27 Years Later, Alan Moore's Own Version Of Superman Proves The Writer Was Way Ahead Of His Time

Published Oct 5, 2026, 6:35 PM EDT Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor. The Boys has Homelander. Invincible has its title character, and his dad. Marvel has multiple characters who clearly count as riffs on the Man of Steel. It seems like every generation, and every generation's top comic book creators, attempt to reinvent Superman for their own times. That includes Alan Moore, and predictably, nobody else has done it quite like him, before or since. Moore wrote some memorable stories for DC Comics featuring the actual Superman, including "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?" Which was published in 1986, just a few months ahead of the debut of Alan Moore's transformative superhero series Watchmen. (If that title sounds familiar, it is because Man of Tomorrow is the name of James Gunn's next Superman movie, coming in 2027.) That said, Alan Moore also created his own Superman-archetype character, during an often overlooked period in his career: the late '90s. As legendary as Moore is, fans often hyperfocus on his mid-to-late-1980s run, including Watchmen, as well as Batman: The Killing Joke, and his later 2000s titles, like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But Moore's 1990s output is just as fascinating, and worth going back to, and as it always was, ahead of its time. For proof, look no further than Tom Strong, who is the author's equivalent of Superman, and also arguably the most authentic "superhero" Alan Moore ever created. Only Alan Moore Could Create An Equal To Superman Like Tom Strong Tom Strong debuted in the spring of 1999, with an issue aptly titled: "How Tom Strong Got Started." Alan Moore, who created the character, wrote the hero's ongoing adventures through Tom Strong #22, published in late 2003. From that point on, the series continued for another fourteen issues, featuring a rotating roster of writers taking over for Moore. (Some notable names on that list include Geoff Johns, Brian K. Vaughn, and Ed Brubaker.) As a hero, Tom Strong is meant to evoke the spirit of Superman, especially the character's early days. Strong's backstory explains how he was raised to be a superior kind of man. Physically, mentally, and also morally. Notably, Tom Strong stories are less cynical (or less "realistic") and more fantastical than the stories Moore is most closely associated with. Tom Strong shows off Moore's equal love of and expertise in genre storytelling, a testament to the fact that writers have to know a type of storytelling inside and out before deconstructing it. Like Superman does for Metropolis, Tom Strong serves as the protector of Millennium City. Like Superman, Strong has an extended superheroic family. And what made it especially ahead of the curve was the series' extensive use of the Multiverse as a storytelling trope, at a time when Marvel and DC still hadn't fully embraced their own Multiverses the way they do today. Alan Moore Explored The Multiverse Years Before It Became All The Rage In Comics They say Wayne Gretzky was a hockey phenom because he skated to "where the puck was going" next, rather than where it was on the ice at the time. The same sort of sentiment applies to Alan Moore as a writer, especially when it comes to superhero storytelling. In some way or another, Moore's work would go where the genre was headed next, before everyone else in the industry even knew it. That was the case with Watchmen. It was also the case with Tom Strong. Especially with its timeline-hopping Multiversal elements. That's worn out in superhero storytelling these days, but it was still territory that hadn't been fully mined of its potential when Moore did it in the late '90s/early 2000s. Combined with an imagination as dexterous as Alan Moore's, and the result was a classic, if short-lived superhero series, his version of Superman that is far too frequently overlooked by modern readers. What do you think of Tom Strong, readers? Tell us below! Created By Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel First Appearance Action Comics Alias Kal-El, Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent Alliance Justice League, Superman Family Race Kryptonian Franchise D.C.