Customer Reviews

Essential Doctor Strange, Vol. 3 (Marvel Essentials) (v. 3)

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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.

This volume collects the first 20 odd issues of the Dr. Strange's second headliner title and it's a bit of a mixed bag. The book starts out strong with classic stories by Steven Englehart and artists Frank Brunner and Gene Colan. Englehart had an amazing ability to balance both thrilling action with cosmic psychedelia. Even when the stories begin to veer into hyperbolic profundity, he grounds it with human emotion and danger. One might see it as perfectly matching the Magician tarot card whose arms indicate the simple mystery "As Above, So Below." The Magician straddles the real and the unreal, the humble and profound. Particularly noteworthy are the Silver Dagger saga, Dormummu's attempt to come to Earth, Eternity's destruction of Earth and the duel with Dracula.

The volume begins to lose its coherence when Englehart leaves the book near the start of his exploration of the magical history of the United States. A variety of writers take over and each seem to have a different plan for the story. Lacking any definitive direction, the book stumbles around until Jim Starlin arrives and rustles all the disparate threads together. I can't say it made perfect sense to me but by this time I just wanted some kind of resolution. You can't say Starlin doesn't deliver a cosmic, high stakes challenge though. The last half of the Essential becomes a long, albeit meandering, epic struggle to save the entire universe. It also has a tangential connection with Starlin's then-contemporary Thanos War, which I don't want to spoil. It isn't as great as the Thanos War but, if you relax and don't fight the different writers, you'll likely enjoy the finish.

Lastly, I felt this book showcased some of Gene Colan's best work on the character. I have never like Colan's art but I respect his work and unique style. I found myself really starting to enjoy Colan's storytelling in this Essential and I hope other audiences share that pleasure.

The Essential Dr. Strange #3 contains the start of the titular character's own comic book. It starts out reasonably strong, but then descends into some below average stories.

The art is really the high-point of this collection. This is one title where I am sad that it is only a b&w reprint as the colors in such an eldritch tale are more important than in a typical superhero book. Here, the normal panel configuration of a comic book is shattered, increasing the surreal and mystic nature of the stories.

The actual stories start off well, containing reasonable length multi-issue tales of 3-4 volumes, featuring Dormammu and showing Dr. Strange facing trials and increasing in power. In one case we even get a retelling of the origin of Dr. Strange due to a missed deadline.

The stories themselves veer into explorations into the nature of reality very quickly, and they become very tiresome at that point. Much of the action taking place inside Dr. Strange's head as illusions are used to attempt to overcome Dr. Strange's willpower. We see reality, and the earth, destroyed and rebuilt a couple of times. Even in something which demands a great amount of willing suspension of disbelief, seeing this happen in consecutive stories does boggle the belief and gets old.

One of the final stories, the longest by far, is the weakest. A meandering tale which jumps the tracks as writers change, moving from a trip into the past into the unlikely story of a cabal of sorcerors who wish to become stars. Literally. Big flaming balls of gas, because they control reality. This story was not only poor, it dragged on for far too long.

On the whole, an average collection of an interesting comic book character that differs from the typical superhero.

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.

Marvel has developed a series of reprint books in its "essential" series, with the comic book pages reduced to their black-and-white essentials. Many issues are crammed into this trade paperback, and for those interested in preserving the basic artwork as well as the stories, it's an excellent way to review them without having to find and preserve the early issues of the comic book.

The Doctor Strange comic book reached a high point about the time where Frank Brunner was the principal artist. In the world of comic books, Doctor Strange was close to being unique, with the only other magicians that came close being Ibis the Invincible and Doctor Fate. Doctor Strange was variously subtitled The Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts. In the first sequences, the "Silver Dagger" stories, he is attacked by an enemy who leaves him minutes from death. His struggle to keep going is the basis of the story, and leaves him contending with Death, particularly in the fourth issue of the sequence, where the story is much like a Medieval morality play, even to the section involving the Domain of the Dying.

The stories, after the "Silver Dagger" tale are good, but not as grandiose as the opening story. Many of the tales are elevated to rather cosmic (and paracosmic) planes, and might be mild turnoffs to many who like lots of action. IMHO, the book would have been better if the very last tale, that of the Death Stalker adventure, had been eliminated, to be placed in an Essential number 4.

For those who like the idea of comics for grownups, the stories in the book would be an excellent choice.

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.

I like having all the works of this character at my fingertips.

Not in color and, really, it's a cheap way to market it. If it's later done in color, I'm going to be REALLY offended.

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)