Greetings from the land of the ice and snow where the windchill is currently -30 Fahrenheit or some other number that is wholly unnecessary and should only be used in theoretical situations. I’m writing from the relative safety of my bunker and I do not intend to rejoin the outside world until the weather agrees to be more reasonable. So…April?
To underscore the seriousness of this weather, my local comic shop (no free advertising, DAN) will probably be closed today but that’s not going to stop me from writing about at least one new book hitting the stands. Fight Club 3 is going to have to wait but I’ve got a great, giant-sized anniversary book to keep me entertained. That should delay me in reenacting the end of John Carpenter’s The Thing with my cats for at least an hour. I plan to follow that up by chasing them through a hedge maze like in The Shining. Look, it’s the coldest it’s been in 25 years and I have to get as much mileage out of this as possible.
Doctor Strange #400 (#10)
Mark Waid (W)
Jesús Saiz (A)
Kevin Nolan (A)
Butch Guice (A)
Daniel Acuña (A)
You may have noticed that this is Doctor Strange #400 and that it’s also #10 and that’s because of Marvel bringing back what they refer to as “Legacy” numbering. How that works is Marvel adds up all the volumes of all the previous issues of a series (even the wacky 90’s titles that we all pretend didn’t happen) to get the total number of issues published. This allows them to continue the trend of dropping new #1 issues whenever they feel like it AND celebrate milestone issues in a character’s publishing history. Personally, I kind of dig it. Their Distinguished Competition just dropped a couple of #1000 issues thanks to a similar tactic and I’m a sucker for gimmicks.
Mark Waid has been having quite the run with Marvel over the last several years. Daredevil, Captain America, and now Doctor Strange, all high-profile characters for Marvel and it’s easy to see why Waid was chosen for the gigs. He has a way of boiling down characters to their core essence, using dense comic book continuity to enhance the story rather than mire it in pointless details, and make it accessible to new readers.
If you’ve only ever seen the Doctor Strange or Infinity War films, you should have no problem starting Waid’s run on the book and enjoying it like you enjoyed Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as the Master of the Mystic Arts.
In typical anniversary issue fashion, this book delivers: 1) A shocking return! 2) A fascinating new wrinkle to the mythos! 3) Backup stories galore! 4) An art page by a comics legend! I’d even go as far to say this book may be a good jumping on point if you’ve been looking to get in to the character.
By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, buy this book!
