Still, at the very least, it gives me a good base to go off of. If you don't feel like clicking the above link, here's a quick recap of Issue #1. Zelma Stanton, a young woman who worked as a librarian and was "lol snarky" incarnate came to Doctor Strange for some assistance dealing with some magical maggots that had wormed their way into her brain. Then they got out. With Issue #2, we're going to pick up right where we left off - maggot apocalypse already in progress.
We begin with a caption reading "177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, New York" and Stephen narrating through yellow text boxes as to the origins of his beloved home - the Sanctum Sanctorum. It apparently fits more haunted house tropes than the house in Night of the Demons and my god, I never thought I'd ever be able (or inclined) to connect anything to that piece of crap ever again for the rest of my life. Before the rage can overtake me, however, we press on to Stephen working his mojo to summon the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to vanquish his foe!
...the slight problem comes when it doesn't work. At all.
The creatures in Zelma escape and she is, rightly, very freaked out by all this. We get some genuine body horror as she apparently still has little mouths with razor-sharp teeth all over her body. When Stephen doesn't allow her to leave the Sanctum and gives her a sword, she's very reasonably even more freaked out by what is happening.
From there, we get a bit of scenery porn as Stephen leads Zelma through the Sanctum and we get to see it in detail for the first time in the new run. Chris Bachalo's art and the coloring by Tim Townsend, Al Very, and Mark Irwin absolutely shines here. We are treated to a rather organic library where Stephen warns Zelma to touch nothing and to be careful where she steps - opening the refrigerator door could unleash Hell on Earth! - as well as a bathhouse with incredibly lethal waters and a...rather curious room where Stephen is offered by three spirit forms to deal with...various medical issues he's having.
In the library, Zelma is horrified at the state of things, though Stephen tells her there are worse things in the world than stacks of books strewn about. He's proven right when one of the creatures opens up the Grimoire of Watoomb and blows Zelma away...to face a door that opens into a zombie apocalypse-looking world. She manages to evade it and get back into the Sanctum proper, entering into the kitchen where we get an introduction of the man, the myth, the legend - Beyonc-I mean, Wong. Yes, Wong.
It's honestly a good reintroduction of the character as Wong lays a smack down on one of the creatures with some kung fu and a frying pan and begins to cook it, much to Zelma's disgust. After that, the pair find Stephen in the study, where he's been looking through his books and he believes he's discovered the origin of the species as well as what they're after. When Stephen mentions they seem to be going toward the cellar, Wong mentions that they keep something there, but Zelma eventually interjects and Stephen cuts the conversation short there - saying that she's the only person who can save the world.
The creatures are still connected to Zelma, and Stephen tells her that only she can lure them back to her so that she can contain them. Naturally, Zelma goes into full freak out mode and Stephen has to apply some of his bedside manner, eventually convincing her to help. Zelma begins, at Stephen's direction, shouting out her deepest, darkest secrets - such as cheating on her driver's exam, thinking her sister's baby is ugly, hating her mother's meatloaf, and voting for J. Jonah Jameson as Mayor.
...yeah, in the last few years, old Flat-Top became the Mayor of New York. It ended after Superior Spider-Man, but it was definitely kind of surreal from the bits of it that I've read.
The creatures return, just as Stephen said they would, and he uses his own body to absorb all of them. After recovering a bit later, Stephen explains to Zelma that his mind is far more protected than hers is, so he'll simply trap them in himself and let them starve themselves to death...provided the other things in his body don't kill them first.
After seeing her out, Stephen offers Zelma a position as the Sanctum's librarian - needing someone to sort his books. Zelma agrees that she can be weird on one day a week, saying that she'll see him on Saturday.
Once she's left, though, Wong berates Stephen for lying to her. The creatures - Mind Maggots - are not like the common cold. In fact, they have never been on the Earth Dimension in recorded magical history. Stephen relates to Wong how his use of the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak did not work, either, saying that there must be something else going on. They got to investigate...and one of the doors in the Sanctum opens, revealing a green, pox-ridden hand.
The body attached to it staggers through, saying that he must find the Sorcerer Supreme...before he's dragged back through by the Empirkul, who say that they will burn the "corruption" out of him.
Out of all of them.
Being that I'm about a year ahead (give or take) in my reading of the current run on Doctor Strange (which has been fantastic pretty much all the way through, by the way) I can tell you that there is a lot of set up here. Not just the introduction of Zelma into the Sanctum Sanctorum team, but also the Thing in the Basement, Stephen's failing spells, and the march of the Empirkul. Unlike Scarlet Spider, which had to build a status quo from scratch, Doctor Strange already has one and has had it for years - Stephen and Wong being the main members of the team with others often being satellites in their orbit - so that they could shake up the status quo.
And boy was Jason Aaron's run all about shaking up that status quo. In the biggest of ways. To the credit of the creative teams, it's something that's stuck up past Issue #386 at the time that I'm writing this. And no, there are not 384 comics to review between then and now, but we'll get to that when I review Issues #25 and #381.
For now, we're getting the plot hints dropped and set up for a big pay off. But we're still a few issues off from that. Come back next Sunday, when we dig into Issue #4! See you then!
Doctor Strange #2 was brought to us by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, and Cory Petit.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
No comments:
Post a Comment