That's sort of what I switched back to.

God,you're a fucking nerd.

I felt that until just last week. It's why I didn't bother with Robots of Doom until Sprouse's art pulled me in.

Now I think he's such a perfect archetype that any writer worth anything should be able to do something good with him. Rather than a self-contained statement on the limitations and illogical inconsistencies of the superhero genre, Tom's world is wide open for anyone with half an imagination to work their magic in.

And unlike Watchmen, Hogan and Sprouse actually have Alan's blessing to continue the series and do new work with him. Not that it should matter to anyone -- but it's funny how the properties really are opposites in many ways.

Let's face it -- Tom Strong is everything Batman should be but isn't. He's all about scoring poon.

SO IS BATMAN! Ask everyone.

He'd rather go back home and hang our with the old guy and the kid.

How much gayer can you get?

Man, you're stretching it. They are part of a long line of totally heterosexual male relationships like Frodo/Sam and Moon Knight/Frenchie.

Kidding aside, I do feel that Tom Strong is closer to a version of Batman I can like and appreciate more than what DC's currently doing with the character.

I like the idea of a well-adjusted super-genius/athlete going on all kinds of exotic and colorful adventures rather than the grouchy asshole beating up muggers and telling anyone who will listen "this is MY city".

Of course it is, Bruce. *pats Batman on head*

Are we letting the kidding aside? Because I thought the one above was pretty good.

Anyways, the Doc Savage type of character bores me to tears, so that's a really big hurdle for me to overcome. Having Alan Moore write it is one way to do it. Morrison or Ellis would serve as well. But Brubaker and Johns aren't quite enough for me.

The kidding will never go to the wayside. It was just for the one post.

I like Tom Strong but always feel like I should love it more. I think a problem for me was when someone besides Sprouse would do the art. And many of the backup stories were too artsy and not as enjoyable..

I really like Tom Strong, but disagree about the comics by other writers. There were a couple of exceptions. Peter Hogan's fill-ins were good (it helped that Chris Sprouse drew his). His two issues about the freeze-villain and Greta Gabriel were awesome.

I liked the first few of that long ten-issue stretch of fill-ins. I think one was by Geoff Johns (Tom Strong's pal, William Willoughby, or something like that?), and then there was one by Mark Schultz and Pascal Ferry (I believe), about airplanes and air gods, and it was great.

After that, they started to lose me. Hated Brubaker's two-parter, hated the pirate story by Moorcock. Brian K Vaughan wrote one that I didn't like. Steve Moore wrote one that I didn't like.

And even though they brought Hogan and Sprouse back for "Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom," I thought that series was terrible. Like you said, Hanzo, one of the great things about Tom Strong's format is that they were almost always single issues. Sometimes a single issue even had three complete eight-page stories, a la the Silver Age. They only rarely did two or three-part stories. And right at the start they did a four-part story, but it was packed.

But SIX issues all devoted to one very simple story? They decompressed Tom Strong? Really? Bah. (It didn't stop me from ripping off the title for my own opera, though ...)

I read Hex #18, as I'm reading Jonah Hex chronologically right now. That whole Hex series is a head scratcher; take an established Western hero and throw him into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The last issue of Jonah Hex ended with Jonah vanishing in front of his friends and enemies, and the first issue of Hex, which came out the next month, picked up right after that. It was actually kind of a fun, imaginative series, with nice art, until the last 4-5 issues, when Keith Giffen took over and apparently hadn't learned how to draw yet. #18 was the final issue, and Jonah was sitting happily staring at his own stuffed and mounted corpse, because he knew that its existence meant he would eventually be getting back to his own time.

Jonah's demise and the subsequent stuffing and mounting of his corpse is a long established story, from the 1970s.

I know, I'm hoping it'll read like "Tom Strong: The Movie". My feeling, based on the titles, is that they're going the Indiana Jones route.

"Tom Strong & the Robots of Doom"

"Tom Strong & the Planet of Peril" (next mini, in case you didn't know)

I have concerns that I won't enjoy Robots, but I'm willing to take the gamble and if nothing else, it got me reading the remaining Tom Strong books, which were quite good. I'd say the only two stories that weren't quite up to snuff (but still enjoyable) were the stories revolving around Pneuman -- but those were both one issues stories.

I'm surprised you didn't like the Brubaker story --

Oh yeah, last week I read the Twelve #12... SPOILERS




Man, what a let-down. JMS spends all this time building this "deal with the devil" for the Black Widow character and then just drops it altogether and has a "happy ending" for her and the Phantom Detective. Her suddenly being interested and in love with him also felt out of left-field and forced.

The series started fairly promising but ultimately felt like an example of JMS tricking you into thinking there was some substance to this thing rather than an exercise in "gritty, realistic" superhero comics. I doubt I'll be buying anymore of his work... I'm sure his Dr. Manhattan will be just as pointless and shallow as this was.

Absolutely. Total fail -- it could not be more obvious (to me) that he started this series with the concept of "The Twelve" and "hey, I'll write twelve issues!" No vision, terrible. Just treaded water a while, and crapped up a rushed ending.

And what was with the weird captions at the end?

Fire and Shadow.

Fire and Shadow.

Fire and Shadow.

Why did that need to be repeated so many times? It's sounds lame anyway.

Me too. I've only read the #1 reprint and liked it.

Fuck JMS. There, I said it.

Shoot, I assumed you'd already read "Robots of Doom." Glad I didn't spoil anything. Let us know what you think once you've read it.

Hey, did one of those trades have the "Many Lives of Tesla" one-shot written by Peter Hogan? I thought that thing was pure gold. Some really, really clever bits in there. If you can find that, YOU SHOULD READ IT. (Truly, I think part of why "Robots of Doom" disappointed me is because everything else by Hogan made me think he was a really perfect heir to Moore on that title. He had the character voices down, and clearly Sprouse seems to enjoy working with him, so ... bam! But then ... DOOM.)

The Brubaker story ...

Hanzo, have you read the other ABC books? And on a related note, how did the final Tom Strong read to you? That issue is kind of a capstone to all the ABC titles, not just Tom. If you were following the whole line, that last issue was really gratifying.

Also, there is more Moore-written Tom Strong in "Terrific Tales." Have you read those?