SMASH (comics)
| Society of Modern American Science Heroes | |
|---|---|
Splash page from Tom Strong #12, June 2001. Script by Alan Moore, pencils by Chris Sprouse
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | America's Best Comics |
| First appearance | Tom Strong #11 |
| Created by |
Alan Moore Chris Sprouse |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | Antarctica |
| Member(s) |
American Crusader Black Terror Cavalier Fighting Yank I (deceased) Fighting Yank II Green Ghost Liberator Ms. Masque Pyroman The Scarab Tom Strange Tim Roland The Woman in Red |
The Society of Modern American Science Heroes, or SMASH, is a team of fictional superheroes whose adventures are published by America's Best Comics and take place on the parallel world of Terra Obscura.
SMASH first appeared in Tom Strong #11 (January 2001). In 1968, Tom discovers an alternate version of his Earth located on the far side of the galaxy, which he dubs "Terra Obscura." Terra Obscura has the same cities as Earth, but different names for them. Most notably, the big East Coast city is New Lancaster. It also shares a similar history as Earth.
On his visit to Terra Obscura, Tom meets his counterpart Tom "Doc" Strange, and the team of science-heroes known as the Society of Major American Science Heroes (SMASH). All the members of SMASH are based on characters previously published by Nedor Comics in the 1940s. With the original publisher's collapse, copyrights on the characters were not renewed upon 28 years of creation and so lapsed into the public domain. One of the Nedor's many titles was America's Best Comics, and when the coincidence of this was pointed out to Alan Moore, he decided to incorporate these characters into his Tom Strong series.
For their 2000 debut, Moore created a backstory for them, covering the time periods during which they were not actually being published. The history of the characters (both from Nedor and ABC) follow the conventions established by DC Comics and Marvel Comics: the Golden Age of Comic Books, Silver Age of Comic Books, and Modern Age of Comic Books.
The Golden Age heroes were published in various Nedor Comics titles, including America's Best Comics, the inspiration for reviving the characters. In the updated chronology, Tom Strong reveals that the Golden Age adventures of the Terra Obscura characters are portrayed in comic books on his world, in an echo of the old DC Multiverse Earth-1/Earth-2 relationship.
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