Comic Review: Dr. Strange #2

Dr. Strange #2

Marvel Comics

Writer: Mark Waid

Art: Kev Walker & Java Tartaglia

Doctor Stephen Strange recovered his hands miraculously years after the accident that destroyed them. Now he decided to perform the difficult surgery he was so good at, being a part-time surgeon and a part-time sorcerer supreme. How well can that work?

The second issue picks up where the first one left off, with Stephen sinking into wrapped by a cinder block after The Wrecker left him to die. Strange manages to teleport to his magical forge and decides to create a new artifact to help him defeat the new magically-upgraded villain. Counterbalancing his sorcerer life, we then jump to Stephen performing a delicate surgery and dealing with his superhero enthusiastic assistant at the hospital. There, Strange meets none other than Anthony Ludgate (a.k.a Doctor Druid) who, as a psychiatrist, is now running the hospital.

Mark Waid’s new take on the character of Doctor Strange is starting off as charmingly as his last one (Doctor Strange (2018)). And that is why I’m still not so sure about this new one. The author’s last run presented a new take on Stephen’s life, as this one is doing, and it was going really well until things just started mixing up too much and becoming uninteresting in comparison to the novelty at the beginning. Despite that, Waid’s storytelling is still quite good. He’s able to present various situations in a decent and natural pace making it feel like a rushed day would in the life of a Neurosurgeon/Sorcerer Supreme.

Kev Walker’s work is still quite new but it’s plain to any comic book reader that it gets the job done. His action scenes are quite gripping in this chapter opting for less detailed background elements, such as smoke or bright light, in order to focus the reader’s attention. In contrast, he puts tons of detail in the scenes that take place at the hospital which helps establishing the tremendous rhythm difference in these two parts of Stephen’s new life, which I’m sure is a crucial element to this new run. A Doctor Strange colorist must be a wizard themselves and I liked Tartaglia’s coloring a lot! The way he put a lot of white into the magical elements and made the hospital scenes look more opaque and bland makes up for more of that contrast I already mentioned and it does so beautifully.

Dr. Strange still only has two issues out yet. As I mentioned before, I’m treading carefully about this new run before I see more of it. But that does not take the credit off this initial issues at all. Waid introduces another paradigm into Strange’s world and manages to use the ones he introduced before. The art team is incredibly competent and promises to bring a lot of cool visuals however this run may turn out. If you’re looking for a nice read and are a fan of Doctor Strange, you should give this issue a go.