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Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #4 – Review

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By: Peter Hogan (story), Chris Sprouse (pencils) Karl Story (inks), Jordie Bellaire (colors)

The Story: The man with a sword takes on a biker gang during the end of days.

The Review: Anyone who’s followed this site long enough knows that I try to give every new series a fair shake before making any hard judgments about it.  With this medium, you have to afford stories some time to reveal their hidden strengths, if any lie in wait.  But having given Tom Strong the benefit of the doubt, I can’t say it’s done anything but fulfilled the least expectations people had from the moment it was announced as part of Vertigo’s new line-up.

Even though from the mere look of the series, Tom Strong seemed to be pure, old-school superhero through and through, I assumed that anything with the Vertigo stamp had to have some layer of depth in its makeup, even if you didn’t see it right away.  But I guess not every title can be Astro City, which places itself squarely in the superhero camp even as it expands the genre’s boundaries.  Tom Strong simply roots itself in mystery men tradition, from which it largely refuses to step away.

This issue, for example, would be a particularly bad sample to offer any nascent reader of Vertigo—or comics in general.  Hogan has shown a predilection for heaping intro after intro of various Science Heroes on us, all to no purpose, as most end up skulking away to their own affairs soon after we meet them.  But even with that context, the first six pages are painfully inert, a fight scene between strange heroes we don’t care about and stranger villains for whom we care even less.  In many ways, the battle highlights the very worst qualities of superhero comics, most of all their tendency towards pointless conflict.  The fact that it takes Tom about half a page to negotiate a truce with the antagonists’ leader, but only after woundings for both sides and several deaths, reveals how completely unnecessary the fight was to begin with.

And if that isn’t strange enough, you also have Hogan’s refusal to do any exploration of our protagonists whatsoever.  Although Tom’s Superman-like virtues are clear, we really have no other grasp on his character and in this issue, he starts descending into the douchiest of the Man of Steel’s mannerism.  Take his exchange with Val as they rumble into battle.  Tom’s son-in-law shouts in enthusiasm, “Yes to the way to the José, boss!”

Tom’s reaction?  A brittle, “Please speak English, Val.  Or else I’m going to find out what cable channels you’re watching and cancel them.”

Hogan has such problems with his leads that you can’t begin to understand why he chooses to delve so much more deeply in the lives and histories of the guests, and why he focuses on certain Science Heroes at the expense of others.  Why Cavalier?  It’s not like his Silver Agey background is interesting enough to make us care about his life, much less the irrelevant, intimate details of his lifestyle.  Tom inquires, “Then you’re not…”

“Gay?  No.  I know plenty of people assume I am.  The Chronicle even used to call me ‘The Gay Blade.’  No, I’m just a fop.  Camp, I may be.  But all my tents were full of girls…”

And if Hogan’s goal is to get us to care about Cavalier, why would he then decide to kill off the rapier-wielding adventurer a few pages later?  The fact that I’m not even going to bother with a spoiler alert, as is my wont, should tell you how seriously I doubt anyone would give a hoot about this thoroughly unimpressive moment, which is a low point for an issue that already operates on a fairly underwhelming level already.

The only plus that might be said for this series it that it has the perfect artist working for it, even if he is completely defeated by the failings of the script.  Sprouse’s sharp, simple lines are definitely at home with the classic feel of the story, and he really can make the most of what little action there is.  But he and Bellaire deserve to be working on similarly retro-styled titles of much higher quality—Daredevil, perhaps, or a proper Superman series.

Conclusion: Hogan wallows in costumed conventions, with only superficial, completely ignorable pretenses towards contemporary relevance.  Only Sprouse’s art saves the issue from utter ignominy.  I don’t often do this with minis, but since this one’s not worth finishing out, it is thus Dropped.

Grade: C-

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - I find it curious, in a Vertigo series, that Hogan would be so shy about just saying the curse words outright.


Filed under: DC Comics, Reviews, Vertigo Tagged: Chris Sprouse, DC, DC Comics, Jordie Bellaire, Karl Story, Peter Hogan, Tom Strong, Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril, Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #4, Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #4 review, Vertigo, Vertigo Comics

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