Doctor Strange #450: A Solid Anniversary

Repairing the Cloak of Levitation, teaching Magik to control her magic, investigating an old manor, baring his soul, and performing a troll-ectomy–these five stories make up Doctor Strange #450, one the latest anniversary issue from Marvel.

Not surprisingly for this kind of issue, the various short stories differ in quality, The weakest are “One Student at a Time,” featuring Magik, and “The Haunting of Webster Hall,” featuring the Black Fox. In both stories, Strange is treated as more of a vehicle for other characters’ development than his own. Allen and Stern, respectively, try to tie how Strange helps these other characters into his own struggles to overcome past shortcomings. But neither story breaks much ground; indeed, another story in Doctor Strange #450 touches on similar themes with much greater success. Further, “The Haunting of Webster Hall” seems more about selling the Black Marvel for future appearances than anything else.

Visually, the two stories are a mixed bag. “One Student at a Time” struggles the most relative to every other entry in Doctor Strange #450. Marques’s coloring is warm and inviting, turning overly vivid only for Strange and Magik’s spells and powers. Guara’s art doesn’t quite match that natural tone, though. Characters’ expressions and movement are at times overly exaggerated. Lim and Silva’s work meshes better in “The Haunting of Webster Hall.” Silva’s vivid colors make for a lively read, and the contrast works well with Lim’s thicker outlines between characters and objects.

“Astral Scars” explores themes similar to the previous two stories but to much greater success. Once again, Strange uses his own struggles as a means to show how someone else can help themselves going forward. Ward makes the story almost entirely about Strange’s past, though. He also adds a significant emotional component by having Strange point to the scars on his hands, which he maintains even in his astral form, as a reminder both of the self-absorbed surgeon he used to be and the actual good he’s done since losing his skills as a medical doctor. It’s this deeper emotional connection to Strange that the previous stories lacked.

This emotional exploration of Strange is helped along by Ward’s art, specifically the level of detail he brings to Strange’s facial expressions. His work is particularly effective in a half page spread of Strange’s face in profile. As Strange explains the kind of person he used to be, Ward captures an expression that looks simultaneously like sadness and disgust. Additionally, the astral realm is depicted particularly well thanks to Ward’s coloring.

The best story in Doctor Strange #450 is actually the first one. While not about Strange specifically, “The Language of Threads” is about his closest relationship, the one between him and the Cloak of Levitation. Straczynski tells a story about whose personality the Cloak is imbued with. He describes a person of selflessness and joy who, when destroyed, was magically woven into the Cloak. It’s an interesting twist that the personality of the Cloak is a being who was the complete opposite of Strange before his injuries and yet it chose him anyway.

Ferguson is effective when it comes to capturing Strange’s facial expressions when the story begins and after it ends. His lines are fairly thick, but he is able to get a lot out of a little. Strange never seems overdrawn. Ferguson’s linework is softer and thinner when depicting the being who the Cloak once was. In combination with Lopez’s soft yet vivid coloring during that sequence, she looks like her personality must be the one Straczynski described.

“Trolling” rounds out Doctor Strange #450 and is the only story contemporary with Strange’s recent events. Landy fashions a whimsical story that is unlikely to be critical to the upcoming new Doctor Strange series. This story is a definite outlier as compared to the rest of the issue, but it’s also a potential jumping on point for readers who skipped Doctor Strange of Asgard and are catching up with the character here.