and dreams are slowly ground to dust over the years until one of them hits a breaking point!
• "The Making of Greyshirt" - Learn the startling origin of Indigo City's premier gentleman science hero!
• "Tempus, Fugitive!" - Greyshirt chases Turner T. Tempus into the Indigo Science Institute's temporal research lab when he disappears.  The criminal is hurtled decades into the future, but will he survive in the futuristic Indigo City?  What happened to Greyshirt?  
• "Dr. Crescendo!" - A reclusive physicist discovers a link between music and reality.  Will he use the knowledge to make society pay for ignoring him?  Greyshirt finds his daughter - is she the only hope of our fragile reality?
• "Day Release" - A shrouded man is on a day release and attempts to save the only friend he's ever had.  He tips of Greyshirt, but will it be in time?

Jack B. Quick is the young genius of Queerwater Creek, a small farming town in the midwest United States. His young age belies an incredibly inquisitive intellect, almost to a point of mad indifference to the laws of nature.  His parents are often unwitting sports to Jack's wild experiments.  What wild invention will he dream up or crazy laws of physics will he break next?

• "Smalltown Stardom" - Jac attempts to cure his father's cow Bessie's night terrors by creating a mini-solar system in his backyard.  The unfortunate side effect is a bevy of miniature planets and comets whizzing through town on an elliptical orbit of destruction!  What happens when he tiny star fast-forwards through it's life cycle?
• "The Unbearableness of Being Light" - Jack discovers photons are really drunk and attempts to get them to reform.  What happens when light behaves badly?
• "Pet Theory." - Jack's parents get him a pet cat, but he can't resist using it in experiments.  When he discovers anti-gravity by buttering the cat's back will he get into big trouble?  You betcha!
• "A Brief Geography of Time." - Jack invents time shoes and runs backwards through time with every step!  Will he accidentally miss the Big Bang and end up in a timeless limbo?  Find out!

So that's how it works!

The Cobweb is Indigo City's other science hero shrouded in mystery.  Her beautiful figure glides gracefully through the night wearing only a wispy, transparent costume.  Aided by her lovely and highly-skilled assistant Clarice, Cobweb takes on the chauvinistic criminal element and looks out for better interests of exploited women.

• "Doll-O-Vision" - Cobweb and Clarice investigate a startling rash of comatose young socialites in Indigo City.  Cobweb manages to confront the dastardly mind behind the ailing young women, but gets ensnared in his trap!  She wakes up as a plastic doll in a gilded cage.  Can she escape from this perverted dollhouse?
• "Waltztime" - Cobweb and Clarice investigate an asteroid which is passing by Earth on its way to burning up in the sun.  Cobweb has visions of an ancient and beautiful lost civilization. 
• "Eurydice: A Retrospective" - A battered woman who can't resist dating gangsters finally makes a move to escape the cycle of her life.  She steals a suitcase full of money and hides out in the underground waterways of Indigo City.  Will Cobweb get to her before her boyfriend's mobster goons do?
• "Li'l Cobweb" - A young Cobweb and Clarice try to solve the mystery of the missing Officer Henderson.  What happens when he turns up in a housewife's bedroom?
• "La Toile dans le Chateau des Larmes" - The first Cobweb story based on La Toile, Mistress of Villainy and her final adventure to the underworld.  
• "Shackled in Silk!" - Cobweb and Clarice take on the Money Spider!  

Cobweb and Clarice embark on a caper

The First American and his young teen partner U.S. Angel are genetically-engineered bastions of truth, justice, and the American way.  It's not easy keeping the moral high ground when you represent a government full of liars and your partner is an underage girl wearing a skintight outfit!

• "Dumbsday!" - F.A. and his partner hear about a terrible daytime talk show hosted by Jury Swinger.  It's a clear perversion of decent societal norms and they go to investigate.  Unfortunately they become the topic for the day and F.A. gets lampooned for having an underage sidekick.  What is Jury's diabolical secret and how will the American public react?  
• "The Curse of the Reverse!" - F.A. and U.S.Angel battle Dozier D. Daze and his Nostalgitator which can reverse time.  The nefarious villain wants to bring us all back to a simpler time and hates the modern era.  Can the patriotic duo fight through the fads of various decades to stop him?
• "The Peril of the Pediatric Perpetrators" - Criminals keep getting younger and F.A. goes undercover in a preschool to bring them to justice.  Can he make it as a toddler gangster?
• "The Bitter Crumbs of Defeat!?!" - F.A. and U.S.Angel get put on trial by Mortal Ken for their shameless product endorsements over the years.  It's a mockery of truth and justice as F.A. pleads the Fifth!
• "A Christmas Cop-Out" - F.A. fires U.S.Angel on Christmas eve and gets visited by the "Ghost of Comic Books Past".  They take him on a journey to show how lame comic books have been over the years.  
• "Lo! There Shall Come a Closeness and Commitment!" - F.A. attempts to find love, but is too insanely dysfunctional.  His true love is U.S.Angel, but she wants nothing to do with him!  

The First American defends himself (unsuccessfully) in court

Splash Brannigan is a the Leak of the Week, Hot Blot, and Main Stain!  He battles crime as a living puddle of ink with a major weakness for a pretty face.

• "The Return of the Remarkable Rivulet!" - Miss Screensaver gets a job as an illustrator at Kaput Comics, where the legendary hack Mort Gort used to work.  Five minutes on the job and she already has to crank out an entire comic issue by lunchtime!  In a panic she opens an old bottle of ink and out comes Splash Brannigan!  He's a perverted hero from the past who was sealed away.  Learn the fascinating (or completely boring) origin of the Pigment of the Imagination!

The debut of Splash Brannigan

Pros: Moore co-creates and scripts every story, some interesting characters based on older works, some fun science fiction and crime noir stories, goofy satire of the superhero genre, won an Eisner Award in 2000 for "Best Anthology Series"

Cons: Strikingly different art styles and characters are a bit jarring to the reader, anthology format, most of the stories are hit-or-miss

Mike Tells It Straight: Moore writes an anthology book featuring a smattering of heroes who pay homage to a range of different comic eras.  Jack B. Quick is a homage to the old science fiction pulp stories of the '50s and '60s.  Greyshirt is an obvious homage to Will Eisner's The Spirit.  Cobweb is a homage to the golden age Phantom Lady and William Marston's Wonder Woman.  Splash Brannigan apes the tone of old Plastic Man adventures.  The First American is a satire piece on comics and society.

The series garnered enough praise to earn an Eisner award and several of the short stories over the six issues presented in this collection were quite good.  I liked almost all of the Greyshirt stories, the buttered-cat Jack B. Quick story was hilarious, Cobweb contained subtle eroticism and reminded me of Moore and Gebbie's Lost Girls, and First American was fairly amusing in small doses.  Some of the Cobweb stories were a bit too experimental, F.A. was a overtly corny, and a few Jack B. Quick stories were lukewarm.

Overall a solid set of short stories by Moore in this anthology.  Some highs and lows for sure, but fairly entertaining.  A nice range of crime noir to science fiction to comedic satire.  I'm planning to check out the next (and final) volume as I wind my way through the ABC line this year.  Stay tuned!

TO BUY and Recommendations:

Superior Hardcover Review

Superior
Marvel Comics - Icon
192 pages
$24.99 (2012) Hardcover
$19.99 (2013) Trade Paperback
ISBN 9780785136187

Contributors: Mark Millar, Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Jeff Huet, Muasond, Sunny Gho, Dave McCaig, Javier Tartaglia, and Clayton Cowles

Reprints: Superior #1-7 (of 7)

Synopsis: Simon Pooni was a popular middle school student and star of the basketball team.  Then he developed multiple sclerosis and the debilitating genetic disease made him a prisoner in his own body.  Escapism through works of popular fiction became his only reprieve from the frustrating depression of real life.  All of his friends slowly disappeared from his life - it's too hard to be friends with a cripple who cries all the time after all.  Chris was Simon's only remaining, true friend who would spend time with him each week watching whatever action flick was out in theaters.

One of his favorite movie characters is Superior, played by actor Tad Scott.  Larger than life and ready to fight the good fight, it's Superior!  Four sequels later and Superior's box office proceeds are starting to dwindle along with poor Tad's career.  He's in a pinch to get any acting work, but no one wants to hire the typecast actor.  Not many fans with Simon's dedication are left out there.

An unexpected wake up call

Simon's life takes a bizarre turn as a tiny monkey in a space suit (named Ormon) appears in his bedroom one night and transforms him into Superior.  How is he going to explain this to his Mom?  Now Simon must deal with his transformation into Superior after being cooped up in a wheelchair.  Fortunately he's got his best friend Chris to help him figure out how to work all of the powers.

That's not your daddy's Superman!  

Why did Ormon give him powers in the first place?  Will Superior's rogue's gallery start coming to life next? Suddenly Tad Scott is under the scrutiny of the world media.  How did a movie character start performing miracles?  Becoming your greatest hero was never this tough, but Simon is blessed or cursed with amazing power.  Can he stay true to the high morals of Superior or will power corrupt him in the face of real life problems?

Pros: Excellent artwork by Leinil Yu, good concept riffed from Superman/Captain Marvel (aka Shazam!), typically solid writing by Millar, includes multiple sclerosis and kids with health issues, monkey space astronaut, swearing

That's an understatement

Cons: Very obvious riff on Superman/Captain Marvel (aka Shazam!), plot is fairly simple with only one interesting twist, low replay value, a kid nicknamed 'Sharpie?'

Mike Tells It Straight: Mark Millar continues his creator-owned mini-series projects after the wildly successful Wanted and Kick-Ass.  This time he performs a story mash-up of Superman, Captain Marvel (Shazam!), and the movie Big.  He gives a regular kid the power of a superhero and explores what happens.  It's a mildly interesting experiment, but a lot of folks (myself included) will notice nothing really new to the comic book medium is happening here.  It's just a riff on Superman/Shazam! with a few tweaks to the story.

I find it really interesting when people complain that all comic book or fiction writing today is a recycling of past concepts.  All ideas have come before and writers just riff on the concepts without any real talent.  We've all heard the argument from friends or on forums.  It's a valid argument.  I've read interviews with Alan Moore saying the same thing.  Then he goes and does The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where he riffs on a bunch of Victorian fiction writers' characters who are no longer under copyright.

The damsel in distress

What's interesting to me is the fact the music industry is exactly the same way.  We've got countless artists taking other people's music (sampling and/or remixing) and putting their own spin on it.  We don't complain as much when a good song comes out of this conceptual thievery.  We bop along to it and the artists makes money (so does the estate of the living/dead original artist).  It's the same thing with comic books, particularly company-owned characters.  Creators can only riff on the characters because the company is too preoccupied with maintaining the viability of their creative asset.

I like the fact Millar has done a spin on Superman/Shazam! and made an entertaining story out of it.  The story didn't feel like an original concept, but it was amusing and had a few different things to say.  I don't think it has much replay value, but Millar has a major fast track to Hollywood these days and he's a smart cookie.  Maybe we'll see another one of his creations green lit for production.  I don't think it will be Superior, but keep trying Millar - let's see what else ya got!

TO BUY and Recommendations:

Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom Trade Paperback Review

Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom
DC Comics - America's Best Comics
144 pages
$17.99 (2011) Trade Paperback
ISBN 9781401231743

Contributors: Peter Hogan, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Jonny Rench, Darlene Royer, Carrie Strachan, and Todd Klein

Reprints: Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom #1-6 (of 6)

Synopsis: Tom Strong is the science-hero champion of Millennium City and has been for the past 100 years.  His life is filled with constant daring adventures, but on the eve of his daughter's wedding he is faced with the most dangerous challenge of his entire career!  Tesla is about to marry her love, the enigmatic Val Var Garm, prince of a race of subterranean lava men called "Salamanders" when a chronal vortex dissolves the happy present and replaces it with a nightmare.

Only Tom remains unchanged in a world where the Nazis conquered all during World War II and carried out their plan of ethnic cleansing.  Their leader is none other than Albrecht Weiss (formerly Strong), the illegitimate son of Tom Strong and Ingrid Weiss, former Nazi superwoman.  Albrecht was thoroughly indoctrinated with Nazi beliefs and possesses all of Tom Strong's abilities - super-strength and genius intellect.

The new, fascist Millennium City

Albrecht travelled back in time to exploit one of his father's rare failures and winds up rewriting history.  Who are the mysterious robots that made this victory possible?  Can Tom Strong prevail against impossible odds and what strange allies is he forced to engage?  Will the devastating loss of his family cause even Tom Strong to harm or kill his own son?

Pros: Clean art by Tom Strong co-creator Chris Sprouse, Peter Hogan's writing nails the feel of the characters created by Alan Moore, some good old-fashioned action, complicated time travel story

Cons: Bit too complicated with all the time travel (what time travel story isn't though?), Salamanders' link to the robots was a bit convenient, doesn't give any recap for new readers on Tom Strong or supporting cast (i.e. not a jumping on point for new readers)

Mike Tells It Straight: Alan Moore created Tom Strong back in 1999 as the front-man to his comics line America's Best Comics.  His idea was to create characters based on pre-Superman and Batman archetypes. Old pulp comics and science heroes were the basis for his new universe.  Gone were the typical superhero angst, secret identities, and eventual grim deconstruction of the modern day.  Tom Strong was all about action and excitement with trips to parallel worlds, alternate timelines, and secret underground caverns.

The original series was published from 1999-2006 when it ended along with the entire America's Best Comics line.  A spinoff title called Tom Strong's Terrific Tales featuring short stories ran from 2002-2005, ending before the main title wrapped up.  Fast forward to 2010 and we get Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom.  Nowhere to be found is original co-creator/writer Alan Moore, but instead Peter Hogan (who worked on the original series) writes and original co-creator/artist Chris Sprouse draws.

Albrecht meets a 'robot of doom'

I believe this mini-series was an attempt to revive the America's Best Comics line and Tom Strong in particular (last page of the final issue says Tom Strong and family will return next year).  It apparently didn't work as Tom Strong and family did not return in 2011.  My thought is Alan Moore has said his piece on Tom Strong and left the door open for others to tell tales.  He was highly collaborative throughout the publication of the first two series and a laundry list of top creators were involved.

This book fits perfectly with the previous volumes of the original two series (including Terrific Tales).  It's definitely not a jumping on point for new readers which may have worked against it during publication.  I enjoyed coming back to Tom Strong's world and thought this tale was a great progression to the character's supporting cast (with Tesla's wedding).  The story got a little convoluted and perhaps wasn't the best for the character, but it's a solid entry.

I just don't think the pamphlet format of comics will sustain further monthly tales and maybe not even a new mini-series.  Maybe we'll see Tom Strong again someday, but this review is the final entry as of 2013 for the character.  Check the complete list of reviews for more Tom Strong and don't forget to see Alan Moore's America's Best Comics for the collected one-shots.  


TO BUY and Recommendations: