Strange Tales #1 From Marvel Comics – Review

Offbeat Anthology By Independent Artists Spoofs Marvel Superheroes

Aug 28, 2009

Marvel's Strange Tales #1 re-launches the classic comics title as a humor anthology. Highlights include stories by Paul Pope, Peter Bagge, and Nicholas Gurewich.

Marvel Comics' Strange Tales is best known as a horror, sci-fi, and superhero series from the 1950s and 1960s. The title was briefly revived in the late 1980s, but that run only lasted nineteen issues.

Starting in September 2009, Marvel is re-inventing Strange Tales once again. While the focus remains on superheroes, the new Strange Tales comics are drawn by independent and underground artists. Each issue is a 48-page anthology, featuring several short stories that spoof or skew familiar characters from the Marvel universe.

Veteran artist Paul Pope (Fantastic Four, Batman: Year 100, Batman Black and White Vol. 2) is the cover artist for Strange Tales' debut issue, available September 2. As Pope tells Marvel.com, the cover is "a mash-up of Marvel good guys and bad guys." It features many of Marvel's most famous heroes and villains fighting it out, from Wolverine and Spider-Man to Doctor Doom and Red Skull.

Pope also contributes the first story of Strange Tales, about the Inhumans and their dog, Lockjaw. "My take on Lockjaw is that he isn't a dog," Pope explains, "he's just the most inhuman of the Inhumans." Pope's humorous story revolves around how this character – who saves the day again and again – isn't quite treated as one of the team.

The rest of the stories and vignettes in Strange Tales #1 tend to be shorter, but are often no less amusing. Two one-page gags by Nicholas Gurewich, "The Green Menace" and "The Blue Hair," are beautifully rendered without sacrificing comic tone or timing. Dash Shaw's "Doctor Strange v. Nightmare" also blends clever art with a wry punchline.

For more conventionally cartoony takes on Marvel's characters, "Marvel's Most Embarrassing Moments" and "Punisher in Scared Smart" by Johnny Ryan, and "Hulk Squad Smash" by James Kochalka, fully satisfy too. Norway's Jason also contributes an offbeat tale of Spider-Man picking a bar fight with Doctor Octopus.

However, some of Strange Tales #1's stories come up short. Nick Bertozzi's nicely-rendered "And Call My Lover MODOK!" may nevertheless be hard to follow for those who don't know the backstory of AIM's big-brained creation. And "You Are Cordially Invited ..." by Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt, "Fed up with Man" by Michael Kupperman, and the manga-style "Welcome to the Spider Town" by Junko Mizuno, all fall a bit flat.

Perhaps the funniest short in Strange Tales #1 is "The Incorrigible Hulk," written and drawn by Peter Bagge of Hate fame. Bagge's colorful and grotesque style is well-suited to depicting Hulk-style rampages, while his sarcastic and angst-laden dialogue seems perfectly natural coming from the hapless Bruce Banner.

For instance, in one scene Banner finds himself waking up in an alley the morning after the Hulk goes on a bender with some bikers. "The Hulk gets to party, while I get his hangovers," Banner groans. "As if his purple pants aren't bad enough..."

Of course, Peter Bagge's talent for parodying pop culture icons is no secret. He had earlier taken an uproarious look at Jar-Jar Binks' political machinations in Dark Horse's Star Wars Tales #20, which, like Strange Tales, was an anthology series featuring non-canon and humorous stories.

Peter Bagge's Hulk tale will be continued in Strange Tales #2, and Bagge's Hulk art will also grace that issue's cover. Other artists slated to contribute are Max Cannon, Jacob Chabot, Jonathan Hickman, R. Kikuo Johnson, Matt Kindt, Michal Kupperman, Tony Millionaire, and Jim Rugg.

If Strange Tales #1 is any indication, the new anthology series from Marvel is off to a fine start. And since Strange Tales doesn't lack either top-notch comics talent or hilarious story possibilities, it may quickly become as recognizable as its comics series namesakes.

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