Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum are well known as the creators of the MODOK animated series as well as the writers of a recent MODOK comic book, and they’re also the creators of their own superhero universe in the comic Minor Threats and its spin-offs.
And while they’ve both had successful careers outside of comics, to the point where Patton (whose memorable acting credits are too numerous to name) has even had a role in the MCU as Pip the Troll, they both say that when it comes to superhero stories, there’s just nothing like a good old fashioned comic book.
“I think it’s the most bombastic way to tell their stories,” Blum tells Newsarama. “Like there are visuals that will never be achieved in movies or TV that can be achieved in comics. The long form storytelling, the building. I mean, we cite Chris Claremont all the time. That guy wrote X-Men for 16 years. It’s incredible to be able to plot out and show the changes in these characters and how they progress for that long. You can’t really do that with anything else.”
“You can really live a life with a certain character for a long, long time,” adds Oswalt. “Because of the way people age, the way actors age, you can’t really do that even, I think, with a TV show. So yeah, comics are, if you want a long run saga, it’s the only form.”
“And I think they were born in this format, you know?” Blum continues. “Like, this is where they come from. So this is the best way to tell their stories.”
And when it comes to great comic book stories, Oswalt and Blum are both lifelong fans of Marvel Comics who have now compiled a collection of so-called “unforgettable” Marvel issues from across the publisher’s decades of history. But their own love of Marvel goes all the way back to their childhoods.
“I just remember comics being around just kind of piled up for us kids. And the Marvel ones, that was my first realization of like, oh, this company does their stuff better. The art looks cooler. The characters are cooler,” says Oswalt. “I remember a doc ox Spider Man issue that I thought was just brilliant. Great villains, great heroes. It was just this thing in the air that I was able to detect.”
“My dad learned to read and speak English from comics, so it was kind of passed down to me immediately,” explains Blum. “Like there’s pictures of me in my highchair with them. And I think my earliest memory, I guess, like my first comic, was, I remember the toys of the ’80s kind of coincided with the comics. I remember simultaneously buying, I think, a bunch of the Secret Wars toys while reading Secret Wars. And it was like love at first sight for me.”
Marvel Comics did indeed develop 1984-85’s Secret Wars comic book series simultaneously alongside the classic Mattel toy line in an unprecedented cross-media production. The now classic comic story will serve as the inspiration for Avengers: Secret Wars, the big payoff film of the current Multiverse Saga of the MCU.
What makes a truly unforgettable Marvel Comics story? As it turns out, it’s remarkably hard to pin down just ten examples that sum it up. But Oswalt and Blum wound up focusing on stories that carry an element of surprise, and which sum up something special and elemental about the characters in them.
“Putting the list together was actually kind of easy. The problem was then just, you know, we had to then cut the list down,” Oswalt says. “For me, it was easy, because there are moments in these comics that really stay with you. So for me, unforgettable is those moments that really jump on you and surprise you, that you do not see coming. That’s what helped us choose.”
“Yeah, I think there were just these little touchstones of our history of reading, and things that hit us and stayed with us forever,” adds Blum. “I think of that X-Factor issue where Havoc goes to therapy to deal with his inadequacy issues, and as a kid in therapy I was like ‘Oh, okay. You can connect to these things on a deeply personal level.’ I think these stories can really go much deeper and explore interesting things. And we tried to have self contained stories, or at least moments that worked on their own.”
As for what makes the Marvel Universe in particular so special, Oswalt says it all comes down to Marvel’s classic ‘world outside your window,’ while Blum says it’s all about Marvel’s focus on developing its characters.
“I love how vibrant, messy and overcrowded it is. I love that any character can take the spotlight,” says Oswalt. “It is the closest thing to like, the messiness of life. It just happens to have superpowers and cosmic entities in it, but it is. They’ve really, really captured the chaos of the world we live in better than, I think, a lot of mediums.”
“I think it’s character first, right?” Blum adds. “Marvel was the first one that was like, ‘You’re gonna care more about the secret identity than you’re gonna care about the superhero’.”
Marvel: Unforgettable Stories is available now from Folio Society.
Check out our list of the best Marvel Comics stories of all time.