Marvel Tales by J. Michael Straczynski
When Straczynski started writing for Marvel Comics it was a Big Deal. He was a TV guy best known as the creator of “Babylon 5” who had recently broken into comics with the well-liked and best-selling “Midnight Nation” and “Rising Stars.” Since then, he’s done a lot for the publisher with a lot of ups (the start of his “Amazing Spider-Man” run) and downs (the end of his “Amazing Spider-Man” run), but he’s back on the upswing with the publisher again with his recent run on “Captain America” and now, this: Six one-shots featuring unlikely team-ups between many different Marvel heroes and a few villains.
Given that this is a collection of six individual issues with no real ties between them, I was planning on doing one of those reviews that talks about them individually. Until I realized that, for better or for worse, they can all be boiled down to the writer asking and trying to answer one question about the characters involved. Why do bad things happen to Doctor Doom? Why does Volstagg always act the fool? How did Nick Fury get involved in WWII? If Gamma Radiation makes you more of what you were in the first place, why did Bruce Banner turn into a giant rage monster? What happens when Galactus is confronted with the Penance Stare? Can a group of superheroes and villains enjoy a civilized French dinner without destroying the restaurant?
Some of these will definitely be of more interest to the reader than others. I could swear that I’ve read a story about the Hulk question before this point, but I won’t deny a bit of curiosity about seeing what would happen when Johnny Blaze goes up against Galactus. As for the one about the hero/villain dining situation, I have a feeling that anyone reading this has enough genre familiarity to know how it’s going to go. If not, welcome to superhero comics and I hope you enjoy your stay.
A bigger issue is that some of these stories seem much more concerned with one of the characters involved as opposed to both of them. “Captain America & Volstagg” is about the latter’s adventures while the former could’ve been swapped out with just about any other character with a degree of strategic acumen. “Hulk & Doctor Strange” is similarly focused on the origin of the former with the good Doctor here to facilitate the story and provide a bit of wit. After the central question of “Ghost Rider vs. Galactus” is answered, the main point of it is for Straczynski to offer his thoughts on the purpose of the Devourer of Worlds.
If I sound like I’m down on all this team-up business, it’s not because the stories are bad. Straczynski has a good handle on all of the characters and there is definitely some entertainment to be had in seeing them bounce off each other when they’re allowed to. Doom and Rocket Raccoon manage this quite well and while seeing Eddie Brock show up at a French restaurant to laugh at cat videos seems wildly out of character, it was actually a refreshing change of pace after the last few years he’s had. The main issue here is that Straczynski is trying to answer a lot of Big Questions as they relate to the Marvel Universe and the answers here never struck me as definitive. Some of them were cute, but I can’t say that I’d be bothered if another writer rolled up their sleeves and tried to deliver a better take a year or so from now.
One thing that is solid from top-to-bottom is the art. Will Robson, Bernard Chang, Elena Casagrande, Natacha Bustos, German Peralta, Juan Ferreyra, and Phil Noto all contributed to this volume and they do stellar work here. They’re often asked to go from grounded conversation to out-there cosmic action, as Robson and Ferreyra do on “Doom” and “Galactus,” or just take an ordinary setup into a fantastic direction as Casagrande does on her “Nick Fury” story. Straczynski says that each story took around eighteen months from writing to publication, and it’s clear that every artist brought their A-game here. Including Bustos on a satisfying supernatural team-up that I won’t spoil for you here.
“Marvel Tales” definitely isn’t a bad collection, but it’s not the kind of one that I’d recommend to people who aren’t already interested in it. Established fans of Straczynski will likely enjoy his work here, as will anyone who can appreciate good superhero art. Anyone looking for a memorable take on the characters involved that’s not tied to a major event or their ongoing adventures probably won’t find it here and that’s a bit of a shame.