Doctor Strange: The Way Of The Weird Trade Paperback Review

The Doctor Will See You Now

♦Tripwire sent its editor-in-chief Joel Meadows complete with mystical wards and his cloak of protection to review Marvel’s Doctor Strange: The Way of The Weird…

Doctor Strange: The Way Of The Weird
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artists: Chris Bachalo, Kevin Nowlan
Panini Publishing/ Marvel Comics
2016 is a significant year for Marvel’s Sorceror Supreme as this October will see his debut on the big screen in Doctor Strange, played by the award-winning Benedict Cumberbatch. Strange has always had a little bit of a checkered history: his Lee and Ditko run was memorable in places, Roy Thomas did some interesting things with him in the 1970s, Steve Gerber fleshed him out in The Defenders  and even Warren Ellis and Mark Buckingham made a decent fist of him in the short-lived run he wrote in the 1990s. But, a little bit like Daredevil, his history has been punctuated with the odd highlight but dominated by some rather perfunctory efforts.

The latest series, Doctor Strange, written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Chris Bachalo with a little assistance from modern comics legend Kevin Nowlan, pits him against a group of inter-dimensional killers, bent on wiping out the Sorcerors Supreme of every realm. It is a simple conceit and a story that we have seen many times before in other titles but Aaron, with the significant assistance of Bachalo, gives us a stylish and elegant demi-monde that Stephen Strange inhabits. We get a Wong, who is normally a rather passive supporting character, here taking on a more integral role.

In the past, Bachalo has occasionally muddled up proceedings with storytelling that is hard to follow but here he is on top form, ably illustrating Aaron’s scripts. There is a richness and an elegance to his art that very few other modern comics artists can match. We do get to see a small section of the story drawn by Kevin Nowlan, and it is always a pleasure to see this artist do something more than simply covers as he is a great foil for Aaron’s writing. It does make you wish that he contributed more to the book.

Doctor Strange has had his ups and downs as a character but Aaron and Bachalo, with a small contribution from Nowlan, have shown their aptitude for Marvel’s Sorceror Supreme and it is encouraging to see that he still has a place in the modern Marvel Universe.

JOEL MEADOWS

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