REVIEW: Doctor Strange: Season One

[CBR News]

"Doctor Strange: Season One" by Greg Pak and Emma Rios is a brilliant slice of mystical mayhem that brings an updated feel that actually improves the character and the mythos.


Full review here.

[nightw1ng]

this was easily one of my favorite Season One books. it really makes me hope a new Dr. Strange book is part of the Marvel NOW relaunches.

[Scantenii]

I have been looking forward to this book, but I was waiting to pick up until I read a good review. ( I had heard that the Season One's had been kinda hit or miss.) Good to see this is one of the good ones. You know, I am still kind of surprised that Marvel hasn't tried a Doc Strange ongoing lately. I thought I had heard that Marvel was trying to figure out how magic fits into this 21th century Marvel Universe, but I believe that it can be done successfully.

[starman]

I was not a fan of X-Men, Spider-Man or the Daredevil Season One GN. I think Fantastic Four has been the best one in terms of art and characters. Hulk had an interesting new take on the Betty Brant relationship. They even made Ant Man interesting.
Dr Strange will be the tie breaker for the season one wave. Haven't had a chance to read it yet. My amazon order came in the other day and I'm starting Spider-Island first.

[John Ossie]

I enjoyed the origin story as I expected to as I am a fan of Greg Pak's work but unfortunately for me I didn't enjoy Emma Rios' art work still it was an enjoyable story nonetheless.

[chariset]

Okay, finally got a chance to read it through once. I'm disappointed in a way because Pak rushes through what I take to be the emotional heart and soul of his origin -- the first few days after meeting the Ancient One and learning he wouldn't get a miracle cure -- but it's not unworthy of Strange.

More thoughts later when I've gone over it more carefully. If you're interested.

[Monty_Cristo]

i think i expected more from Season One; not singling out any one book. there were little things that i really liked about each. but i wouldn't want them to be a reference point for any of the characters. i've yet to read one that improved upon canon origin.

[aNamored]

Okay, finally got a chance to read it through once. I'm disappointed in a way because Pak rushes through what I take to be the emotional heart and soul of his origin -- the first few days after meeting the Ancient One and learning he wouldn't get a miracle cure -- but it's not unworthy of Strange.

More thoughts later when I've gone over it more carefully. If you're interested.

Yes, please. I'm curious as to what you think regardless of my non-purchase.

[chariset]

Okay.

This is a good book. But it would have been a great book if it weren't trying to do so much.

For the most part it's an engaging story of one of Doctor Strange's first adventures as a novice sorcerer, and perhaps the first time he truly 'got' magic and how it works, and how you have to see yourself and the world around you. It introduces Wong, revamped into an Iron-Fist-esque mystical warrior whose reputation is already established, but who is hot-tempered and frustrated for reasons we don't get to hear in full (because it's not his story). It also brings in Sofia Di Cosimo, one of Pak's original characters, who fulfills a mixed role as a source of knowledge, a strange battery of mystical power, and a girl to get these two men motivated. Thus the Strange+Wong+female character triad is in place, as in "The Oath," though with a different dynamic. There are some Lord of the Rings parallels which get a bit heavy-handed, and the chronology is odd, but all of that is forgivable. The main story is about how Strange and Wong learn the depths of their strengths and eventually fit into a partnership, and the rest can be dismissed as window-dressing.

If it had gone no further than that, all would be well. But this book tries to be an origin story as well, and that's too tall an order. To make room for the main story, Pak crams the established origin -- car accident, Ancient One, Mordo, mystical clamp -- into four or five rushed pages. Mordo attempts to tempt Strange with an offer of easy power and an easy cure, but Strange barely seems to hear the offer before Mordo's changed his mind. And the emotional center of the story -- Strange's darkest hour -- is moved from his confinement in the lamasery to a point in combat towards the end of the book, with all three of their lives on the line and the stakes ramped up to a ridiculous level. The psychological weight and poignancy that should accompany his origin is gone. Strange should arrive to see the Ancient One as a broken, desperate man, with nothing left except his hope for a miracle, and when the Ancient One offers (so he thinks) New Age hokum instead, we should feel the agony of his despair. In this story, Strange arrives with something left in the tank -- he even has enough money to offer the Ancient One a bribe, or at least a bluff. And his acceptance of the existence of magic happens almost instantly; within the hour, or so it seems. The necessary belief in magic, and in magical entities, comes more slowly... which makes sense for a man of science thrown into a new world.

Kudos to Pak for avoiding the one misstep I was fearing -- at no point does his Strange invite pity. There are no mournful moments over his injuries and no tears over them, just anger and frustration. Nor are there any excuses. He was a worldly man and he still knows how to play that game. But beneath it all is the 'spark' of kindness, shown here as his self-image as a doctor and healer.

The threat escalation in this book is ridiculous. Pak could have used any enemy, and any ally, of Strange's to tell this tale, and he goes straight to the top: Dormammu and the Vishanti. The Vishanti, rendered by Emma Rios, are every bit as 'big' as they need to be, and when Strange is reduced to tears, and then babbling, at the sight of them in action, we understand why. The main problem of the book is that Strange is unable to call upon their power (we don't know at this point who or what he can summon... has he spent all of his two months in training on the one spell, or has he managed to call up lesser entities?) -- until the end, of course, at which point the callow novice sorcerer must get it together and save everyone. (But what's a Strange tale without him being the last man standing?)

I prefer to think of Wong as much younger than Strange -- say, 17 or 18 when he first turns up in New York after Strange is established there -- and while this depiction does work, it's hard to see what storytelling purpose was served by having it be Wong and not an original character. I suspect that Pak is one of those writers who feels sorry for Wong and wants to give him more of a role, but on this one I side with Ptor at Sanctum Sanctorum Comix: Wong already has an honored and honorable job, and his relationship with Strange has grown over time from master/servant to a real friendship. To have him go from an established hero and possible rival, as here, to a manservant seems like a step down and precisely what Pak wants to avoid. Why not stress the other side -- that Wong is a venturesome young man, the first of his family to move to America and serve the new Western sorcerer?

As for the Ancient One, he is a bit off model. If some depictions make him as unmoved as the mountains, in this version he's like a giant rubber duck -- obvious, odd, and preserving himself by letting things bounce right off of him. It still mostly works, but it's hard to see the father-son relationship he will eventually develop with Strange. He's just too hard to read.

Ptor uses the word 'fanfiction' in his review, and I think that's a little harsh. What I think he's picking up on, though, is the sense that Pak has (pardon the idiom) blown his load on this one. When I read this book, I get the impression that he fears he will never get to write Strange again, so he's put everything into the one title that he ever wants to write. Hence Dr. Di Cosimo, Dormammu, the Vishanti, etc. Have more faith, Greg! Concerns aside, I would love to read Season Two of this novice Strange, and where he goes now that he's starting to understand the mystic arts, and how his relationship develops with Wong and the Ancient One. You don't need to put all your story into one book. Save some for a sequel.

Verdict -- If you're a hardcore Strange fan, you need to buy it. If you like Strange and magic stories in general, or if you like Pak, buy it but get it secondhand or on sale. Don't pay more than $10.

[SanctumSanctorumComix]

Hmmm... I must have missed this thread and posted on the "Doc appreciation" thread. But for the sake of accuracy will also post here:

----

At long last (a week and a half longer than intended) I have posted an IN-DEPTH and totally comprehensive review to DOCTOR STRANGE SEASON ONE.
REVIEW CAN BE FOUND HERE


Be warned: Since I review this work - not only as it exists on its own merits, but ALSO as it stands and compares/contrasts to other similar tellings of Doc's origin (and early days), ... IT IS LONG!

Readers of my blog KNOW how in-depth some of my reviews can go.
If you like to read extensive reviews, this is for you (although, I do give a brief short-hand "is it good or not" statement at the onset).
(Caveat: the review IS simply MY option. I don't think that there truly can BE anything such as "THE" opinion to ANYTHING.)

Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think of my assessment (agree? disagree? think I'm a fool?) and leave a comment there.

~P~

[SanctumSanctorumComix]

A lovely review and excellent encapsulation, Chariset!

BTW, my 'fan-fiction' denotation was in keeping with how I see most "WHAT IF?" stories of old; paid, officially endorsed fan-fic.

In this case: "What If? Dr. Strange's origin happened TODAY?"
or
What If? Wong were a bad-ass, fung-fu, mystic-warrior?"
or any other similar feeling you may have after reading this.

Yes. It's a good read, but solely as a stand-alone tale, with no ties to past or future canon.
Thus, a What-If? story.

But you put it all ever so much more eloquently than I (in my epically long review).
Bravo.

(And thank you for the kinds words about mine.)
~P~