Monday, September 7, 2009

Strange Tales #1 (of 3)

Now here's a comic that really lives up to its title!

This revival of Strange Tales features about a dozen short stories about assorted Marvel heroes and villains, as depicted by some of the most unique talents in the comics business - and more importantly, these are artists and writers who usually don't work in the super-hero field.

The result is a mix of stories that are pretty darned entertaining, including: an Inhumans story that focuses on their pet dog; a wedding tale about the She-Hulk; Spider-Man moves to a new town where he should fit in, but doesn't; Dr. Strange, in my favorite story in the issue, faces an old enemy and an impossible challenge; Bruce Banner and the Hulk find dating a real challenge; Modok looks for love; and Wolverine loses his cool.

If it sounds bizarre - well, it is pretty odd. Creators like Peter Bagge, Paul Pope, Nick Bertozzi and Nicholas Gurewitch give us their funny, odd and somewhat warped view of the strange world of superheroes.

This definitely isn't for everyone, and your mileage may vary - some may find it just silly, and others may not care for the unusual art styles included. I'd advise giving a few stories a quick read at the ol' comics shop before plunking down your hard-earned $4.99.

But I really enjoyed it (well, I enjoyed most of it - a couple of the stories were just ok), and I'm looking forward to the next two issues - it's nice to get a different take on the genre, and you won't find many comics more "different" than this one.

Grade: B+

2 comments:

Cephas said...

Just read this myself and enjoyed it more than I expected! I think your comments are right on, Chuck. I enjoyed it, there are some really clever stories and a few so so. I especially liked the Perry Bible Fellowship pages! All in all some cool stuff.

I have to say some of it reminded me of the early Crazy comics!

Pete

Chuck said...

Ah, good call on the Crazy analogy - some of the stories definitely have that feel to them.

And I agree, the Perry Bible Fellowship pages were great!