...when the whole of creation stands on the precipice of oblivion....
...when the very fabric of reality is being torn asunder....
...what you need...is a
Doctor.
Doctor Stephen Strange, once a brilliant neurosurgeon who lost the use of his fine motor functions in a terrible accident, sought a cure and instead became something far greater - the Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth Dimension. He is also one of my favorite characters in all of fiction ever.
This is actually Strange's second time having his own series, though it's been quite some time since he was last on his own. For many years, he was a secondary character in Spider-Man (which is where I first came across him) and has been shipped around to various books in the Marvel universe since his series ended at some point in the 90s. But now, largely thanks to the fact that he's got a movie coming out next year, he's back! And it's about time the Doctor starting making house calls once again!
And he's off to a good start by saving the soul of a young man from a pack of demons who have possessed him while narrating about his backstory, catching up new readers with the cliff notes in a quick and concise way. Kudos to the creative team on using the older comic panels on the first page, really helps set the mood of the old Lee/Ditko stories of the 1960s, which I think is very faithfully homaged by the artwork of Christopher Bachalo and Timothy Townsend in this issue.
Also of note is the story, which is setting up the storyline in the right way. The good Doctor goes to the Bar With No Doors (not to be confused with the Bar With No Name), and learns from other sorcerers - namely Doctor Voodoo, Shaman, and Scarlet Witch - that more extra-dimensional occurrences like the boy being possessed by a whole pack of demons seem to be becoming alarmingly more common. Something is coming, though none of them know just what it might be. But still, it seems enough of a threat for supernatural creatures to be moving into the Earth dimension to avoid it, which speaks volumes.
We also do, in the Bar with No Doors, get some insight into Strange's psyche. Keep in mind, while the rest of Marvel has (for the most part) operates on a floating timescale where stories in the past happened more recently (since trying to have a continuity that began in the 1939 stretch out realistically into the present with nobody aging in the meantime would be absolutely insane), Doctor Strange is one of the few that is exempt from this. All of his stories, so far as I've read, are meant to be taking place on the publishing date...other hero and villain guest stars aside.
Immortal because of his duty as the Sorcerer Supreme, this is a man who has spent fifty-two years in constant battle with forces beyond mortal comprehension. It's rather akin to Linkara's analysis of Tommy Oliver in
Power Rangers: Dino Thunder in his
History of the Power Rangers series (which you can view
here, it's really good stuff). Doctor Strange has been
single-handedly fighting this battle against cosmic powers that would mow down the Avengers, the X-Men, and every other Marvel team for a half century. But it's a war that really doesn't know any end. As the old saying goes "there's always a bigger fish".
Having a duty that involves constantly fighting Cthulhu and pals on a regular basis has had a deep, resounding psychological effects on Strange. He mentions at one point how he's "vomited up pieces of [his] soul" and can't sleep for more than a few hours every night as proof that he's more than paid the cost of using magic. Even with how debilitating this can be to a person, Stephen still maintains his duty and seeks out the damned horrors that plague humanity, still
chooses this life despite the fact that it has been slowly (or not so slowly) tearing away his own humanity piece by piece over the many years he's been doing it.
Mind you, I could just be reading too much into things, but I'd be very surprised if that was not what was intended by that scene and I really enjoy that it was addressed about the character.
And, to close things out, while the Doctor deals with a new task entirely, we get some scenes of a new enemy for him. In the "13th Dimension", a sorcerer by the name of Szandor Zoso tries to get a message out to someone, anyone of his attackers - the Empirikul. Unfortunately, he doesn't get far before he's attacked by some wolves with spiky, metallic harnesses on their backs and a group of those robots from the
Doctor Who episode "The Girl Who Waited", led by a figured cloaked in black known only as "the Imperator".
And seriously, this guy is just
badass from the jump. He speaks all of three lines of dialogue, stops Zoso's message by
blowing a hole in the wall, and then simply walks out to leave the clean up to his minions as Zoso's home burns to the ground from the explosion. If ever you needed a perfect introduction to your villain, this is definitely it. Kudos!
This is a triumphant return for Doctor Strange to a solo series and a wonderful set up for a series that I have high, high hopes for. Bravo!
...don't screw it up.
Doctor Strange #1 is now available from Marvel Comics wherever fine comic books are sold.
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