History ComicBook / TomStrong

* CuckooNest: Almost a pastiche of Alan Moore's darker works.

%%* GodsHandsAreTied: Quetzalcoatl-9 again.

* ParentalSexualitySquick: Isue 26 has Tesla express disgust at realizing her parents are having sex as they return to Earth.

* SleepsInTheNude: Tom and Dhalua are shown to do this.

* AlternateTimeline: Issues 20-22 had an arc where Tom Strong came across an alternate timeline where Sinclair Strong was killed before he could marry Susan, leading to the latter marrying a black servant and through him having a child named Tom Stone, who ends up convincing most of the timeline's counterparts to Tom Strong's rogues gallery to reform.

* EvilUncle: [[spoiler:Tom Strong's enemy Paul Saveen is eventually revealed to be Tom's half-brother, which makes Tesla is niece and means he had been targeting her the times he battled the Strong family.]]

%%* BluntMetaphorsTrauma: Svetlana.

* GreyGoo: Temple Baldry, the Modular Man, is a mind uploaded robot drones that self-replicate from available materials, though due to their size it's more like a "grey bricks" scenario. Tom convinces him to move to Venus, where he [GeniusLoci essentially becomes the planet]]. In an alternate timeline, a reformed Saveen upgraded the modules to about lego-size.

* TheGwenStacy: Tom's first love, Greta Gabriel, long thought killed by Doc Permafrost.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Ingrid Weiss is not unattractive at all, in fact Tom even admits she's beautiful. However, she's fully embraced in Nazism and shows a desire to destroy everything Tom stands for. The fact that Tom is married and she is always saying racist things about his wife further makes her unappealing. [[spoiler:Having stolen his semen via medical methods or possible rape was the nail in the coffin for seducing him]].

** The closest to a runner up would be Ingrid Weiss, a Nazi superwoman [[AbhorrentAdmirer with an unhealthy desire to make Tom her lover]]. Despite not being as active a threat as Saveen [[spoiler:as he died years before she met his imposter]], she manages to earn Tom's eternal hate. The fact that she hits on him, a married man, and makes constant racist comments about his wife only makes seduction more unlikely. The revelation she [[spoiler:had his son behind his back after more than likely raping his unconscious body to collect samples, as well as indoctrinating said son to oppose all he believes in,]] not only cemented her as someone he will forever hate, but also made her something of an arch-enemy to Dhalua.

* BadassNormal: Tom's clearly superhuman, being able to snap steel chains as a twelve year old (granted, since he was raised in the high-gravity chamber, this is likely the result of his Heavyworlder physiology and therefore any human who was raised since infancy in such an environment would show similar capabilities). Dhalua and Tesla meanwhile, extended lifespan aside, seem to posses nothing more than the abilities of two extremely athletic and intelligent women. This is emphasized when it is noted that during a year-long period in the 60's where Tom was journeying through space, Dhalua was the sole protector of Millenium City and more than managed to hold the fort down.
* TheBaroness: Ingrid Weiss is a {{deconstruction}}; she's an attractive Nazi who struts around in black leather with girls as her soldiers, but she's obsessed with the Aryan ideal, keeps insulting Tom's (black) wife, and refuses to stop hitting on him, referring to his genetics. [[spoiler:It's all but stated that she ''raped'' him to get at his precious bodily fluids and create Albrecht. Whether it was sex, medical extraction, or the same way its done with farm animals is thankfully not specified, but Strong's reaction is that of pure horror.]]

* BlackSheep: [[spoiler:Albrecht Strong, who was conceived by his mother's rape of an unconscious Tom. He was raised to be a cruel Nazi, and represents the Aryan ideal. Just don't call him a "black sheep"; He would die before anyone lumped him in with that "schwarze" family of Tom's. He specifically calls himself the family's "white sheep", instead.]]
* BluntMetaphorsTrauma: Svetlana.

* TheChiefsDaughter: Dahlua, originally, although the more racist implications of the trope are avoided since she grew up with him and is pretty badass in her own right.
* CivvieSpandex: Tom's outfit basically consists of pants, boots, a toolbelt, gloves, goggles, and a red shirt with white triangle on it.

* FakeBetterAlternateTimeline: The 3-part story in issues #20-22 presents an alternate timeline where the boat trip that brought Tom's parents, Sinclair and Susan Strong, to Attabar Teru, which resulted in the death of their hired sailor, Tomas, instead causes the death of Sinclair. With him gone, Susan and Tomas grow closer and get taken in by the Ozu tribe. Unlike Tom Strong, who lived in a special pressurized chamber and didn't touch his parents until they died, the child produced by Susan and Tomas' relationship, Tom Stone, had a normal childhood and ran around freely. Because of this, Susan and Tomas aren't on the volcano when it erupts, saving their lives instead of killing them like Sinclair and Susan were in the main timeline. When Tom Stone goes to Millenium City, he meets Paul Saveen and convinces him to use his scientific genius [[CutLexLuthorACheck for legitimate purposes instead of crime]]. With [[BrainsAndBrawn Tom's physical prowess and Saveen's genius]], they form a crimefighting duo that not only keeps the world safe and forms alliances with other superhero teams from the [[Creator/AmericasBestComics the ABC line]], but helps Tom Strong's villains either reform or never turn villainous in the first place. However, [[spoiler:this falls apart when Saveen becomes the one of them to marry Dhalua after meeting her on Attabar Teru. She and Tom (who is also married), unable to resist each other, begin a romantic affair. Meanwhile, Saveen is rattled when he learns that his counterpart on the cartoon alternate Earth is a villain to that world's Tom equivalent. When the affair between Tom and Dhalua is exposed, the heroes of the timeline turn on them fast, resulting in deaths and this other timeline collapsing in a civil war between Tom and Dhalua and their former allies]].

* HappilyMarried: On the surface, Tom and Dhaula have a blissful, perfect marriage. Under the surface, they have ... a blissful, perfect marriage.

* MartyStu: Tom was, in-universe, ''born and raised'' to be this to most people, and thus has most of the attributes. A common theme, though, is stories exploiting his limitations and failures, specifically his inability to reform many of his villains. [[spoiler:It’s implied that his rather cold upbringing by his father gave him poor emotional intelligence; that’s not to say he’s not a compassionate man, and his love for his family shows that he’s not devoid of emotion, but he’s stoic and blunt, thus making it hard to connect with other people on an emotional level. This is made all the more clear with Tom Stone, who was lovingly raised by Susan and Thomas, was noted to be far more personable and emotional than Strong, which helped create a friendship with Saveen and reform the other villains.]]
** Also examined with Tom Stone, his AlternateUniverse equivalent. Tom Stone is perhaps even more of a MartyStu in that as well as Tom's strengths, he is also tremendously successful in reforming his enemies. However, Stone has his feet of clay and the entire {{Utopia}} he's worked for ends up crashing down into rubble. He's also not nearly as strong or scientifically minded as "our" Tom, due to his dramatically different upbringing.

* PowerUpFood: The goloka root is a plant that, when ingested in any form, extends a person's lifespan dramatically and increases their physical ability. Tom pretty much grew up on the stuff.

* SuperSerum: Goloka root

* ThatsNoMoon: The Pangaean, and the Modular Man.
* TranquilFury: The most terrifying thing about Dhaula Strong's confrontation with Ingrid Weiss is not the fact that Dhaula is wearing atomic-powered brass knuckles, or that she brutally beats Weiss to a bloody pulp in front of her own son. The most terrifying thing is that Dhaula does not raise her voice, change her calm tone or display anything more than what would seem to be mild irritation throughout. And yet she makes it clear in no uncertain terms exactly how ''very very angry'' she is.

%%* ActionGirl: Tesla Strong
%%* ActionMom: Dhalua Strong.

%%* MamaBear: Dhalua Strong.

* AlienGeometries: ''Terrific Tales'' #2 sees Strong and Svetlana X find a Russian space station that has become crystal-filled and BiggerOnTheInside with multiple centers of gravity. [[spoiler: The whole thing was caused by a chance encounter with a higher-dimensional cosmic particle.]]

* AntagonisticOffspring: Tom has one, but it's not his fault. [[spoiler: Ingrid Weiss took semen from an unconscious Tom and used it to create Albrecht, whom she raised to be a Nazi and would-be world conqueror. Needless to say, Tom and his "son" Albrecht don't get along. In fact, Tom didn't even know Albrecht existed until the boy had matured.]]

* CurbStompBattle: Several. A recurring theme in the comic is that intelligence triumphs over violence and oppression, and when fights do occur, they tend to go poorly for the villain. [[spoiler: Subverted when Tom points this out to Modular Man, who quickly agrees and decides to compromise.]]

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: [[spoiler: Albrecht]] has already been indoctrinated by Ingrid into Nazism, and assaults Tom for daring to talk ill of her.

* FunnyAnimal: An entire universe of them, called "[[WorldOfFunnyAnimals Funnyworld]]", which is home to anthropomorphic rabbits Warren and Patience Strong, their daughters Topsy, Turvy, Delilah ([[spoiler: Fluffytail, actually]]), and Warren's archenemy, Basil Saveen (a fox). The majority of Warren's adventures usually consist of Basil trying to kidnap Patience or their daughters, and then eat them.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: The Tom Stone story arc dealt with Tom being visited by a parallel counterpart of his mother, who explains that, in her world, she had a child with Tomas Stone after her husband died in the shipwreck. [[spoiler: Because she went back in time and made sure it would happen. Things seem to go well at first, with numerous villains going through HeelFaceTurn syndrome, this version of Tom marrying Greta Gabriel and a good Paul Saveen marrying Dhalua. Then Tom and Dhalua have an affair and everything goes straight to hell.]]

* HatedByAll: Ingrid Weiss is hated by the Strong family and their allies, not just for being a Nazi [[spoiler: but also for raping an unconscious Tom and having a son behind his back]]. While being a loving mother would be a redeeming quality, she has raised her son to be as loyal to Nazism as she is.

* LukeYouAreMyFather: [[spoiler: The appearance of Tom's evil neo-Nazi son Albrecht, created when Ingrid Weiss stole Tom's sperm and impregnated herself in 1945.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: More like Redemption ''After'' Death, but Paul Saveen's spirit meets with Tom in the final issue and Saveen -- having gained a full perspective on his life after his death, and having come to terms with the reasons behind his bitterness -- expresses genuine regret to Tom for his villainous actions. The two consequently come to terms with each other.]]

* ScienceHero: Tom, but nearly everyone in the cast as well.
** [[spoiler: Tom managed to defeat an {{Expy}} of [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric]] using only his wits and the power of SCIENCE!.]]

** The "Tom Strong Family" in #13 comprise Tom, his younger self, Tesla, Warren Strong from the FunnyAnimal universe, and a mysterious white-bearded Time-Keeper [[spoiler: implied to be his future self]], counterparts to Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr, Mary Marvel, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny and the wizard Comicbook/{{Shazam}}. [[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/6/63/Tom_Strong_Vol_1_13.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/328?cb=20101231133601 The cover]] is even based on ''[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Marvel_Family_1_1945.jpg Marvel Family]]'' #1.

* StupidJetpackHitler: Ingrid Weiss had fearsome technology of her own, and [[spoiler: she teamed up with evil genius Paul Saveen.]]

* TheUnseen: Paul Saveen is introduced as this, until he appears late in the opening storyline. [[spoiler: Except the appearance is itself a clue that it's not him, but a disguise artist. It's not until much later in the series that Saveen's face is shown.]]

* VillainExitStageLeft: Virtually Saveen's trademark, to the point that nobody believes he's dead even when they find a body. [[spoiler: And it's his. He really was dead after all.]]

* AWizardDidIt: Invoked almost at gunpoint in issue 9, with Kid Tilt's ability to, well, tilt the world. "They are ''magic'' boots." [[spoiler: Although since this turned out to be a tall tale Tesla was spinning to try and fob her parents off about the messy aftermath of a party she threw in their absence...]]
* WomensMysteries: ''Terrific Tales'' #5. Tom witnesses them. [[spoiler: He gets caught. They make him dress in drag until the end of the month.]]

** Dhalua is a reconstruction. She's what happens when the JunglePrincess moves to the post-industrial world to settle down with the hero...''[[ActionMom without losing her cred]]''.

* LukeYouAreMyFather: The appearance of Tom's evil neo-Nazi son Albrecht, created when Ingrid Weiss stole Tom's sperm and impregnated herself in 1945.

* AlternateTimeline: The 3-part story in issues #20-22 features one where the boat trip that brought Sinclair and Susan Strong to Attabar Teru, which resulted in the death of their hired sailor, Tomas, instead causes the death of Sinclair. With him gone, Susan and Tomas grow closer and get taken in by the Ozu tribe. Unlike Tom Strong, who lived in a special pressurized chamber and didn't touch his parents until they died, the child produced by Susan and Tomas' relationship, Tom Stone, had a normal childhood and ran around freely. Because of this, Susan and Tomas aren't on the volcano when it erupts, saving their lives instead of killing them like Sinclair and Susan were in the main timeline. When Tom Stone goes to Millenium City, he meets Paul Saveen and convinces him to use his scientific genius [[CutLexLuthorACheck for legitimate purposes instead of crime]]. With [[BrainsAndBrawn Tom's physical prowess and Saveen's genius]], they form a crimefighting duo that not only keeps the world safe and forms alliances with other superhero teams from the [[Creator/AmericasBestComics the ABC line]], but helps Tom Strong's villains either reform or never turn villainous in the first place. However, [[spoiler:this falls apart when Saveen becomes the one of them to marry Dhalua after meeting her on Attabar Teru. She and Tom (who is also married), unable to resist each other, begin a romantic affair, and Saveen is rattled when he goes to Funnyworld (see below) and learns that his counterpart there is a villain to that world's Tom equivalent, who is in a relationship with that world's Dhalua equivalent. When the affair between Tom and Dhalua is exposed, the heroes of the timeline turn on them fast, resulting in deaths and this other timeline collapsing in a civil war between Tom and Dhalua and their former allies]].

* FakeBetterAlternateTimeline: The 3-part story in issues #20-22 presents an alternate timeline where the boat trip that brought Tom's parents, Sinclair and Susan Strong, to Attabar Teru, which resulted in the death of their hired sailor, Tomas, instead causes the death of Sinclair. With him gone, Susan and Tomas grow closer and get taken in by the Ozu tribe. Unlike Tom Strong, who lived in a special pressurized chamber and didn't touch his parents until they died, the child produced by Susan and Tomas' relationship, Tom Stone, had a normal childhood and ran around freely. Because of this, Susan and Tomas aren't on the volcano when it erupts, saving their lives instead of killing them like Sinclair and Susan were in the main timeline. When Tom Stone goes to Millenium City, he meets Paul Saveen, Tom Strong's archenemy in the main timeline, and convinces him to use his scientific genius [[CutLexLuthorACheck for legitimate purposes instead of crime]]. With [[BrainsAndBrawn Tom's physical prowess and Saveen's genius]], they form a crimefighting duo that not only keeps the world safe and forms alliances with other superhero teams from the [[Creator/AmericasBestComics the ABC line]], but helps Tom Strong's villains either reform or never turn villainous in the first place. However, [[spoiler:this falls apart when Saveen becomes the one of them to marry Tom Strong's wife Dhalua after meeting her on Attabar Teru. She and Tom (who is also married), unable to resist each other, begin a romantic affair, and Saveen is rattled when he learns that his counterpart on the cartoon alternate Earth is a villain to that world's Tom equivalent. When the affair between Tom and Dhalua is exposed, the heroes of the timeline turn on them fast, resulting in deaths and this other timeline collapsing in a civil war between Tom and Dhalua and their former allies]].

* TheRedBaron: One of Tom's enemies, Doc Permafrost, was apparently nicknamed 'the Pharaoh of Fahrenheit' by the papers.