I love this issue of the Terrifics so so much and there’s a very obvious reason that’s been throughout all of my reviews of the series so far. This issue is basically a love letter to the old Tom Strong comics of the past while also pushing forward every character involved with the comic in such a fun way.
So what’s it about?
The official summary reads:
The Terrifics find themselves stuck up a cosmic tree with the newly rediscovered Tom Strong–and the fire department ain’t coming to rescue them! The team gets split up while trying to escape this devious trap set for them by a mysterious enemy known as Doc Dread, and they wind up in a bunch of weird dimensions trippier than a spin on the “Yellow Submarine”! Is there a cure awaiting our afflicted adventurers at the end of this other-dimensional adventure? Or will Plastic Man, Metamorpho, Phantom Girl and Mr. Terrific be trapped in Tom Strong’s stronghold peddling snake oil instead?
Tell me about it!
This issue fixes the overlying problem with The Terrifics — the fact that they’re tied together due to Dark Multiverse energies and couldn’t get more than a mile away from each other. Now they’re all free to explore and go their own ways if they so wish, but I hope that’s not something that’s going to happen.
The love letter to Tom Strong in this issue is absolutely fantastic. They visit a bunch of very prominent characters and locations from the Tom Strong universe. The first of these is Funnyland, the universe where everyone is a Looney Toons-type cartoon animal. Tom is a rabbit called Warren Strong, Saveen is a fox and it turns out Doctor Dread is a Daffy Duck-style character named Ducktor Dread! Inside, the fabulous team of Plastic Man and Pneuman save Tom’s loyal companion Solomon, a talking gorilla with an English accent, from Ducktor Dread and a very Looney Toons-style plot of being tied to a log that’s about to go off a waterfall with the help of Warren Strong.
The next location from the realm of Tom that’s visited is the Aztech Empire, which is a space and multiverse capturing empire based off of the Aztecs who worship their god Quetzalcoatl-9, who in reality is an advanced AI that takes the form of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. As you can tell from the names, the Aztech empire is a highly advanced empire where they have technology beyond the wildest dreams in an attempt to conquer. The team of this world consists of Metamorpho, who is now human, Phantom Girl, and her dog, who are setting out to find Tom’s daughter, Tesla Strong.
The last location tackled by Tom Strong and Mister Terrific is Slaughter Swamp, just outside Gotham City. This marks Tom’s first appearance in the main DC universe. Of course they run into Swamp Thing as shown by the cover while they attempt to look for Tom’s wife Dhalua.
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