Doctor Strange #14
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Chris Bachalo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Points for originality. I would never have thought demon bacon could be such an entertaining plot engine.
Writer Jason Aaron's most recent arc on Doctor Strange, called Blood in the Aether, gives readers a change of pace every month. Following world-threatening events that caused Doctor Strange to funnel all of the magic on the planet into one attack against the Empirikul, our hero was left more vulnerable than he's ever been. He now relies on magical trinkets, artifacts and enchantments to defend himself against monsters and demons. This has caused all his villains to cautiously prod his remaining ability. Jason Aaron has managed to make the villains both overconfident and overcautious as they test this weaker, but cleverer Doctor Strange.
Within a matter of hours, the good Doctor has been confronted by Mister Misery, a being of his own accidental creation, Baron Mordo, Nightmare, and now Satana. It's really not fair to a guy who just saved the world. Satana is more interested in Doctor Strange's celebrity status among superheroes. She wants him to be the main attraction at her personal hell. All the cool demons are lining up to see him. As amazingly silly as this sounds, and it is, it's also awesome. Jason Aaron has crafted a story that manages to be gross, funny, meta, intimate and quaint all at the same time.
In the All New All Different Marvel world, Stephen Strange cracks wise at everything. It's different than any version of the character I remember. It's mostly entertaining to have any hero mock the dangers he faces with witty quips, but it reminds me of the direction that Chris Claremont and Jim Lee took with Cyclops in 1991. Suddenly, the once stoic leader started making wisecracks and everyone talked about his newfound sense of humor. We don't need every hero to be a comedian like Spider-Man. Variety is the spice of life. If this is Strange's new personality after realities collapsed into one another post-Secret Wars, that's fine, but it was an abrupt change in behavior.
The art falls a notch from what we're used to seeing from Chris Bachalo. As good as he is, even he got overwhelmed on a few pages. So much on one page went on without physical context that it was difficult to follow. It probably would have been impossible to figure out without narration. It doesn't dampen the overall story, but messes up the pace because it might require some re-reading.
This series has just about everything one could ask for in a comic book about magic. It has astral projection, trippy nightmares and hellscapes, oddball characters, spells, magical artifacts, demons and on and on. This has been the best issue of the current arc because it wasn't afraid to embrace the silly wackiness of magical interactions.
Artist: Chris Bachalo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Points for originality. I would never have thought demon bacon could be such an entertaining plot engine.
Writer Jason Aaron's most recent arc on Doctor Strange, called Blood in the Aether, gives readers a change of pace every month. Following world-threatening events that caused Doctor Strange to funnel all of the magic on the planet into one attack against the Empirikul, our hero was left more vulnerable than he's ever been. He now relies on magical trinkets, artifacts and enchantments to defend himself against monsters and demons. This has caused all his villains to cautiously prod his remaining ability. Jason Aaron has managed to make the villains both overconfident and overcautious as they test this weaker, but cleverer Doctor Strange.
Within a matter of hours, the good Doctor has been confronted by Mister Misery, a being of his own accidental creation, Baron Mordo, Nightmare, and now Satana. It's really not fair to a guy who just saved the world. Satana is more interested in Doctor Strange's celebrity status among superheroes. She wants him to be the main attraction at her personal hell. All the cool demons are lining up to see him. As amazingly silly as this sounds, and it is, it's also awesome. Jason Aaron has crafted a story that manages to be gross, funny, meta, intimate and quaint all at the same time.
In the All New All Different Marvel world, Stephen Strange cracks wise at everything. It's different than any version of the character I remember. It's mostly entertaining to have any hero mock the dangers he faces with witty quips, but it reminds me of the direction that Chris Claremont and Jim Lee took with Cyclops in 1991. Suddenly, the once stoic leader started making wisecracks and everyone talked about his newfound sense of humor. We don't need every hero to be a comedian like Spider-Man. Variety is the spice of life. If this is Strange's new personality after realities collapsed into one another post-Secret Wars, that's fine, but it was an abrupt change in behavior.
The art falls a notch from what we're used to seeing from Chris Bachalo. As good as he is, even he got overwhelmed on a few pages. So much on one page went on without physical context that it was difficult to follow. It probably would have been impossible to figure out without narration. It doesn't dampen the overall story, but messes up the pace because it might require some re-reading.
This series has just about everything one could ask for in a comic book about magic. It has astral projection, trippy nightmares and hellscapes, oddball characters, spells, magical artifacts, demons and on and on. This has been the best issue of the current arc because it wasn't afraid to embrace the silly wackiness of magical interactions.
A Look Inside
