Tom Strong, Part One

There seems to be a resurgence of interest in Tom Strong, one of Alan Moore's lesser known franchises. So I thought I would take a spin at analyzing the literary elements. Although none of the YouTube videos I have watched on this topic have been wrong, I think many of them are missing the connection to Alan Quartermain and his creator H. Rider Haggard. The most obvious reference is the use of the addictive root that grants extraordinary power. Strong, unlike The League of Extraordinary Gentleman's Quartermain, appears to suffers no detrimental effects from consumption of his magic power root. But the key to unlocking the rest lies in Solomon, the enhanced gorilla companion of Tom Strong, whose full name is King Solomon. This is a reference to Haggard's book King Solomon's Mines. A gorilla companion of our very white hero recalls Quartermain's black companion Umbopa. As with much of Strong's story, implicit and explicit race is present in the narrative, not to be ignored, but rather interrogated. Quartermain's companion Umbopa is a warrior for whom he had great respect and whom he defends against the stronger racist comments within his own adventures. H. Rider Haggard's relationship with everyone's favorite colonial  baron, Cecil Rhodes, will have to wait for another day. 

To continue: Tom Strong has one parent, Susan Strong, who actually loves him and one, Sinclair, who sees him as a grand experiment. He loses both in an earthquake, which serves as the destruction of his old home and the initial call to adventure. Although his father Sinclair has a conversation with his mother, Susan, as they are crushed and dying, it is Susan who reaches out with love. This is similar to the ending of King Solomon's Mines, where Foulata, the Kukuana princess whose skin forbids a sustained romance with the subtly named Captain Good is stabbed to death before the evil witch Gagool is crushed. In this case it is not merely her blackness, but her origin in the magical hidden kingdom. From Sinclair's point of view, the normal compassion of Susan is the witchcraft that must be eliminated to produce the desired ending. Susan's whiteness is an inversion of the Kukuana's women's blackness, but necessary for the journey that her son Tom must undertake. The collapse of the cave in Tom Strong's tale occurs as he is about to enter the hidden magical kingdom rather than as Quartermain leaves it.

and, in particular, of Sinclair who views people as things. In the case of