Marvel Comics has been consistently letting me down as of late, so when I saw they were launching a new Dr. Strange mini-series I began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Strange is one of my favorite characters in the entire Marvel Universe and though I’d rather he have a monthly the last two mini-series have been really spectacular. That’s what makes this new series, simply titled Strange, so damn disappointing. Apparently even the stature of a character like Dr. Strange can’t stop Marvel from completely screwing it up.
Nothing in the first issue of Strange works at all on any level. The story, penned by usually first-rate writer Mark Waid, is just plain stupid. Dr. Strange is attending a baseball game where he meets a young spoiled girl whose grandfather owns one of the teams. Apparently the grandfather made a deal with the demon Tul’Uth but that deal is so convoluted and badly laid out you’re never really sure what the threat is.
Whatever the issue is it’s up to Dr. Strange to play in this baseball game so that the home team wins thus breaking the curse. I’m not kidding at all, that’s the plot, Dr. Strange plays baseball, that’s what we get. Waid tries to throw in some sub-plot about the spoiled girl being a natural at magic (a not so subtle hint that Strange will be teaching her) but by the time that came out I just didn’t care anymore.
It feels like Waid decided to toss out everything Dr. Strange was about and write whatever he wanted to. Dr. Strange screaming, “Swing battah” just doesn’t work and neither does the introduction of this girl who may or may not be his student. There is no set up as to why this girl is the chosen one she just is and we have to accept it. The entire first issue felt rushed as if Waid wanted to do a six issue series but only got four and had to make huge cuts. Whatever the reason the entire issue reads like the clumsy work of a novice comic book scribe not a seasoned veteran like Mark Waid.
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Where Strange #1 really grinds to an absolute standstill is with the art, which is so bad I began to think this was some art student that won a contest. At fault for this travesty is Spanish artist Emma Rios who apparently worked with Waid on Hexed for Boom! Studios. Rios' art is an ugly hybrid of what looks like computer graphics and bad manga. Rios apparently doesn’t believe in any kind of subtle detail in her art so the characters have no real facial expressions and everything is blocky and incredibly boring.
One of the things that has always made the Dr. Strange comics so unique is the artwork. From Ditko on up the Strange comics have always seemed like an acid trip. With Rios at the helm Strange #1 looks more like a used coloring book than a comic. Instead of a powerful first issue that drives us to see how the story arc will resolve itself Strange is shaping up to be yet another disappoint by Marvel Comics who seem to be sinking deeper and deeper into the quicksand of mediocrity.
