Haranguing at Valiant and Defiant; but I am unaware of any other legal actions.  The defense during the Defiant run killed his cash flow, defending the company.  Valiant they didn't go to court; their lawyer jest sent Marvel's lawyer a letter, basically telling them to either bring suit in court, and have to pay out legal fees when they lose, or shut the F up.  Marvel chose the latter.  Valiant had better financing, before Shooter was diddled by the venture capital people who were having an affair.

That was the Defiant battle, over Plasm/Warriors of Plasm.

Civil suits can drag on for years, with motions and counter-motions; that's part of why corporations try to force you into signing agreements that require disputes to go to arbitration, so they can limit potential payouts.

Many Worlds of Tesla Strong



I chose the variant, because I like it more, though Bruce Timm did a nice regular cover.

Creative Team: Peter Hogan-writer, Alan Moore-plot assist; Chris Sprouse & Karl Story, Michael Golden, Adam Hughes (& Story), Phil Noto, Art Adams, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (PBHN), Frank Cho, J Scott Campbell, Claudio Castellini, and Jason Pearson (Whew!)-art; Todd Klein-letters, Dave Stewart & Phil Noto-colors, Scott Dunbier-making sense of it all.

Synopsis: Tesla Strong, Pneuman and King Solomon are putting away some gear, when Solomon accidentally fires a loaded bazooka. They go to clean the mess up and he decides he wants to check out the newly repaired Searchboard and he accidentally activates the controls and warps across dimensions. The board returns without him and Tesla goes looking for him.

Tesla emerges in a dark, devastated area and hears a voice yelling at her. It is Tekla Strong, one of her dimensional counterparts, she tells her to land and get inside, but the hatch light goes out and Tesla learns about what Tekla fears.....mutated cockroaches!



They fight their way through the infestation and the light comes back on an they get inside the underground facility. Tekla tells her that the world was all but destroyed in a nuclear exchange, between the US and Soviet Union. Tom Strong built the facility, which houses 40,000 survivors. The only others are some Mormons and the Swiss. They, too, have lost an ape, Archimedes, The Atomic Ape. He fell through a warp gate they use to hunt for a new Earth, but can only use sparingly, due to the power drain. Tesla says she will continue the search, on the Searchboard.

She warps again and emerges under water. She is saved from drowning by the mermaid, Tori Strong. Tori gets some gear, from Winston, a man sailing on a boat. They dive back under the sea to the sight of Millennis, a vast city, on the ocean floor. Tori explains how her father saw the coming threat of global warming....



They go to talk to Tori's father and tell him of the missing Solomon and Archimedes and he says the sea monkey, Poseidon, has also disappeared. Tesla promises to look for him and moves on to continue the search, while wondering if there is some kind of quantum connection to these missing apes.

Tesla next lands in the talking animal world of Warren Strong and discovers his children in trouble, captured by Basil Saveen......



She bops Saveen on the noggin and frees the kids: Topsy, Turvy and Delilah (actually named Fluffy Tail). Tesla asks if they have seen a gorilla and they say, sure, their math teacher, Mr Pythagoras. He was demonstrating geometry, when a see-saw catapulted him into a hole in the sky. Tesla thanks them and continues the monkey hunt.

Elsewhere, King Solomon wakes up and finds himself in a rather crowded place...with other versions of himself!



Tesla next lands in a small apartment, home of Tesla Terrific, in her disguise as dorky Tara Strong, college student. Tara tells Tesla to put on her wig and glasses and jersey and they are interrupted by Ms LaGuna, her neighbor, who is snooping. She sees Tesla Terrific and Tara Strong, together, for the first time. Tesls shoos her out then explains that Tara is her cover and Ms Laguna keeps snooping and she must hide her identity. Tesla Strong explains her quest and Tesla Terrific offers to use the monitors at the Strongbox. Along the way, they stop to defeat Tinkertoy and his giant mecha....



They mop up, then Tesa terrific tells her that there is no sign of Solomon, but Terrifo, The Science Ape is also missing. Tesla moves on to find more clues.

Tesla next emerges in the lair of the Spider Priestess, who has Tes of the Tigers trussed up in her web, menaced by her pets....



She frees Tes and they escape to the jungle and meet her tiger friend, Rajah. Tesla asks if she is missing a gorilla; and, would you believe it? Tes is missing one too. Off Tesla goes to the next dimension.

She emerges on the world of Tamala Strong and her nudist parents. In fact, every one goes around naked, engaging in free sex, uninhibited....



After an aggressive invitation to join them and Tammy's boyfriends (plural) in a hot tob, Tesla scoots off, without even asking about missing (presumed naked) apes.

Tesla ends up in the world of Quetzalcoatl-9, the serpent tech god from Tom Strong #3. He is still trying to get his people to give up blood sacrifices. he helps Tesla by analyzing traces on the Searchboard and identifies the dimension where Solomon emerged. Tesla thanks him and mentions the plight of Tekla's people and the tech-serpent god sugegsts they might be able to aid him with his experiment. Tesla moves on.

Tesla finds herself on Eath-B, the counterpart to tesla terrific's Earth-A, where the Strongs are science criminals. They capture her and take away the Searchboard....



On her world, Tesla's mother and father find Pneuman and the mess and learn of Tesla's quest. Tom goes to prepare another Searchboard.

Meanwhile, Tesla is awakened by cold water to the face and finds herself chained to a dungeon wall, where Twyla Strong intends to play with her. She tells her that they programmed the Searchboard to bring Tom Strong there, when they met up with them in issue #10; but, they got Solomon, instead. They thought he might then follow after his ape, but Tesla came. Now, they have sent a bomb to the Stronghold, on the Seatchboard. Twyla leaves Tesla in the dark.

Tesla despairs of her fate, when a block from the wall slides out and gentleman adventurer Peter Saveen appears, to rescue her. He frees her, but she believes they are too late to stop the bomb. Peter tells her to cheer up, Professor Parallax can aid them and they move off. He introduces her to Ilsa Weiss, the counterpart to Ingrid Weiss, the mad Nazi enemy of Tom Strong. On this world, National Socialism saved people, until defeated by Tiberius Strong. He fathered her son, Alois, but had murdered his previous wife. They go to the Sprang Typewriter factory, where the dimensional apes are held, behind a forcefield. They find other Searchboards and outfit Tesla with one and a time machine, invented by Prof Parallax. Tesla and Peter Saveen travel in time and see Tesla being brought to the dungeon, by Twyla Strong and her father. He then sends Tesla off on the Searchboard, to stop the bomb, as it emerges.

Tesla arrives in time and alerts her father, giving him coordinates to divert the bomb. He follows them and it shifts to Tekla's world, exploding over the ruins of the past. She explains the situation, but says they only have one bard. Tom shows her the two-seater model he has built and Dhalua joins them. When she heard Tesla talk about Ilsa Weiss, she got a look in her eyes. They take the boards to Earth-B, where Ilsa has succeeded in freeing the apes, who are battling Tiberius Strong. tesla and her family join the fight. They get some aid from Quetzalcoatal-9 and defeat Tiberius Strong, while Tesla kicks Twyla's twisted hinder. Tekla's people are moved to Quetzalcoatl-9's world, to aid in his experiment with free world, on an Eden-like planet. They keep Tiberius Strong as a prisoner. Tom Strong has arranged a therapist for him. He and Tesla leave to go explore a bit, before dinner.

Thoughts: A fun little romp through alternate realities, with the many Tesla Strong dopplegangers introduced in issue #10 of Tom Strong, where a previous Searchboard incident brought the other Toms & Teslas to the Stronghold. We also get to see alternate Paul Saveens and Ingrid Weiss, plus a reappearance of Quetzalcoatl-9, from issue #3. It's a bit choppy an episodic, as you would expect, but it lets the various artists go nuts with an alternate reality. Chris Sprouse & Karl Story handle the end pieces, while Michael Golden handles the horror of Tekla Strong's world. Adam Hughes and Karl Story do the mermaid world and Phil Noto the funny animal stuff, leaving the ape gathering for Art Adams. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez essays Tesla Terrific, rather in the style of the Supergirl adventures that inspired this take. Frank Cho does the cheesecake for Tes of the Tigers (and a bit of jungle bondage) and then J Scott Campbell handles the sex comedy stuff, with Tammy Strong and her parents. Claudio Castellini gets the Aztec world and Jason Pearson bats cleanup, with Earth-B and Twyla Strong. Each segment is geared towards their strengths, so all are well matched to the subject, which makes up for the abruptness of individual segments. The climax is a little rushed, but full of nice poetic justice moments, such as Tiberius Strong being smooshed by a giant Aztec ape and Dhalua being uneasy around Ilsa, as she brings up too many memories of Ingrid Weiss. She even calls her a hussy, to Tesla, despite the fact that she is virtuous and aided in the battle.

By this point, Alan Moore is starting to withdraw from the ABC line, involving other writers, such as Peter Hogan, who will handle the upcoming Terra Obscura mini-series, while Moore concentrates on wrapping up the main books. His involvement with Tom Strong has a few more issues and Terrific Tales has another 5, but he already farms out some of that. League will have one more contractual arc, after Vol 2 (Black Dossier) and there is the Smax mini-series and the 49ers graphic novel, from the Top 10 series. He sees Promethea through to its conclusion. I may return to summarize that, in the wrap up of this thread, when we get to that point.

I'm just glad that sequence had things blocked....I don't need to see Tom Strong's "meat and two veg!"

Terra Obscura #2



From left to right: The Green Ghost, Grant Halford, aka the Magnet, Betty Chance and the bottom figure is Lance Lewis, Space Detective.

Grant Halford, now retired as a superhero, as his powers have gone haywire, is a private detective, working with Lance Lewis. he is our POV character, for this issue, which treads on traditional detective story ground, as well as the larger story of SMASH and Terra Obscura.

Creative Team: Alan Moore-plot, Peter Hogan-plot & script, Panick Paquette & Karl Story-art, Todd Klein-letters, Jeromy Cox-colors, Ben Abernathy-editor

Abernathy was also editor on issue #1. I have been on autopilot, with Scott Dunbier as Wildstorm editor. Abernathy might be credited since Alan Moore isn't directly writing this and they didn't need the cutout. or not; I don't really know.

Synopsis: Grant halford is at a Las Vegas hospital, to identify a body (Nope sorry, that would be a city or county morgue, unless the body could not be immediately removed from the hospital). The clerk asks the name of the deceased and he replies his partner, Lance Lewis. He also picks up some binder clips, from a cup....just not with is fingers.......



He is directed to the mortuary and it is definitely Lance. he was found in the desert and coyotes got to the body (easier to catch than road runners), but the death was between Tuesday and Thursday, caused by an electro-magnetic ray, of some kind. His personal effects include a wallet, with cash and credit cards intact, a hotel room key and a $20 betting chip, from The Rabbit's Foot Casino. The pathologist doesn't expect much from the Vegas cops and suggests that the town is Mob ruled. Even more than the real Vegas. He takes some sand grains, to analyze, but leaves everything and quotes Humphrey Bogart about doing something when your partner is killed.

Grant goes to the hotel room and finds a toothbrush and a bad novel, with an old picture of the pair of them, from 1942, used as a bookmark. They were paratroopers and Lance was always cool about the jumps, while Grant would get nervous. Lance would tell him not to worry, that they don't die today, like he knew it for certain. he later reveals he did know, because he was from the 22nd Century and had travelled back in time (to the sounds of ZZ-Top) to be part of the "last good war."

After the war, Lance unpacked his jetpack and raygun and became a science hero, while Grant pulled out his inventions and became The Magnet.



Lance knew when he was going to die and said he couldn't change it, likening it to the story "Appointment in Samara," The week before he vanished he left Grant a note, saying he was going to Samara.

Lance goes to the rabbit's Foot and interrogates the owner, Rabbit (who has a narrow face and buck teeth) about Lance being there and Rabbit basically tells him to get lost. Lance decides to ruffle his feather and applies his powers to the slot machines.....



Rabbit swears he didn't have him whacked and Grant moves on.

Meanwhile, a pair of figures, one named Adam, move through an enormous mechanical construct, exploring, but running into dead ends....



Grant continues his investigation and drives through the desert. he calls someone named Mac to check on who uses a broad-beamed electro-magnetic weapon and to call him back. He continues through his memories of his past, with Lance, founding the detective agency and Lance's behavior, before he left. He was thoughtful and melancholy, recalling his girl, who isn't even born yet. Grant uses his abilities to trace the origin of the sand particles, to find where Lance died. he finds the locale and a mysterious green glow, which isn't so much a clue, as a helpful observer....



The green dude is George Chance, aka The Green Ghost, a supernatural investigator. He shows where Lance's body was found and says that he is unable to determine who was behind it. Grant questions why he is concerned, since bigger cosmic things are more his turf. Ghost says he fears it might be a big cosmic thing and Vegas is about to become a very dangerous place. He tells Grant to go to a place called The Wheel and find a woman named Betty, and get her to safety. Then, he will meet back up with Grant and Betty. He also tells him he believes the investigation may lead to Invertica City, as he disappears.

Grant heads back and hears from Mac and he has two suspects for the weapon. The first, Dark Dynamo, is dead. the second option is The Grim Reaper. He is surprised and says he and Lance were friends. Mac tells him about the attack on The Terror 2003. Grant thanks him then places a call to the operator for a number in Invertica and calls Ms Masque. She doesn't recognize his name, until he tells her he was The Magnet and she recalls him. he tells her about Lance's death. He asks about the Reaper and she tells him about the attack and says the police have the weapon, now. He says he might come out, soon, and she tells him to stop in and see Tipper, at the 4 Comrades.

Diana gets off the phone and tells Carol about the call and the connection to The Reaper and the attack. She then reveals she dated Lance once or twice, which gets a question for Carol, about Diana dating everyone, once or twice. She takes exception, saying she isn't a slut. Carol talks about returning to New Lancaster, while Diana shares insecurities about her relationship with Tim. She then asks Carol is she minds her tagging along, when she returns home and Carol thinks it is great and they will paint the town.

Grant finds Betty, at The Wheel, doing a mindreader/clairvoyant act, having audience members pick cards from a tarot deck, then allowing them to ask a question about their future, usually leading to humorous answers. Grant visits her in her dressing room and she says George said he would send someone, when things start getting rough and then asks if that has happened. As Grant responds, the power goes out. Betty lights candles and they decide to get out, and find some creature standing over ripped corpses.



Grant pulls his gun, but it jams (Yannick should have drawn an automatic, then, not a revolver, as they don't jam) and Betty takes care of it with a flick of the wrist and a stiletto knife. They hear more screams. Betty explains to Grant about the weird phenomena, around the Grand Canyon, where nothing technological works, even the laws of physics don't work. Grant sees that the flashlight he found (which doesn't work) doesn't stick to him and the field, or whatever, has affected his powers. betty sees lights across the street and the airport and says it hasn't reached there and they can still leave town. They grab his car and head to the airport.

Thoughts: Some nice detective fiction mechanics going on here and Grant makes for an interesting character, an ex-hero whose powers have gone screwy, causing occasional embarrassment. Lance is also intriguing, a man of the future, with technology, who travels back in time. Unlike Booster Gold, he knows when he is slated to die and cannot alter history. His death seems to have been caused by the grim Reaper, before his attack on the Terror 2003. The question is why? meanwhile, the meeting with The Green Ghost suggest that it is related to something much bigger and the monstrous creatures in Vegas, plus the weird EMP phenomena suggests they are related. All very mysterious and intriguing, making you want to pick up the next issue and find out.

Green Ghost makes for an interesting figure, a literal ghost, specializing in supernatural threats, able to solve mysteries by talking to the dead, yet he can't speak to Lance Lewis. He isn't in a transitory state, available for a chat. Why? He also has some connection to Betty, who seems at home with the supernatural and capable of defending herself. Why is Grant needed to safeguard her?

Grant is a nice mix of private detective tropes, a little Sam Spade and a little Mike Hammer, in that he was once a soldier, both a literal one and an ex-science hero. Same with Lance. Many pulp heroes and detectives and many post-WW2 detectives were veterans. The older characters were veterans of WW1 and the later ones of WW2 (with hammer retro-fitted to Vietnam, for the Stacy Keach tv series). He has his weaknesses (his powers and a certain self-consciousness) and was an inventor of sorts. The original Magnet developed a super compass, which led him to crime, to fight it. This version seems to have gained further magnetic power, but the events of the Tom Strong tale affected that.

We don't know much about Betty, except she is a friend of The Green Ghost and tangentially related to the supernatural and not phased by it. She is also quite capable in a fight.

Meanwhile, we have no idea about the giant machinery our two mystery figures are exploring. Yannick deviates from copying Kirby machinery and draws it rather like a real internal combustion engine, with a generator, distributor cap and other recognizable shapes. It's a refreshing change, even if it looks like they are exploring a lawn mower or 6-cylinder car engine, rather than the mechanics of an alien civilization, to turn the world into a spaceship. The machinery is supposed to be the remnants of those aliens, as seen in Tom Strong. The difference in word balloons suggests that "Adam" is communicating in either different language or altogether different method. His speech is also not fully formed, more of a pigeon-English. No idea about the other, besides the suggestion that he is speaking English, verbally, based on comic mechanisms.\

Diana and Carol have real conversations and the dialogue suggests a certain promiscuity to Ms Masque, or at least a lack of long-term relationships. She is also worried that Tim will grow tired of her quickly, due to the age difference. The fact that she quickly asks to join Carol for her return t New Lancaster suggests she might be running away from the relationship. She talks about not getting rid of old trophies, because if she had the space, Tim would want to move in. She seems to think that if things move quickly, they will be over quickly. Is this because of past relationships? Is it because she might end it quickly? Is she uncomfortable in longer relationships? Again, it gives depth to the character beyond ex-Science Hero and business executive, who still wears a mask and is dating a guy barely of legal age. There is also the subject of the attack and her being taken hostage. Is she feeling vulnerable beyond the relationship?

The fact that the series raises questions more than it answers, in the early stages, made this so enjoyable, for me. It gives us a wide range of interesting characters, beyond costumes and hero names and makes them interesting people, grappling with a new life, far different from the old. It is not straight-foreward superhero stuff, despite settings and costumes. Only a very few still seem to be playing superhero games. This is more like nori film and post-war pulp fiction, where you see that not everything in America is a shiny, consumerist dream of a super power, with luxury goods on offer and nothing but opportunity. It's the dirtier underbelly, the uncertainty of the future, after survival of horrible circumstances. there is survivor's guilt, feelings of loss, questions about the past, what really matters vs what used to seem important. these are people who have faced real calamity and are questioning their lives and their role in the future. Meanwhile, things are getting strange, again. What does it all mean?

Yannick Pacquette and Karl Story continue to delight, visually, with expressive faces and interesting character designs, which are identifiable, without costumes (in most cases...there are future examples which aren't so distinctive). They handle dynamic action well, and interpersonal scenes with equal creativity, as well as giving us something unique, in the machinery scenes. It's a nice mixture of visual subjects, to match interesting plot and character development. That is why I found this so under-rated, in a highly under-rated line of books. League got all of the attention and Promethea was Moore's essay on a heroic figure through various incarnations, rather like Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion. Tom Strong is his post-Modern take on the old pulp hero, part Tarzan and part Doc Savage, with greater cultural sensitivity and scientific background, while Top 10 was a police procedural, with a superhero police force, in a city filled with superheroes. When everyone has powers, no one's powers are completely special. Tomorrow Stories played with comic book tropes, mostly for satire. This deals with soldiers/warriors/heroes, after the war/fight/epic superhero battle. How do they fix their world? What do they do with their lives? What is their true purpose? Who do they really love? Did they really matter, in the grand scheme of history? Can they matter now? Do they want to have big lives or little ordinary ones? Who am I and why am I here?

Universal questions.

Comparison of those two projects with Top 10 show what a good team Cannon and Ha were. Cannon's layouts provide the clever Easter Eggs to reward deep digging, while Ha's facility with lifelike faces produced beautiful characters. I wish they had stuck together; IMHO each is diminished by working separately.