Product Description: After earning the title of Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange must defend his title, his life and his world against enemies old and new! Dormammu, Silver Dagger, Nightmare, Stygyro and more test Strange's sorcery and sanity! And after a civil war in the Dark Dimension, a summoning of sorcerers, a debacle with Dracula and the apparent annihilation of Earth, can the Master of Mystic Arts stand up to something...Stranger Yet? Guest-starring the Avengers, Blade the Vampire Hunter and Nighthawk of the Defenders! Collects Dr. Strange #1-29, Annual #1 and Tomb of Dracula #44-45.
Solid B-list comics Doctor Strange had an up and down career as a comic-book. Its high points, in my opinions, were the classic and never-equalled run by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko reprinted in the first Essential Doctor Strange; the Lovecraft-inspired run mostly drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith and Frank Brunner (reprinted in Essential Doctor Strange vol. 2) and possibly the Marshall Rogers-illustrated run that will (hopefully) be reprinted in a later volume. Luckily, there are plenty of good moments in between these high marks, thanks in large part to gene Colan's frequent contribution.
A good thing about Gene's art on this title is that he did not try to imitate Ditko's style nor to copy his version of alternate worlds. Bringing his own vision allowed Colan to really shine in a few stories collected in this book (particularly in a story involving the character Eternity and the possible destruction of our world).
Storywise, Steve Englehart does a fair job here. Many stories focus more on the nature of reality than on confrontation, which is fine in a book about magic. There is a very 1970s feel to many stories, with themes that were also approached by other Marvel writers of the era (Steve Gerber and Don MacGregor, to name but two).
Altogether, it is true that this book lacks the grandeur of Essentials #1 and #2. It is still a pretty entertaining collection with a few gems thrown in. At the price, it is a bargain.
not a bad distraction First of all, let's set the terms of this review. I was aware that this was b/w prior to ordering it and I was okay with that. Also, I had never read even a single issue of Doctor Strange, so I really have no frame of reference with regard to the comic's legacy. At age 30 it has probably been nearly 2 decades since I've read comics at all (although I was a passionate Marvel fan back in the day). Because I spend the bulk of my time reading more complex scientific and literary material, I occasionally like to unwind with a lightweight guilty pleasure in between books. That's precisely the function this book was to serve. I went in with low expectations, and admit that I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the stories and plot devices do strain the credulity at times but hey: it's a comic. (Note: I found the stories in this volume to be less tedious than all the forced human drama in Essential X-Men Vol. 6, a volume I purchased around the same time.) Overall, I really enjoy all the great artwork (I don't mind the b/w a bit), and like the serialized narrative format that encompasses multiple issues. Taken for what it is, I think it was a great purchase. I can flip through a couple issues every now and then, and come back to it later. With ~30 issues, it's already kept me occupied for quite some time. The stories can occasionally get a little redundant, but it hasn't bothered me too much. If you're looking for high brow literature, this isn't for you. But if you want a good rainy day read, or something to keep you occupied for a long train ride, you could do a lot worse.
Black & white reprints of classic four-color comics...? I honestly don't get the appeal of these books. Why bother making (or reading) black & white reprints of classic four-color comics...? I mean, yeah, the stories are still great and the original comics are hard to find, but a huge part of what made these comics great was the eye-popping artwork, including the bright primary colors: reading them in dull B&W is just plain wrong. Sure, the printing costs are lower, so you can get more pages for your money, but it's more pages of boring, not more pages of fun. It's really a travesty.
This is particularly true of the old Doctor Strange stories, which had such fabulous artwork: you *think* you're reading the stories in this format, but you're really not. Not by a longshot.
On the other hand, it recently occurred to me that these could be used as coloring books... Maybe you could buy a box of crayons to go along with all the artwork that the publishers ruined in this format. (Axton)
Pales in black and white Doctor Strange has always been one of the most beautifully rendered comics offered to the mass market. Although the stories and characters are still there, it looses quite a bit when not printed in full color. In the same way Jaws without the music is just a fish tale, Doctor Strange without color is just a comic.
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