You Are Now Witnessing the Strength of Street Magic
Written By:
Jason Aaron
Art By:
Kevin Nowlan & Leonardo Romero, Jordie Bellaire
Lettered By:
VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Price:
$3.99
On Sale Date: September 7, 2016
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
When your last name is Strange, you pretty much have
to become a doctor, don’t you? Mr. Strange has no cache, Ms. Strange sounds
like something drunkenly slurred. Prof. Strange is just asking for a classroom
of jokers and crude, mocking drawings of the teacher. If you want to make the
most of your surname being so…unusual, you have to get that doctorate degree
for the best prefix. You don’t have to become a surgeon like Stephen Strange,
Master of the Mystic Arts—you don’t even need to become a medical doctor at
all. A doctorate in history or 20th Century American Literature will
suffice, there’s accreditation for every subject if you look hard enough. With
online schools, I’m sure you could have a degree in Marvel Comics or Pokémon or
whatever the hell else. So you could be Doctor Strange, Master of the Fleer
Hockey Trading Cards of the 1990s! Let’s take a look at what’s happening with
the real Doctor Strange, shall we?
Kids, if there’s anything you ever take away from my
reviews, it’s that there’s no hope in dope! Users are losers, and losers (or
one variant thereof) are users! Of drugs, I mean! You can win while riding the
fantastic prismatic dragon, which Dr. Stephen Strange learns when he shoots up with
MGH (that’s Mutant Growth Hormone for those readers unfamiliar with sports
scandals), briefly develops Cyclops’ powers and dies. Strange is given the
traditional junkie burial of being tossed in a dumpster, and it looks like he
might get taken out with the recycling when a ghostly form of the Ancient
One—the guy that taught him magic in the first place, fyi—comes floating by in
the lotus position and resuscitates Stephen with, uh, magic I guess. Strange
pukes, probably improving the local stench a bit, then shuffles on to more
desperation.
The problem, you see, is that there’s no more magic.
Empirikul got rid of it all last issue using a bunch of leftover droids from
Attack of the Clones. Dr. Strange is lamenting as much to Chondu, the floating
head bartender at the Bar With No Doors, once a favorite haunt of magicians and
probably warlocks, if there even is a difference between the two. Chondu says
he’s got to pick himself up and stop trying to find shortcuts to restoring the
world’s magic. Instead, he should build a new standard of magic, spell by
spell, page by page. Dr. Strange is like, “Ugh! That seems like so much work!” but resolves to take care of
things, since he is the main character in this comic book. Strange steps onto
the street and opens up his third eye to see how the world of boogums and
haints is faring—this sort of turns the regular world into plain black and
white, while revealing all manner of floating sea life and colorful creatures
that have latched on to the unsuspecting mainstream world. One woman is
clutched by a pretty gross-looking bug spirit, so Dr. Strange steps up and
tells it to vacate the premises…and it doesn’t go well for Stephen.
Back at the Sanctum Sanctorum, which looks rundown
like a lot of places in the West Village are looking these days, Strange
reconvenes with his staff: Zelma Stanton, librarian who is tasked with
restoring the books of magic, page by page; and faithful Wong, who had to tell
Dr. Strange’s monastic fan group to disband because they wouldn’t be sending
any more signed 8x10 glossies anymore. Looks like we’re going to building magic
from scratch, all the old tricks aren’t going to work anymore. Strange is going
to have to start from Three-Card Monte and work his way up to sawing a member
of the audience in half. Strange goes to his hall of weapons and retrieves a
baseball bat wrapped in magic barbed wire. He’s going to go back for seconds
with the parasitic bug spirit. We cut to an early tale of Stephen Strange’s
life, when he was just beginning to train with the Ancient One in hopes of
getting his surgery hands back in shape again. If you don’t know the story,
grab the Marvel Masterworks or
something—the early Dr. Strange books
are flipping divine. The Ancient One’s other student, Baron Mordo, offers Strange
a cure for his hands—if he scrams and never looks back. Strange decides he may
be an alcoholic, philandering playboy, but he’s no quitter—and so decides to
stay with the Ancient One for the long haul. Back in the present, Strange
clobbers the spirit bug with his magic bat, then lies right on the sidewalk
like a bum, even garnering change, despite him being the only thing standing up
against the waking world and weird ethereal insect monsters!
Someone not that shocking shows up at the end, but at
this point I can say…I liked this issue. A lot. I sort of dig the
Fraction/Aja’s Hawkeye approach to
Dr. Strange, and the fact that he’s got to start from scratch. The art
complimented the story very well and I like it better than what’s come before
(which, incidentally, I didn’t hate either.) This looks to be a pretty
interesting tale ramping up, and despite my concerns that it might be another
bloated five-issue set of press proofs for the trade collection, I must say
that this issue roped me in pretty well for the next issue.
Bits and
Pieces:
8/10
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