Mister Miracle and 4 Famous Co-Stars

 

I used to like the Marvel Team-Up annuals that would have a truly random assemblage of heroes gather together for an adventure.  This is my take on that concept.  I can see The Ringmaster in the middle of his latest plot, unaware that the audience includes a handful that are ready to fight back.

Promethea Enters The House of Mystery

I was glad to see The House of Mystery make an appearance in the Justice League Dark animated feature.  While I thought that having Black Orchid as the embodiment of the house was an interesting spin, I did miss seeing Cain and Abel.  I was hoping they would show up during the run of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but no such luck.  Perhaps they will finally get their chance on Justice League Action.

Promethea and Doctor Strange

I was a big fan of Alan Moore's America's Best Comics line.  Characters like Tom Strong and Jack B. Quick showed a different side of the writer and he was always paired with top notch artists.  Probably my favorite title was Promethea.  What I originally thought would be a Wonder Woman pastiche turned out to be a psychedelic and visually rich study of the power of storytelling.  It's one of those series that I have promised myself that I would go back and read straight through again, I am sure there's lots I missed the first time around.

Tom Strong and Nexus

Tom Strong was my favorite among Alan Moore's ABC Comics line, as it was chock full of imagination and nods to great comic adventurers of the pst, so I am glad it has found continued life beyond Moore's departure.  I was worried that when he left, that was the last we would see of hs various ABC creations (although I'm still hoping for the return of Jack B. Quick).  Nexus similarly is a character that just can't be kept down.  He seems to reappear every few years, sometimes switching comic companies. I love that Steve Rude design and it's a good thing to see him in continuing adventures.

The Fantastic Four and Tom Strong

There aren't a lot of heroes that would be a true intellectual match for Reed Richards, but I think Tom Strong could give him a run for his money.  I have always thought that it would be a challenge to write for super-genius type characters, but writers like Stan Lee and Alan Moore did a great job at it.  Lee and Kirby provided Reed with an unending supply of futuristic inventions and Alan Moore layered one amazing concept onto another for Tom Strong's adventures.  I guess that it's no surprise that such brilliant creators were able to write so well for high-IQ characters.

The Thing and Tom Strong

I like comic properties that can be plugged into a wide variety of story types and that has always been one of the strengths of The Fantastic Four.  Thy were heroes, but also adventurers and they had their fair share of drama, humor and tragedy.  Tom Strong appealed to me in the same way.  The stories featuring Tom Strong and his supporting cast spanned many different genres and always kept the tales interesting.  Even more than a Thing/Tom Strong team up, I would love to see the entire FF meet up with the Strong Family.  That would surely make for an epic adventure!

Batman and Tom Strong

I enjoyed Alan Moore's line of ABC Comics for DC and the standouts in my opinion were Promethea, Top 10 and the flagship character, Tom Strong. Moore amalgamated parts from Superman, Batman, Doc Savage, Reed Richards, Tarzan and more to create this character with which he could tell stories in a wide variety of genres. These tales were appealing to me in that they felt timeless and were purely about all the fun that the comics medium has to offer without getting bogged down in a grim and gritty tone, which had pervaded the industry since Moore's own Watchmen was published. It's only fitting that Moore himself created a line of comics to counter the dark attitude that had seeped into so many titles. It also did not hurt that the series had beautiful art by Chris Sprouse, Art Adams, Jerry Ordway and others. I did not follow the title after Moore left the writing duties. Hopefully the writers who followed were able to maintain the quality.