Comic Review: Doctor Strange #2

Doctor Strange #2

Marvel Comics

Written By: Mark Waid

Art By: Jesus Saiz

While searching for magic totems across the galaxy, Doctor Stephen Strange is a prisoner on an alien planet (A planet that doesn’t even have a word for magic) stripped of his connection to any kind of magic, which, as you can guess, is a pretty awkward situation for the Master of The Mystic Arts to be in. Luckily for us, it makes for a hell of an issue.

My last review was a bit harsh on the fact that the story revolves around Strange losing his connection to magic (again), because it’s really not the most exciting premise for a new series to start with, especially when it was already explored within a year or two. I get how it can serve as a device to really build out the character and his human traits, but Dr.Strange is as fleshed out as he needs to be. But, I’m not going to get into that again, I can write 100 pages about why I’m not a fan of that story device.

Like I previously mentioned, we pick up with Strange in a prison on the planet Grynda. Since we last saw him, he’s been experimented on, analyzed, and pretty much tortured. His luck seems to change when arcanologist (she searches the galaxy for magic items to sell) Pkzrfmknna (Kanna for short) becomes his new cellmate. Kanna reveals to Stephen that she’s looking for a powerful magical item, The Eye Of Basphorus, which he thought was an old wizard wives tale, and he began to feel hope. Using bits of his armor, Kanna, using technomancy, sprung them both out of the clink and on the path to freedom, but they have The Eye of Basphorus to worry about, they also discover a ghastly plan that Stephen just can’t ignore.

I absolutely love this issue. I feel it’s a ginormous improvement over the last one, in that it still gives you a magic fix here and there, and the cool occult imagery that you plop money on a Doctor Strange book to see. Mark Waid knocks it out of the park. Everything is perfect: the pacing, the dialogue, the narration…EVERYTHING. Yes, Strange is still magicless, but we see that these totems and artifacts still affect him (He does use the Eye Of Basphorus at one point, and it’s satisfying, and drawn beautifully), so we’ll be seeing him and Kanna run around the universe collecting magical items and solving problems on whatever planet they visit. Which, seems like an amazing fun time, to see Strange slowly build his repertoire again, be in awe of magic, and explore Stephen in space, a place we don’t see him often.

I hope the series goes to tremendous places, and Jesus Saiz is the perfect person to take it there. His art is astounding in this series, his facial expressions are realistic, which always has a great impact on the weight of a comic. On top of that, his space-scapes have such a weird juxtaposition of a busy-emptiness(I know it sounds dumb, but that’s the only way I can describe it) as well as the beautifully drawn panels where Strange activates The Eye of Basphorus. One last thing worth mentioning, it has one of the most hysterical, confounding endings I’ve seen an issue of anything for a long time. I really, REALLY look forward to seeing where Waid and Saiz’s Doctor Strange series goes.