598 STRANGE TALES
Straczynski’s writings often explore broad social, political, and philosophical issues,
but through the choices that individuals make due to or despite their social circum-
stances and backgrounds, and through the responsibility of people of conscience (and
power) to help others make the correct choices. In Rising Stars, the group of super-
heroes created from a cosmic event realize after tremendous infi ghting and loss that
they have the power and responsibility to change the world for the better. Indeed, the
fundamental contradiction of a superhero like Spider-Man is, as a reformed thug says
to him, “You stop things as they go wrong, but you don’t do anything to keep them
from going wrong in the fi rst place.” In other words, with great power comes truly great
responsibility. However, while the powerful can bring about tremendous change and
off er glimpses perfection, the true change has to come from the vast masses working
collectively to make a better world. Th e lives of more normal people put in extraor-
dinary circumstances are what Straczynski focuses on in Midnight Nation. A police
offi cer near death fi nds himself in the realm of those lost and forgotten by society—the
homeless, the friendless—and must make a decision between keeping his own soul
and becoming a minion of the Devil, or giving his soul to an angel and thus becoming
forever transient. While he is guided throughout his diffi cult journey by the angel, the
fi nal choice is his to make. Similarly, in Th e Book of Lost Souls (2005–6, Icon Comics),
a character who commits suicide must help the lost and forgotten make correct choices
about breaking out of the ruts they fi nd themselves in. Straczynski’s overall message is
that the social systems we inhabit are not fair, and all people can use help in making
choices, but choices are ultimately only an individual’s to make.
Noaman G. Ali
STRANGE TALES. To read the history of this Marvel comic book anthology is to
read the history of comics from crime and horror comics of the 1950s to the Silver
Age superhero, Cold War espionage stories, and psychedelic images of the 1960s.
Included in the series is the work of many noted comic book artists and writers, as well
as the prototypes and fi rst appearances of lasting characters in the Marvel universe.
Like other Marvel anthologies, Tales of Suspense (which would become the Silver Age
Captain America series) and Tales to Astonish (which would become Th e Incredible
Hulk), this series launched individual characters in their own books: Nick Fury, Agent of
S.H.I.E.L.D. and Doctor Strange.
Strange Tales was started by Atlas comics (later Marvel comics) in June 1951 and
continued with some disruptions until issue #188 on November 1976. Th e fi rst
34 issues were pre–Comics Code and were modeled after the very successful EC books,
which featured tales of horror and crime. Th e magazine was subtitled “Strange Tales of
Startling Suspense!” Because of growing sentiment against comic books, partly inspired
by Fredric Wertham’s book, Th e Seduction of the Innocent, the U.S. Senate Investiga-
tion on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954 used a Strange Tales story, “With Knife in Hand!”
issue #28 (May 1954) by Jack Katz, as an example of the depravity they were fi ghting
against. Th e lead character, a surgeon, is asked to save a mobster’s girlfriend, who has
