This week’s rundown begins with Doctor Strange #1, which strands the good doctor on Asgard. Additionally, we cover “Hulk Smashes Everything #1” and begin the final dispatch with “The Age of Revelation.” Read what our team thinks about this week’s book.
Doctor Strange #1
Screenplay: Derek Landry
Artist: Ivan Fiorelli
Colorist: Dono Sanchez Almara
Author: Cory Petit of VC
Marvel’s current era of “big” status quo changes feels like a combination of the past decade’s gruesome, gritty makeovers and lame new costumes rolled into one. The characters are given a new “direction,” but that direction is abandoned after a year at most. Readers saw Miles Morales become a vampire in Blood Hunt, but now he’s back to being human. Daredevil dies, but is resurrected as an amnesiac priest and is now more or less a lawyer.
So what is the third or fourth change in the status quo in the past decade for Dr. Stephen Strange? The magic is gone, and the magic is back. Although he is not the best magician, he later earned his title again. He is dead, he is alive. Does anyone know what to do with this character at this point?
In the aftermath of One World Under Doom and the recent Thor storyline, the latest Doctor Strange #1 introduces the magical hero as the Sorcerer Supreme of Asgard. However, he’s stuck there, and everyone seems to be blaming him for Thor’s recent death (which isn’t actually dead, he just dies). So now the Asgardians keep him as an errand boy trying to get home.
Art: Ivan Fiorelli and Dono Sanchez-Almara
Changing the status quo is not a bad thing. The last series of Doctor Strange featured him and his wife Claire as the magical Nick and Nora Charles, which was a lot of fun. The melodrama of superhero comics demands a change from time to time. However, it’s one thing to change a character’s life; it’s another to completely turn that life upside down. No matter what possibilities writer Derek Landry’s script presents, ultimately we, as readers, know that Strange will return to Earth. While this change is fun, the possibilities are limited.
Another problem with setting Doctor Strange in this new world is that it flattens a character with a rich history tied to the occult into a common wizard. A man with a rich history of horror and weird fiction-related adventures is now in the midst of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. At first glance, the idea sounds fun. Comics are fun, and they should be. Also, horror and fantasy aren’t that far apart. Horror giants like HP Lovecraft and Stephen King also write fantasy. So, ideally, Doctor Strange as a more traditional wizard could once again offer the possibility.
Art: Ivan Fiorelli and Dono Sanchez-Almara
But Asgard and the other Nine Realms feel ordinary compared to the far more bizarre places the Doctor has visited in his past adventures. Remember, this is a man who in his early stories entered the realm of nightmares and witnessed a giant demon lord fight against existence itself. The person who once killed all vampires. The traditional sword and sorcery world here seems pretty tame by comparison. Fighting an evil elven sorcerer doesn’t have the same impact as fighting Dormammu.
What really saved this comic was the art team of artist Ivan Fiorelli and colorist Dono Sánchez-Almara. Fiorelli paints expressive figures and props with a sense of weight that builds on more fantastical elements. Armor takes on weight as your character moves or struggles to swing a weapon. Additionally, Fiorelli’s costumes, while elaborately decorated, manage to make them look not too busy. All of this is helped considerably by Sanchez Almara, whose colors really work with Fiorelli to make this a fun comic to watch.
Art: Ivan Fiorelli and Dono Sanchez-Almara
But that’s the only joy of being part of a series that reads like a placeholder. Wanda Maximoff may be the Sorcerer Supreme at this point, but Doctor Strange is probably just biding his time until someone comes up with an easy way to bring him back to Earth. But for now, he’s just a wizard in another fantasy land. It’s not very exciting. At least bring back the thoughtless ones.
Verdict: View
rapid rundown
Hulk Breaks Everything #1 Sometimes comics deliver exactly what they promise and what you want. That’s what we get with the first issue from writer Ryan North and artist Vincenzo Caratu. The Hulk is rampaged by his nemesis, the Leader, and ends up coming face to face with Doctor Strange and numerous dinosaurs. There’s very little content so far, just some maniacal action. But for someone like me who isn’t too familiar with the Hulk mythology, this is a welcome evergreen tale of the classic Jade Giant at its most savage. You’d think there would be more emphasis on the story as the story progresses, but here the emphasis is more on the action than anything else, and Carratú delivers on that with some explosive layouts. The way he arranges his panels so that they fly daggers at the reader gives momentum and weight to the action and really sells the power on display. This is my first time seeing this artist and my first impression is great! Federico Brie’s colors are clear and bold, and his decision to desaturate and contrast all of the background details makes the Hulk’s bright greens pop even more, giving it an even more impressive presence on the page beyond its linear scale. Joe Caramagna goes to town on his SFX, selling each KRAKA-BOOM and adding some playful dynamism to Smash. And what about the last page? You’d never guess, and it ends up being one of the best, most ridiculous cliffhangers I can remember. This is pure fun. – T.R.
Dispatch from the Age of Apocalypse!
AMAZING X-MEN #3 The End of the Age of Apocalypse Begins Here! It’s the final month of this year’s big X-Men crossover, and writer Jed McKay features this issue as setting the stage for the final battle between the X-Men, Apocalypse, and Revelation. Effectively a quiet issue before the storm, we are treated to future X-Men sneaking into Philadelphia, giving us a moment of respite after spending the previous two issues on the run. This issue has some great character moments as we get to see more of the relationship dynamics between Beast and Animalia. Honestly, McKay does a great job throughout Beast. Over the past year, McKay has continued to star in X-Men, taking on the daunting task of “fixing” Beast, whose heel turn has been delayed for decades. It never felt like it was fully realized before, but in this issue we get to see the Beast, who is still flawed but essentially heroic. Essentially, he’s an amalgamation of this character’s past decade and ’90s characters. McKay continues to do great character work with Cyclops and Grob Herman. It was a fun dynamic to watch unfold. Artist Mahmoud Asrar delivers a gorgeous-looking issue that allows him to flex his action muscles and showcase his talents in more sincere moments. I said it was “practically not a problem at all,” but the fight is still going on. This is a superhero comic, after all. The only issue I have with this issue is that Doug’s main threat or conflict with Apocalypse is not established. Honestly, it wasn’t until this issue that we found out what Doug’s evil plan was in the first place. Spoiler: This is the B-plot of the early 2000s Marvel event “Maximum Security.” Yes, friends, we have an ego, a living planet situation. While I enjoy Age of Revelation as is, it has major flaws in structure and execution. Bloated partnerships don’t help much. This week’s other titles, “Binary #3” and “Laura Kinney, Sabretooth #3,” both end their respective plotlines with little or nothing to do with the main event. I’m all for world building, but I lost the plot in most of the tie-ins. I’m interested to see how the event ends, but I’m worried that it will leave me feeling unsatisfied. –J.J.
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