Tom Strong #5

Written by: Alan Moore

Art by: Chris Sprouse and Jerry Ordway

After the shocker ending of the last issue, out heroic Tom Strong finds himself transported back to the early days of Earth - and its sole continent, Pangaea.

The issue opens with Tom roaming an alien looking landscape and taping his thoughts. He recalls another adventure that took place with the same scenery. We are treated with an 8 page short abut Tom and Dhula's adventure in time; how they end up on primal Earth and how they meet up with a hostile intelligent mold. The mold can imitate anything really, and pretends to be Dhula (after capturing her) to lure Tom into a fight. The brawl and thing look grim, when Tom and Dhula are saved by the clock on their time machine.

Now, Tom is here again and the mold - now calling itself the Pangeaen is still holding a grudge. He's pretty pissed about his fall dominant species on Earth and wants to take it out on Tom; but before he does, the Pangeaen tells Tom about his association with Ingrid Weiss (from last issue) and the location of a time machine left behind by Ingrid. The fight and Tom ends up in the time machine and the Pangeaen is killed by a meteor shower.

Tom materializes in a room with a replica of a city bearing Swastikas and we are shown a white gloved hand running a finger across a table top. To be continued.

Now, this issue is alright. A bit too wordy on the whole parallel between Tom and Dhula and Adam and Eve. The idea of a species fighting for dominance on a very young Earth is something I had never really spent the time to wrap my brain around. I guess mold could be intelligent. Chris's art is right on par with this character, and he does a fine job with all the creeping horror of the Pangeaen. The flashback's art, by Jerry Ordway, is a nice change of pace - the essence of the characters is there, but they are rendered in a much more playful way.

If you want to read this or any other books I've posted about, MyComicShop has a large selection of back issues.

A nice issue, fun and thought provoking.