Strange: The Doctor Is Out!

Collects: Strange #1-4 (2010)

Released: April 2010 (Marvel)

Format: 96 pages / color / $14.99 / ISBN: 9780785144250

What is this?: Stephen Strange, stripped of most of his magical might, muddles his way through the arcane world and meets a natural adept named Casey

The culprits: Writer Mark Waid and artist Emma Rios

I have a compulsion to buy new Dr. Strange material. I don’t know why; I’m often disappointed. (According to the ads inside the front cover, I managed to miss the Staczynski Strange mini somehow. Huh.) Anyway, this time the compulsion led me to Strange: The Doctor Is Out!.

Written by the veteran and reliable Mark Waid, Strange follows the former Sorcerer Supreme as he adjusts to not having (much) magic at his command. But while putting out a crisis, he runs into Casey, a plucky teenager girl who’s a natural adept. You can see where this is going — no, no, this isn’t a Clea situation.

The pacing on this four-issue miniseries feels off. The first issue has Strange and Casey meeting and solving a crisis; Casey has to find him again in #2, which is followed by a satire of children’s beauty pageants in #3, and then a cataclysm in #4. (Isn’t that always the way? First Little Miss contests, then the magical apocalypse.) The beginning dwells too long on a plot that hardly needs to be given a quarter of the page total, and at the end, Silver Dagger comes out of nowhere to be a minor annoyance rather than the more serious threat the character deserves. The magical crisis in #4 seems all out of proportion to what came before it; it ramps up the tension from, say, a 4 to 11 and expects readers to go along with it. It doesn’t work, though; it takes more than a thinly veiled Wall Street malfeasance reference for me to believe all of magic is in such danger that Shaky Hands McStrange has to perform surgery on Eternity.

Along with being powerless, Strange seems brainless at times. With souls on the line in a baseball game vs. demons, Shaky decides to bat instead of a professional hitter. Strange doesn’t consider that giving an enchanted item and teaching a spell to a natural adept might have consequences if he isn’t there to guide her. He decides he’s the best candidate to operate on Eternity, despite his coordination and magical problems. He’s even outwitted by a not very subtle demon. That last wouldn’t be a problem alone, but combined with the others, it doesn’t make Strange look good.

There are a lot of different ways this could have gone that would have been better. I like the character of Casey, and I liked her interactions with Strange. A more down-to-Earth series, with Strange teaching her and dealing with her problems, would have been excellent. Or having Casey help Strange deal with his new status quo — without allies or magic — might have been entertaining. Instead, it’s a lot of fireworks and not enough character.

As I mentioned in my review of Runways: Homeschooling, I’m not much for manga-influenced artists, and Emma Rios is no exception. Again, that’s a personal preference. But there are times when Rios’s storytelling is muddled — I’m a baseball fan, and I can’t tell what’s going on in the 2 ½ pages following the dropped third strike in #1, for instance. Rios’s design for Strange seems a bit stereotypical for manga / anime; I’m sure I’ve seen something very similar to Strange’s appearance on the title page in some anime, but it’s just escaping me. The glasses, hair, and fashion for Casey seem a bit stereotypical as well, although it’s as much an American stereotype as anything. On the other hand, Rios’s demons are creative and much more horrifying that the Technicolor goblins Marvel has used in the past, and those demons are a major part of the book.

Still, unless you’re a big fan of Rios’s work, there’s no reason to get Strange —unless Casey becomes an important character somewhere down the line.

Rating: (1.5 of 5)

Essential Dr. Strange, v. 4

Collects: Dr. Strange (v. 2) #30-56 (1978-82)

Released: June 2009 (Marvel)

Format: 584 pages / black and white / $19.99 / ISBN: 9780785130628

What is this?: Dr. Strange battles foes old and new and deals with Clea actually getting a personality

The culprits: Writers Roger Stern, Chris Claremont, and others; artists Gene Colan, Marshall Rogers, and others

I expected to be underwhelmed by Essential Doctor Strange, v. 4. I usually am underwhelmed by Dr. Strange stories, despite being a fan of the character. I think most Marvel fans are underwhelmed by Strange; it’s why everyone thinks a Dr. Strange series is a good idea but no one buys them .

But v. 4 surprised me, after a rough start. The book certainly has the pedigree to succeed; Roger Stern, who was at his peak with early ‘80s Marvel, writes most of the book, while Chris Claremont writes eight stories (#38-45) and the included Man-Thing story. Stern feels like the better fit. He’s remembered for writing Spider-Man, who’s a solo hero, like Strange. Claremont is known for his legendary X-Men run, which doesn’t seem to have much in common with Dr. Strange at all. But it’s Claremont, who wrote #38-45, who really gets things going in v. 4.

It’s through a typical Claremontian concern for female characters. Under Claremont’s pen, Clea, Strange’s lover and disciple, realizes she has learned somewhere between jack and squat from Strange, despite being raised in a more magical dimension. She draws the wrong conclusion from this — that she’s a bad student, rather than Strange being an indifferent-to-incompetent teacher — but at least it breaks the status quo and gives us a reason for Clea’s relative insignificance in magical battles. Claremont also develops Wong a little — well, mainly his forebears, but it’s something.

Claremont also introduces new magical enemies who look like Native Americans and gives Strange a business manager, Sara Wolfe, who’s both a woman AND a Native American. This reminds us that even when Claremont was at the height of his powers, not all his ideas were winners.

Stern gets the beginning (#30-7) and end (#47-56) of the book. His first run is a running battle between Strange and the Dweller in Darkness’s goons, and Strange never does figure out who is behind his assailants. The story ends abruptly, with the Dweller making a unilateral declaration of a nebulous, non-physical victory, as Stern leaves. His exit was probably the reason for the sudden stop — Stern had already switched to plotter (Ralph Macchio scripts) with #33 — but frankly, it had become dull even before then. Stern’s exit was a mercy killing. The only interesting bit is Stern reusing a character from a minor story from an issue of Chamber of Chills, but even that was done haphazardly.

When Stern returns, though, he picks up with Claremont’s disaffected Clea (and drops almost everything else). He introduces a romantic rival for Clea, which finally gives movement to Strange’s static personal life. He also brings back Mordo, one of the go-to villains for strange. Really, Mordo’s just there for credibility; the magician could have been anyone. But Mordo (and eventually Dormammu) lead Strange back through time on a great series of stories (#50-3) that brings in Sgt. Fury and his commandos, Nazis, the Fantastic Four, and Rama-Tut and ends with Clea leaving Strange. Another story has D’Spayre trying to convince Strange he’s a fictional character, even introducing him to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko analogues. In the final issue, Strange plays with former minions of Mordo who thought they were being clever. It’s a strong finish to the book, and it makes me eager for v. 5.

On the other hand, having such expectations of consistent quality is a recipe for disappointment. On the other other hand, the Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe says the next 20 or so issues are Stern teamed up with artists Paul Smith (who did a great job on #54 and 56) and Dan Green with a few others.

Adding even more to the plus side, Stern also has Strange and Clea engage in a rather suggestive “tantric exercise,” which Clea describes as “wonderful” and one she wants to try “more often.” So points to Stern for that. On the other hand, Stern kills a cat. So no perfect score for him either.

The pencils are primarily from Gene Colan and Marshall Rogers. Both are excellent choices. Few artists in Marvel’s stable did shadowy and spooky like Colan, who excelled at it on Tomb of Dracula and Daredevil. (To be fair, Marvel’s bright spandex world didn’t need it so often.) But he does an excellent job here (#36-45, 47), atmospheric and moody and occasionally frightening. His Strange frequently looks a bit too much like his Dracula for my tastes, but they don’t cross over so there’s no confusion, and they’re both imposing, handsome figures, so that’s OK. He uses darkness effectively, so that the reader always suspects something horrible is about to come from the shadows. That expectation is frequently greater than any actual horror inspired by the creatures on the page, but I blame that on the rather plain demons and adversaries Stern and Claremont give him. The black-and-white reproduction doesn’t help him either; with no color to help the shading, his work occasionally looks blotchy.

I am shocked that I enjoy Rogers’s pencils, given how unimpressed I was with his work in Batman: Strange Apparitions. His run (#48-53) is shorter than Colan’s, which is a shame. His style is completely different than Colan’s; while Colan eschews clear lines and his characters look like they can find shadow in a desert at noon, Rogers’s work is clear and bright, even in black and white. His art looks more modern than his contemporaries’, and some of the panels in this look like something that could have been created in the ‘90s, except Marshall has a command of anatomy and exaggerates physical attributes only slightly. Rogers’s Mordo is impressive, full of menace. His work in #53, in which Strange breaks down after Clea announces she’s leaving, is heartbreaking.

I didn’t expect to enjoy Essential Dr. Strange, v. 4. After the first ten issues, I really didn’t, despite the beginning of Colan’s run. But the story grew on me, and the art, more than the writing, won me over. By the end, though, Stern was putting together an impressive run, and I’m looking forward to finding out if he continued it.

Rating:

X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl

Collects: X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl #1-5 ()

Released: August 2006 (Marvel)

Format: 120 pages / color / $13.99 / ISBN: 9780785120315

X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl is, despite the name, neither an X-Statix or Dead Girl story. Instead, it’s more a of a Dr. Strange miniseries.

Now, Dr. Strange miniseries do not tend to go well. I don’t even buy them, and I like Dr. Strange. On the other hand, Dead Girl is written by Peter Milligan, and if there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that Milligan on lesser titles is never boring.

Dead Girl concerns the Pitiful One, a dead character who has found a way to return to the world temporarily, and with his band of dead miscreants — including the Anarchist from X-Statix — goes about causing havoc and claiming it will continue until Dr. Strange resurrects them. Dr. Strange calls upon the eponymous heroine to guide him in the land of the dead in his battle with the Pitiful One.

Milligan casts Strange as an ascetic who is too reserved and wrapped in his mystical pursuits to enjoy life. Despite the efforts of his servant, Wong, it takes the Pitiful One’s challenge and meeting Dead Girl — and oh, yeah, going to Hell — to make him feel alive again. Strange’s awakening is fun to watch, as he chides himself for acting like no other human: “Who the heck says ‘suffice’ nowadays?”

The Pitiful One and his crew are played strictly for laughs, as are the dead heroes, including another pair of X-Statix alumni, the Orphan and U-Go Girl, that Strange gathers to take on the Pitiful One. Strange even reveals the mechanism through which characters are resurrected: popularity. Not a surprise, of course, but stated so baldly — and when a particularly dire / homoerotic character named Player Piano is resurrected over the second Ant-Man or any character from X-Statix — it’s amusing.

Art is by Nick Dragotta, with inks by Mike Allred The effect is something very similar to Allred’s work on X-Force and X-Statix, although Dragotta’s work appears less flat and more blurred on the edges (probably a coloring technique). The similarity is frankly startling, but given how well Milligan and Allred work together, it isn’t unwelcome.

This isn’t an essential volume, and the plot is thin and played entirely for laughs. Buying Dead Girl will most likely not result in a decision to bring back X-Statix. But it’s worth the time and money for the pleasure of reading the unrestrained Milligan.

Rating: (3.5 of 5)

Essential Dr. Strange, v. 2

Collects: Doctor Strange v. 1 #169-178 and 180-183, Avengers #61, Sub-Mariner #22, Marvel Feature #1, Incredible Hulk #126, Marvel Premiere #3-14 (1968-74)

Released: March 2005 (Marvel)

We are blessed to live in a time when Marvel reprints so much of its material, from both its current output and its back catalog. The Essential program is especially impressive, reprinting:

1. The A-List Talent. Seven volumes of the Amazing Spider-Man, for instance, and five volumes of Fantastic Four, as well as five Essential Avengers and … well, I could go on.
2. The Second Stringers. Those who can sustain several series for a little bit or one for a long time. Power Man, who’s getting a second volume soon, or the Defenders, who are due.
3. The No Hopers. Or classic runs, if you prefer. (I don’t prefer.) These guys can’t hold down a book to save their lives: Killraven, Iron Fist, Monster of Frankenstein, Ant Man.

Dr. Strange fits firmly in the second list. The Sorcerer Supreme of Marvel Earth, battling magicians, extradimensional horrors, and gods, he’s been around since the Silver Age, had several series (and had several series cancelled), and is an integral part of the Marvel Universe. But how did he achieve that status? Other than being created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, of course.

The Essential Doctor Strange, v. 2, keeps Strange’s status as a Marvel mainstay a mystery.

Volume 2, logically enough, picks up where volume 1 left off: Strange Tales morphs into the first volume of the eponymous Dr. Strange comic. Volume 2 contains Dr. Strange #169-178 and 180-3 (#179 was a reprint), Avengers #61, Sub-Mariner #22, part of Marvel Feature #1, Incredible Hulk #126, and Marvel Premiere #3-14. There are two things that scream a warning in this listing: one, that there are so many guest appearances / crossovers included, and two, that Dr. Strange headlined Marvel Premiere. No good can come from either.

The first volume was the first Essential that I missed the color: the trippy Steve Ditko art missed something without the psychedelics, but it was still very enjoyable. I still believe Dr. Strange needs color like Ringo needs John, Paul, and George, but I didn’t miss it as much in v. 2 because the stories themselves were so lifeless and difficult to struggle through.

The Essential can be divided into three parts: The Dr. Strange beginnings, the run-up to the creation of the Defenders in the middle, and the Marvel Premiere at the end. The Dr. Strange issues are unremarkable, with Strange fighting the same cosmic entities (Dormammu, Nightmare, even the obscure Tiboro) and new crappy mages (Lord Nekron, the Sons of Satannish) as he did in Strange Tales, and without Ditko’s outstanding and inimitable art, there’s no spark. Gene Colan’s atmospheric pencils should be perfect for Strange, but for some reason, they don’t quite seem to click; perhaps the title needs someone who can pull out the Ditko acid trips every once and a while as showstoppers, and Colan doesn’t do that here. The only positive is that Clea, Strange’s future lover and student, is rescued from extradimensional exile and finally brought into the regular cast. Even that isn’t an unqualified success; Clea and Strange’s attraction seems forced and acted out by rote, and the attempt at a love triangle with an Englishwoman who is attracted to Strange goes nowhere.

The middle segment is the only one that’s very good, although unlike the Essential Defenders, the creation of the Defenders isn’t the focus of those issues — they merely cover what happened while Strange was not headlining a book. The Sub-Mariner issue leads out of the last Dr. Strange issue, Hulk #126 takes over from Sub-Mariner, and the back-up from Marvel Feature #1 leads into the Marvel Premiere (ugh) issues.

Marvel Premiere … ugh. #11-4 are entertaining, with Strange going back in time to fight Baron Mordo and finding a magician greater than either of them. But #3-10 are a listless Lovecraft pastiche that is gutted to be suitable for kiddies and turns into a horrible mess. “The Shadow over Innsmouth” becomes #4-6, the very Lovecraftian name “Shuma-Gorath” is the extradimensional being (read: Elder God) who is manipulating everything, and the cosmic horror Strange fights seems incredibly mundane. “The Living Buddha” even shows up as a villain, and that’s a high point.

The book plummets to a nadir at Marvel Premiere #4-6, the three-part Lovecraftian storyline. (The credits claim to feature “concepts created by Robert E. Howard,” which is bizarre, given Howard got the concepts from Lovecraft.) The issues feature writing from Gardner Fox, not at his best, and art by three different pencillers — Barry Windsor-Smith, Irv Wesley, and Frank Brunner (with help from Sal Buscema). To say the art is inconsistent is a severe understatement; going from Windsor-Smith, a legend (also not at his best, though), to the serviceable Wesley is like hitting a brick wall at 100 mph.

Most jarring is the depiction of the people of Starkesboro; they are described as having the Starkesboro look, which is supposed to inspire unease or revulsion in spectators. Windsor-Smith chooses to give the residents a scaly look that makes them appear part reptile, while Wesley chooses to make them look half-Muppet.

Marvel Premiere must be among the worst Marvel Universe comics of all time. It starts out with two issues of Adam Warlock and goes only downhill from there. Twelve mostly subpar issues with Dr. Strange are followed by 11 painful Iron Fist issues. Then it features a bunch of mostly single-issue heroes that will almost certainly never be reprinted. Looking over a summary of the issues, the only interesting bits seem to be #51-3 — the finale of a Black Panther storyline that stretches over four years and three different titles — and #50, an Alice Cooper story.

(Admittedly, I’ve never read anything other than the Iron Fist / Dr. Strange issues. And if you’re a sci-fi fan, there might be something in the Dr. Who, Weirdworld, Star-Lord, and Seeker 3000 stories. But if the quality of those 23 issues are anything to judge by, the series has more value in the recycle bin than in a long box.)

Anyway, back on task: There’s nothing in the Essential Dr. Strange v. 2 for anyone — except for completists, the curious, and Dr. Strange fanatics (you know who you are, all three of you). Otherwise, give this a miss. It’s not the worst Essential I’ve read — that would be Essential Super-Villain Team-Up — but it’s a chore to read. Grade: D+