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* GenreSavvy: Eldon Morovia. Not that it helps him much in the end ....
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* PunnyName: Pneuman.
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* PunnyName: Pneuman. Also Fortnum Funt and Mason Funt.
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New explanation.
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* LetsYouAndHimFight: Between Tom and his alternate world version, Warren.
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* LetsYouAndHimFight: Between Tom and his alternate world version, Warren.The Strongs' standard way of meeting new heroes, if they are not introduced.
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* InWhichATropeIsDescribed
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* InWhichATropeIsDescribedInWhichATropeIsDescribed: "CHAPTER ONE: In which an Origin is Revealed, an Aerial Crime is Attempted, and TOM gains a New Fan."
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* LetsYouAndHimFight: Between Tom and his alternate world version, Warren.
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As noted elsewhere on the page, Tom is a heavyworlder with blatant superstrength. He is also shown to be unusually resillient to damage, and is explicitly noted to be able to make leaps that would be impossible for a normal human. Master of Your Domain is far from his only superpower.
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* MasterOfYourDomain: Basically Tom's only superpower. He can "splitscreen [his] lower consciousness" to process data more efficiently, or count his pulse to time something with the accuracy of a stopwatch.
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* MasterOfYourDomain: Basically Tom's only superpower. He Tom can "splitscreen [his] lower consciousness" to process data more efficiently, or count his pulse to time something with the accuracy of a stopwatch.
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* YouNoTakeCandle: Val Var Garm. To be fair, he didn't speak any English when Tesla met him, and he seems to have learned a ''lot'' in just a few months.
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* YouNoTakeCandle: Val Var Garm. To be fair, he didn't speak any English when Tesla met him, and he seems to have learned a ''lot'' in just a few months.
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* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted. Ingrid Weiss's rape on Tom is treated completely seriously and utterly reprehensible.
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* MasterOfYourDomain: Basically Tom's only superpower. He can "splitscreen [his] lower consciousness" to process data more efficiently, or count his pulse to time something with the accuracy of a stopwatch.
---> '''Tom:''' The burns and bruises I sustained earlier begin to hurt. I visualize the pale blue triangle that triggers my endorphin system, limiting the pain.
---> '''Tom:''' The burns and bruises I sustained earlier begin to hurt. I visualize the pale blue triangle that triggers my endorphin system, limiting the pain.
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* WackyRacing: ''Terrific Tales'' #8 opens with a Saturday morning cartoon about Tom, with this as the premise: Saveen (and his Muttley-like dog Malice) lure Tom, Solomon, and Tesla to an abandoned race track for an annual ghost race.
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* WackyRacing: ''Terrific Tales'' #8 opens with a Saturday morning cartoon about Tom, with this as the premise: Saveen (and his Muttley-like dog Malice) Scrappy) lure Tom, Solomon, and Tesla to an abandoned race track for an annual ghost race.
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* WackyRacing: ''Terrific Tales'' #8 opens with a Saturday morning cartoon about Tom, with this as the premise: Saveen (and his Muttley-like dog Malice) lure Tom, Solomon, and Tesla to an abandoned race track for an annual ghost race.
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** There's a different alternate universe due to the slight variable of Sinclair Strong dying in the shipwreck instead of Tomas, Tom ''Stone'' reforms Paul Saveen and Ingrid Weiss, and the Pangean, the Modular Man, and Doc Permafrost never become villains in the first place.
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** There's a different alternate universe due to the slight variable of Sinclair Strong dying in the shipwreck instead of Tomas, Tom ''Stone'' reforms Paul Saveen and Ingrid Weiss, and the Pangean, Pangean and the Modular Man, and Doc Permafrost Man never become villains in the first place.
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** 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.
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** 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.
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* PorkyPigPronunciation: Pneuman's speech is constantly interrupted by popping, hissing, and clicking noises, sometimes several times before he can finish a sentence.
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* CutLexLuthorACheck: In the alternate world of Tom Stone, Tom convinces Saveen to join him as a force for good. Saveen wanted to use his discovery of phlogisten to ransom the city for thousands of dollars, until Tom pointed out that he could sell it as a cheap heating source and make ''millions''.
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* YouNoTakeCandle: Val Var Garm. To be fair, he didn't speak any English when Tesla met him, and he seems to have learned a ''lot'' in just a few months.
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* 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.]
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* 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.]]]
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** The funny aspect turns into {{Squick}} when it's revealed that world was really one where human sexuality isn't so constrained, to the point that the alternate version of Tom theorized that people in Tesla's world where clothes as some kind of ingrained sexual impulse. Alternate Dhalua's statement that "some of Tammy's boyfriends are dropping by to use the hot tub" is what really sells the squicky aspect.
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** The funny aspect turns into {{Squick}} when it's revealed that world was really one where human sexuality isn't so constrained, to the point that the alternate version of Tom theorized that people in Tesla's world where wear clothes as some kind of ingrained sexual impulse. Alternate Dhalua's statement that "some of Tammy's boyfriends are dropping by to use the hot tub" is what really sells the squicky aspect.
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** The funny aspect turns into {{Squick}} when it's revealed that world was really one where human sexuality isn't as constrained as it is normally, but alternate Dhalua's statement that "some of Tammy's boyfriends are dropping by to use the hot tub".
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** The funny aspect turns into {{Squick}} when it's revealed that world was really one where human sexuality isn't as constrained as it is normally, but so constrained, to the point that the alternate version of Tom theorized that people in Tesla's world where clothes as some kind of ingrained sexual impulse. Alternate Dhalua's statement that "some of Tammy's boyfriends are dropping by to use the hot tub".tub" is what really sells the squicky aspect.
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* HappilyMarried: On the surface, Tom and Dhaula have a blissful, perfect marriage. Under the surface, they have ... a blissful, perfect marriage.
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* 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.]
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* 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.
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* 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.]]
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aversions are too common to really be notable
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* RapeIsOkWhenItIsFemaleOnMale: Averted. It is made quite clear that it is not, and indeed a heinous MoralEventHorizon. [[spoiler:Raising the resultant child as a Nazi ''just to fuck with the guy'' also passes the event horizon.]]
** This happened ''twice''. Tom Strong's other child is Queen of the Bat People of the Moon.
** This happened ''twice''. Tom Strong's other child is Queen of the Bat People of the Moon.
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* EvilTwin: An entire EvilTwin alternate universe, as per "[[StarTrek Mirror, Mirror]]"—in which Tom Strong's counterpart is a bad guy, [[CainAndAbel Paul Saveen's]] is heroic, and [[ThoseWackyNazis National Socialism]] ''saved'' lives—appears in "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong."
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* EvilTwin: An entire EvilTwin alternate universe, as per "[[StarTrek "[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Mirror, Mirror]]"—in which Tom Strong's counterpart is a bad guy, [[CainAndAbel Paul Saveen's]] is heroic, and [[ThoseWackyNazis National Socialism]] ''saved'' lives—appears in "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong."
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misuse as \'awesome\'
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** [[spoiler: [[BeyondTheImpossible Tom managed to defeat an]] {{Expy}} of [[TheElricSaga Elric]] [[BeyondTheImpossible using only his wits and the power of SCIENCE!.]]]]
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** [[spoiler: [[BeyondTheImpossible Tom managed to defeat an]] an {{Expy}} of [[TheElricSaga Elric]] [[BeyondTheImpossible using only his wits and the power of SCIENCE!.]]]]]]
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* [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Did You Just Get Punched Out By The Planet Venus?]]: The Modular Man becomes a one-man type-1 civilization whose fists might cause alien invaders consider taking the long way around to get to Earth.
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As mentioned elsewhere in the artical, Tom\'s father\'s name is Sinclair.
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** Tom's father's name is Artemis Strong, which is also the real name of [[Comicbook/{{Cerebus}} Cerebus's]] faux-hero, The Roach.
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** Her son Albrecht is a literal example: he uses a jetpack.
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Long legs are not tiny.
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* TopHeavyGuy: Tom, and it's {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. (Or alternately, he's got a HeroicBuild, but it's parodied.)
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!!''TomStrong'' Shows Examples Of:
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http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tom_strong.jpg
A {{reconstruction}} ScienceHero Adventure Comic Book series created by AlanMoore, first published in 1999 by the ''America's Best Comics'' imprint. The series lasted for 36 issues (June, 1999-May, 2006).
Tom Strong, the title character, is a classic ScienceHero. He was raised in a high-gravity chamber and given an intensive education by his somewhat eccentric scientist of a father, on the fictional West Indian island of Attabar Teru. His upbringing, plus ingesting a root used by the natives of the island for health and long life, have made him nearly physically and mentally perfect. Though born at the dawn of the 20th century, he only appears to be in his forties as of the year 2000.
Strong has a wife, Dhalua, a native of the island, and a daughter, Tesla, both with enhanced physical and mental abilities and longevity. He resides in a building called the Stronghold in Millennium City. He is also assisted by Pneuman, a steam powered robot, King Solomon, a British gorilla with human characteristics, and the Strongmen of America, an organization of idolizing [[TagalongKid Tagalong Kids]]. His greatest foe was masked "[[{{Supervillain}} science villain]]" Paul Saveen, though he has a wide ranging RoguesGallery.
In general, the TwoFistedTales featuring the characters are pastiches of various genres of comic books and pulp heroes, though very much so with a modern sensibility and new takes on tropes used. The tone ranges from the wacky to the deadly serious, though Tom himself rarely strays far from stoicism. It also serves as a fun counterpoint to the severe deconstruction of pulp sensibilities that was the foundation of Moore's ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''.
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!!''TomStrong'' Shows Examples Of:
* 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...]]
* ActionGirl: Tesla Strong
* ActionMom: Dhalua Strong.
* AlanMoore
* AllJustADream: Issues 29 & 30 had the titular hero awaken from his superheroic life into a gray world with no wonder or adventure where he was just a factory worker with a case of bad self-esteem. Then the clues mount that he really is a superhero - only to discover that he was a failed military experiment and [[CuckooNest all of his memories of a heroic life were delusions]]. [[spoiler:But at the last moment, he breaks out of the hallucination - back into the superheroic world where the BigBad of the story had been forcing him to hallucinate. He said later that he knew the world he had been in wasn't real because it was all gray, with no sense of hope or wonder in it.]]
* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Lampshaded. The hero and villain reminisce about a 1930s adventure and are disturbed that phlogiston was real then...despite having since been disproven as a theory.
* AlienGeometries
* AlternateHistory
* AnimalSuperheroes: There is an alternate dimension filled with funny animal counterparts of the comic's main cast.
* AntagonisticOffspring: Tom's son Albrecht is a Nazi and would-be world conqueror. They don't get along.
* ArtShift
* [[BadassBoast Badass]] [[strike:Boast]] [[BadassBoast Statement]]
---> Ingrid Weiss: [[spoiler:My blood is stronger, purer! It's the ''sang-real''! It is the true blood... ]]
---> Dhalua Strong: [[spoiler:Yes. And it is on your clothes. And on my fists. And on the floor.]]
* BadassNormal: Tom's clearly superhuman, being able to snap steel chains as a twelve year old. Dhalua and Tesla meanwhile, extended lifespan aside, seem to posses nothing more than the abilities of two extremely athletic and intelligent women. This is emphasised 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. Whether it was sex, medical extraction, or the same way its done with farm animal 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.
* BreakTheHaughty: Ingrid Weiss was completely and totally curbstomped by Dhalua Strong, to such a degree that after she slinked away to lick her wounds, Dhalua calmly stated that Ingrid's spirit was broken beyond repair, and that she would never bother the Strong family again. Which she didn't.
* CivvieSpandex: Tom's outfit basically consists of pants, boots, a toolbelt, gloves, goggles, and a red shirt with white triangle on it.
* ComicBooksAreReal: On his second trip to Terra Obscura he shows Tom Strange comic books from his Earth starring the heroes of Terra Obscura.
* ComicBookTime: Averted. The dates of each story are usually given, and explained by a mythical life extending root. Those without access to the root age throughout the century of stories presented.
* CuckooNest: Almost a pastiche of Alan Moore's darker works.
* 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.]]
* EitherOrProphecy: In the story with the interdimensional Aztech Empire, the computer-god Quetzocoatl-9 tells the High Priest that if he invades the world with superhero Tom Strong on it "there will be a great victory". [[spoiler:The victory in question was Tom Strong destroying the hardwired controls that left Quetzocoatl-9 enslaved by his priesthood. Thus the computer-god destroyed the priest and took direct control of his empire.]]
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: King Solomon, a stuffy British ape. Who hates robots.
* EvilTwin: An entire EvilTwin alternate universe, as per "[[StarTrek Mirror, Mirror]]"—in which Tom Strong's counterpart is a bad guy, [[CainAndAbel Paul Saveen's]] is heroic, and [[ThoseWackyNazis National Socialism]] ''saved'' lives—appears in "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong."
** Not only that, but Tiberius "Black Tom" Strong and his daughter Twyla have ''other'' good counterparts in Tom and Tesla Terrific, superheroes from another alternate world that semi-regularly crosses over with their own.
** There's a different alternate universe due to the slight variable of Sinclair Strong dying in the shipwreck instead of Tomas, Tom ''Stone'' reforms Paul Saveen and Ingrid Weiss, and the Pangean, the Modular Man, and Doc Permafrost never become villains in the first place.
* FantasticVoyage
* FunnyAnimal: An entire universe of them, called "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.
* GeniusBruiser
* GodsHandsAreTied: Quetzalcoatl-9 again.
* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Though in this case, it is the ''Aztecs'' who now rule the world.
* TheGwenStacy: Tom's first love, Greta Gabriel, long thought killed by Doc Permafrost
* {{Heavyworlder}}: A key aspect of Tom's upbringing.
* {{Hologram}}: Terra Obscura science hero The Terror. Also a VirtualGhost, thanks to BrainUploading.
* InWhichATropeIsDescribed
* JunglePrincess: Princess Pantha from ''Terra Obscura''.
** A Tesla story had her captured for a JunglePrincess game preserve, where they can be hunted by the rich. Why are they hunted? Because they're valued in some cultures as aphrodisiacs.
** See also Tes of the Tigers, an alternate Tesla from a world overrun by jungle and daughter of Tom of the Tigers, a Tarzan-like version of Tom.
** 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]]''.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Just before Tom leaves Attabar Teru for the first time, Dhalua's dad translates her confession of love to him. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint He says he loves her like a sibling too]], and kisses her on the forehead. After nearly dying during a fight with Saveen[[hottip:*:presumably his life flashed before his eyes]], he says he's going back to the island to take care of something. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The next page is a full-page shot of Tom and Dhalua's wedding.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:In the last issue Tom discovers that his lifelong archenemy Paul Saveen was his half-brother. The two bury the hatchet after Saveen tells him this from beyond the grave.]]
* MamaBear: Dhalua Strong.
* 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.
** 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.
* MostCommonSuperpower: Averted with Dhalua and Tesla, who have breasts proportional to their athletic physique. Played straight with Terra Obscura: while the science heroines of Terra Obscura have relatively 'normal' proportions when we see them in Tom Strong (they are busty but with different levels of voluptuousness), when we see them in the Terra Obscura limited series ALL of them are suddenly sporting E cups.
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: Paul Saveen, on multiple occasions, to the point that Tom is surprised to find a death that sticks for once.
* MythologyGag: In "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong", one of Solomon's counterparts is the Weeping Gorilla, of Weeping Gorilla Comix from ''{{Promethea}}''.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: In the Tesla Strong special, "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong", Tesla comes across a universe where she, her parents and all who inhabit it are nude all the time.
** The funny aspect turns into {{Squick}} when it's revealed that world was really one where human sexuality isn't as constrained as it is normally, but alternate Dhalua's statement that "some of Tammy's boyfriends are dropping by to use the hot tub".
* OffhandBackhand: Dhalua does this to Ingrid Weiss ''twice'' in issue #7 alone.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Though both her parents are pushing 100 by the start of the series, and look maybe 40-ish, it's jarring to realize that Tesla looks and acts like a 20 year old, despite being well into her 60s.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: ''Terrific Tales'' #4. They're not very friendly.
* PostModernism
* PowerUpFood: The goloka root.
* PublicDomainCharacter: Several of the planet ''Terra Obscura'' are Nedor Comics characters from The Golden Age.
* RaisedByNatives
* RapeIsOkWhenItIsFemaleOnMale: Averted. It is made quite clear that it is not, and indeed a heinous MoralEventHorizon. [[spoiler:Raising the resultant child as a Nazi ''just to fuck with the guy'' also passes the event horizon.]]
** This happened ''twice''. Tom Strong's other child is Queen of the Bat People of the Moon.
* {{Reconstruction}}: The series uses pulp comics tropes, but in a slightly more serious fashion than usual. For example, the strong implication that Tom's mother and the family's servant were having an affair.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Averted, to the sudden dismay of a certain recurring villain.
** NB: Said villain was, at the time, attempting a GameBreaker one-man ZergRush by pulling himself into an alternate timestream from about three hundred points in his own time stream. [[VillainousBSOD Then three hundred new memory streams opened up all of a sudden...]]
* [[RobotMaid Robot Butler]]: Pneuman is a {{steampunk}} example.
* ScienceHero: Tom, but nearly everyone in the cast as well.
** [[spoiler: [[BeyondTheImpossible Tom managed to defeat an]] {{Expy}} of [[TheElricSaga Elric]] [[BeyondTheImpossible using only his wits and the power of SCIENCE!.]]]]
* ScienceMarchesOn: Done on purpose. Tom notes that Saveen created phogisten (liquid heat) a few years before scientists proved that it could not exist.
* ShoutOut: The broad outlines of the AllJustADream storyline from issues 29-30 are reminiscent of Moore's work on Miracleman. Tom's version is less [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism dark]], though.
** Tom's father's name is Artemis Strong, which is also the real name of [[Comicbook/{{Cerebus}} Cerebus's]] faux-hero, The Roach.
* SuperSerum: Goloka root
* StupidJetpackHitler: Ingrid Weiss had fearsome technology of her own, and [[spoiler:she teamed up with evil genius Paul Saveen.]]
* StrawVulcan: Averted with the intensely logical Quetzalcoatl-9:
--> "There is a logic problem known as the prisoner's dilemma. It has two strategies: trust and betrayal. On balance, a trusting strategy achieves slightly better results. Trust is logical."
** Played straight with Tom's father Sinclair Strong, who thought the ideal child-rearing environment was a high-gravity chamber with little to no human contact, where the infant Tom could be raised by pure reason. Subverted again by Tom himself, who maintains a very logical exterior but has a loving family life and looks for humanitarian solutions first.
* TakenForGranite
* 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.]]
* ThatsNoMoon: The Pangaean, and the Modular Man.
* TopHeavyGuy: Tom, and it's {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. (Or alternately, he's got a HeroicBuild, but it's parodied.)
* 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.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: It's heavily implied that Strong's father cared for his wife and son primarily for their places in his experiments. It's telling that his {{steampunk}} butler robot shows more compassion.
* WomensMysteries: ''Terrific Tales'' #5. Tom witnesses them. [[spoiler:He gets caught. They make him dress in drag until the end of the month.]]
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A {{reconstruction}} ScienceHero Adventure Comic Book series created by AlanMoore, first published in 1999 by the ''America's Best Comics'' imprint. The series lasted for 36 issues (June, 1999-May, 2006).
Tom Strong, the title character, is a classic ScienceHero. He was raised in a high-gravity chamber and given an intensive education by his somewhat eccentric scientist of a father, on the fictional West Indian island of Attabar Teru. His upbringing, plus ingesting a root used by the natives of the island for health and long life, have made him nearly physically and mentally perfect. Though born at the dawn of the 20th century, he only appears to be in his forties as of the year 2000.
Strong has a wife, Dhalua, a native of the island, and a daughter, Tesla, both with enhanced physical and mental abilities and longevity. He resides in a building called the Stronghold in Millennium City. He is also assisted by Pneuman, a steam powered robot, King Solomon, a British gorilla with human characteristics, and the Strongmen of America, an organization of idolizing [[TagalongKid Tagalong Kids]]. His greatest foe was masked "[[{{Supervillain}} science villain]]" Paul Saveen, though he has a wide ranging RoguesGallery.
In general, the TwoFistedTales featuring the characters are pastiches of various genres of comic books and pulp heroes, though very much so with a modern sensibility and new takes on tropes used. The tone ranges from the wacky to the deadly serious, though Tom himself rarely strays far from stoicism. It also serves as a fun counterpoint to the severe deconstruction of pulp sensibilities that was the foundation of Moore's ''LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''.
----
!!''TomStrong'' Shows Examples Of:
* 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...]]
* ActionGirl: Tesla Strong
* ActionMom: Dhalua Strong.
* AlanMoore
* AllJustADream: Issues 29 & 30 had the titular hero awaken from his superheroic life into a gray world with no wonder or adventure where he was just a factory worker with a case of bad self-esteem. Then the clues mount that he really is a superhero - only to discover that he was a failed military experiment and [[CuckooNest all of his memories of a heroic life were delusions]]. [[spoiler:But at the last moment, he breaks out of the hallucination - back into the superheroic world where the BigBad of the story had been forcing him to hallucinate. He said later that he knew the world he had been in wasn't real because it was all gray, with no sense of hope or wonder in it.]]
* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Lampshaded. The hero and villain reminisce about a 1930s adventure and are disturbed that phlogiston was real then...despite having since been disproven as a theory.
* AlienGeometries
* AlternateHistory
* AnimalSuperheroes: There is an alternate dimension filled with funny animal counterparts of the comic's main cast.
* AntagonisticOffspring: Tom's son Albrecht is a Nazi and would-be world conqueror. They don't get along.
* ArtShift
* [[BadassBoast Badass]] [[strike:Boast]] [[BadassBoast Statement]]
---> Ingrid Weiss: [[spoiler:My blood is stronger, purer! It's the ''sang-real''! It is the true blood... ]]
---> Dhalua Strong: [[spoiler:Yes. And it is on your clothes. And on my fists. And on the floor.]]
* BadassNormal: Tom's clearly superhuman, being able to snap steel chains as a twelve year old. Dhalua and Tesla meanwhile, extended lifespan aside, seem to posses nothing more than the abilities of two extremely athletic and intelligent women. This is emphasised 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. Whether it was sex, medical extraction, or the same way its done with farm animal 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.
* BreakTheHaughty: Ingrid Weiss was completely and totally curbstomped by Dhalua Strong, to such a degree that after she slinked away to lick her wounds, Dhalua calmly stated that Ingrid's spirit was broken beyond repair, and that she would never bother the Strong family again. Which she didn't.
* CivvieSpandex: Tom's outfit basically consists of pants, boots, a toolbelt, gloves, goggles, and a red shirt with white triangle on it.
* ComicBooksAreReal: On his second trip to Terra Obscura he shows Tom Strange comic books from his Earth starring the heroes of Terra Obscura.
* ComicBookTime: Averted. The dates of each story are usually given, and explained by a mythical life extending root. Those without access to the root age throughout the century of stories presented.
* CuckooNest: Almost a pastiche of Alan Moore's darker works.
* 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.]]
* EitherOrProphecy: In the story with the interdimensional Aztech Empire, the computer-god Quetzocoatl-9 tells the High Priest that if he invades the world with superhero Tom Strong on it "there will be a great victory". [[spoiler:The victory in question was Tom Strong destroying the hardwired controls that left Quetzocoatl-9 enslaved by his priesthood. Thus the computer-god destroyed the priest and took direct control of his empire.]]
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: King Solomon, a stuffy British ape. Who hates robots.
* EvilTwin: An entire EvilTwin alternate universe, as per "[[StarTrek Mirror, Mirror]]"—in which Tom Strong's counterpart is a bad guy, [[CainAndAbel Paul Saveen's]] is heroic, and [[ThoseWackyNazis National Socialism]] ''saved'' lives—appears in "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong."
** Not only that, but Tiberius "Black Tom" Strong and his daughter Twyla have ''other'' good counterparts in Tom and Tesla Terrific, superheroes from another alternate world that semi-regularly crosses over with their own.
** There's a different alternate universe due to the slight variable of Sinclair Strong dying in the shipwreck instead of Tomas, Tom ''Stone'' reforms Paul Saveen and Ingrid Weiss, and the Pangean, the Modular Man, and Doc Permafrost never become villains in the first place.
* FantasticVoyage
* FunnyAnimal: An entire universe of them, called "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.
* GeniusBruiser
* GodsHandsAreTied: Quetzalcoatl-9 again.
* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: Though in this case, it is the ''Aztecs'' who now rule the world.
* TheGwenStacy: Tom's first love, Greta Gabriel, long thought killed by Doc Permafrost
* {{Heavyworlder}}: A key aspect of Tom's upbringing.
* {{Hologram}}: Terra Obscura science hero The Terror. Also a VirtualGhost, thanks to BrainUploading.
* InWhichATropeIsDescribed
* JunglePrincess: Princess Pantha from ''Terra Obscura''.
** A Tesla story had her captured for a JunglePrincess game preserve, where they can be hunted by the rich. Why are they hunted? Because they're valued in some cultures as aphrodisiacs.
** See also Tes of the Tigers, an alternate Tesla from a world overrun by jungle and daughter of Tom of the Tigers, a Tarzan-like version of Tom.
** 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]]''.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Just before Tom leaves Attabar Teru for the first time, Dhalua's dad translates her confession of love to him. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint He says he loves her like a sibling too]], and kisses her on the forehead. After nearly dying during a fight with Saveen[[hottip:*:presumably his life flashed before his eyes]], he says he's going back to the island to take care of something. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming The next page is a full-page shot of Tom and Dhalua's wedding.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:In the last issue Tom discovers that his lifelong archenemy Paul Saveen was his half-brother. The two bury the hatchet after Saveen tells him this from beyond the grave.]]
* MamaBear: Dhalua Strong.
* 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.
** 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.
* MostCommonSuperpower: Averted with Dhalua and Tesla, who have breasts proportional to their athletic physique. Played straight with Terra Obscura: while the science heroines of Terra Obscura have relatively 'normal' proportions when we see them in Tom Strong (they are busty but with different levels of voluptuousness), when we see them in the Terra Obscura limited series ALL of them are suddenly sporting E cups.
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: Paul Saveen, on multiple occasions, to the point that Tom is surprised to find a death that sticks for once.
* MythologyGag: In "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong", one of Solomon's counterparts is the Weeping Gorilla, of Weeping Gorilla Comix from ''{{Promethea}}''.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: In the Tesla Strong special, "The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong", Tesla comes across a universe where she, her parents and all who inhabit it are nude all the time.
** The funny aspect turns into {{Squick}} when it's revealed that world was really one where human sexuality isn't as constrained as it is normally, but alternate Dhalua's statement that "some of Tammy's boyfriends are dropping by to use the hot tub".
* OffhandBackhand: Dhalua does this to Ingrid Weiss ''twice'' in issue #7 alone.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Though both her parents are pushing 100 by the start of the series, and look maybe 40-ish, it's jarring to realize that Tesla looks and acts like a 20 year old, despite being well into her 60s.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: ''Terrific Tales'' #4. They're not very friendly.
* PostModernism
* PowerUpFood: The goloka root.
* PublicDomainCharacter: Several of the planet ''Terra Obscura'' are Nedor Comics characters from The Golden Age.
* RaisedByNatives
* RapeIsOkWhenItIsFemaleOnMale: Averted. It is made quite clear that it is not, and indeed a heinous MoralEventHorizon. [[spoiler:Raising the resultant child as a Nazi ''just to fuck with the guy'' also passes the event horizon.]]
** This happened ''twice''. Tom Strong's other child is Queen of the Bat People of the Moon.
* {{Reconstruction}}: The series uses pulp comics tropes, but in a slightly more serious fashion than usual. For example, the strong implication that Tom's mother and the family's servant were having an affair.
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Averted, to the sudden dismay of a certain recurring villain.
** NB: Said villain was, at the time, attempting a GameBreaker one-man ZergRush by pulling himself into an alternate timestream from about three hundred points in his own time stream. [[VillainousBSOD Then three hundred new memory streams opened up all of a sudden...]]
* [[RobotMaid Robot Butler]]: Pneuman is a {{steampunk}} example.
* ScienceHero: Tom, but nearly everyone in the cast as well.
** [[spoiler: [[BeyondTheImpossible Tom managed to defeat an]] {{Expy}} of [[TheElricSaga Elric]] [[BeyondTheImpossible using only his wits and the power of SCIENCE!.]]]]
* ScienceMarchesOn: Done on purpose. Tom notes that Saveen created phogisten (liquid heat) a few years before scientists proved that it could not exist.
* ShoutOut: The broad outlines of the AllJustADream storyline from issues 29-30 are reminiscent of Moore's work on Miracleman. Tom's version is less [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism dark]], though.
** Tom's father's name is Artemis Strong, which is also the real name of [[Comicbook/{{Cerebus}} Cerebus's]] faux-hero, The Roach.
* SuperSerum: Goloka root
* StupidJetpackHitler: Ingrid Weiss had fearsome technology of her own, and [[spoiler:she teamed up with evil genius Paul Saveen.]]
* StrawVulcan: Averted with the intensely logical Quetzalcoatl-9:
--> "There is a logic problem known as the prisoner's dilemma. It has two strategies: trust and betrayal. On balance, a trusting strategy achieves slightly better results. Trust is logical."
** Played straight with Tom's father Sinclair Strong, who thought the ideal child-rearing environment was a high-gravity chamber with little to no human contact, where the infant Tom could be raised by pure reason. Subverted again by Tom himself, who maintains a very logical exterior but has a loving family life and looks for humanitarian solutions first.
* TakenForGranite
* 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.]]
* ThatsNoMoon: The Pangaean, and the Modular Man.
* TopHeavyGuy: Tom, and it's {{lampshade|Hanging}}d. (Or alternately, he's got a HeroicBuild, but it's parodied.)
* 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.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: It's heavily implied that Strong's father cared for his wife and son primarily for their places in his experiments. It's telling that his {{steampunk}} butler robot shows more compassion.
* WomensMysteries: ''Terrific Tales'' #5. Tom witnesses them. [[spoiler:He gets caught. They make him dress in drag until the end of the month.]]
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