The Death of Dr. Strange: Avengers #1
Recap
Dr. Strange is dead! Without a Sorcerer Supreme, Earth finds itself imperiled by all sort of mystical gewgaws and assailants hellbent on its destruction and/or enslavement. Good thing Earth's Mightiest Heroes are still around!
Review
Event book tie-ins are typically drab affairs, replete with a feigned sense of urgency that readers “must” read them in order to get the “whole” story. But sometimes, they surprise you, and tell a genuinely pleasing story despite their trappings. Death of Dr. Strange: Avengers #1 falls into the latter category.
The set-up is pretty straightforward: Avengers versus magic, without Dr. Strange around to bail them out or even explain what’s going on. That leaves the team to try to piece together what’s going on without their usual reliance on a human equivalent of a mystical Google search (I guess Brother Voodoo was busy). Writer Alex Pakdanel (Boom’s Arcadia, Vault’s Friendo) centers his story on the dichotomy between Dr. Strange’s embrace of chaos versus Iron Man’s logical, evidentiary pragmatism. The opening flashback scene, set during the first meeting of the Illuminati, does a nice job of setting up this contrast by having Iron Man really behave like a dick toward the good doctor because he can’t quantify Strange’s world the way he can that of science. That juxtaposition sets the stage for the remainder of the story.
At the Nexus of All Realities, something has come to our world, two Juggernaut-wannabes, seemingly hellbent on destruction. That’s enough to get the Avengers in on the action (or at least the most commercially-known ones: Cap, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel), and while everyone else gets into the game of whuppin’ on some sorta-Juggernauts, Iron Man’s innate curiosity gets the better of him, which forces him out of his comfort zone. Abandoned by raw logic, Tony Stark must do the most un-Tony Stark thing possible to save the day: depend on something other than his scientific acumen… and ego. The result is an unexpected resolution that relies more on self-sacrifice rather than punching monsters in the head.
Pakdanel has a solid handle on these four core Avengers characters and how they relate to one another (it’s particularly nice to hear Thor speaking in an appropriately godlike manner once more). But as is befitting the context in which Pakdanel is working, there’s less focus on the who and more on the why. Beyond the Iron-Man-gets-over-himself-and-embraces-weird-magic-stuff angle, there’s very little in the way of character growth and development, but to expect that from a comic like this would be to do it a disservice. It’s this comic’s job to tell a story that takes place in the context of the larger Death of Dr. Strange narrative, and it accomplishes that job without any unnecessary flab on the plot. Sometimes it’s enough to just see our heroes do their thing and come out on top.
Artist Ryan Bodenheim (late of The Dying and the Dead, which I desperately need to wrap someday) does a serviceable, if unflashy job, bolstered by Rachelle Rosenberg’s superb colors. Bodenheim manages to take wild, mystical concepts and bring them down to Earth, thus making them relatable to readers (and Iron Man). Sometimes, when dealing with magic wackiness, artists have a tendency to let their freak flags fly, and while it (generally) looks good, the human aspect is lost. Bodenheim and Rosenberg eschew that motif and instead keep everything as au naturale as possible, earning them some well-earned applause for remembering that no matter what’s happening, it’s the human factor that matters the most. And as for the “death” of Dr. Strange itself…? Let’s just say that while the good doctor is currently down, it’s all but assured that he won’t be out for long. But while he’s taking a well-deserved (dirt) nap, it’s nice to know that up-and-coming talents such as Pakdanel are getting a chance to shine for a wider audience. From that perspective, event comic tie-ins might not be such a bad thing, after all.
Final Thoughts
Though not essential reading, Death of Dr. Strange: Avengers #1 is a well-crafted story, allowing its creatives a bright spotlight in which to shine.
The Death of Dr. Strange: Avengers #1: Children’s Crusade
- Writing - 7/107/10
- Storyline - 6.5/106.5/10
- Art - 7/107/10
- Color - 7.5/107.5/10
- Cover Art - 7.5/107.5/10