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b33dubs's review against another edition
3.0
Not exactly the Vaughan style that I know and love, but still a good intro to the character of Dr. Strange.
yogarshi's review against another edition
3.0
Saw the new movie teaser, went to reddit for suggestions on starting with Strange, found this, and it was definitely a short, entertaining read.
ineffablebooks's review against another edition
3.0
3.5. Fun, with underlying serious notes while also being a touch on the corny side. A nice stand-alone
(Once it hits the am, it seems my reviews come in the form of wine tastings instead
(Once it hits the am, it seems my reviews come in the form of wine tastings instead
timburbage's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this mini-series.
We get flashbacks to Strange as an arrogant doctor. We get him fighting crazy inter-dimensional monsters. We get Wong doing martial arts. We get other characters joining the team.
The story is great, with science vs magic being the main theme. Evil pharma companies make great villains, especially in America.
The thing that bumps this up to 5 stars for me is the artwork. Each issue opens with a summary that is done in a completely different way, and the art in the different dimensions is trippy and fantastical, just like the original 60s drawings from Jack Kirby.
We get flashbacks to Strange as an arrogant doctor. We get him fighting crazy inter-dimensional monsters. We get Wong doing martial arts. We get other characters joining the team.
The story is great, with science vs magic being the main theme. Evil pharma companies make great villains, especially in America.
The thing that bumps this up to 5 stars for me is the artwork. Each issue opens with a summary that is done in a completely different way, and the art in the different dimensions is trippy and fantastical, just like the original 60s drawings from Jack Kirby.
arinnroberson's review against another edition
4.0
A good book to start with a goos story, interesting magic, with a well done recap of his origin story with out focusing on it.
starryworlds's review against another edition
3.0
I read this for the reading rush for the prompts of to read a book you meant to read last year and to read and watch a book to movie adaptation. I also read this for the book junkie trials for the great library prompt.
Overall, I just found this okay. It wasn't ground-breaking for me and I think the movie that takes inspiration from this is so much better. I wish I could find a Doctor Strange graphic novel that I like.
I'm not a huge fan of the way the characters are wrote. Their characterisation is just bland in my opinion. I felt like none of them had a personality other than the stereotypical this is the hero and this is the villain character type. I felt more could have been done to flesh the characters out more.
The plot felt dragged out towards the end. I felt like this could have been shorter or had 2 stories in one. Mainly because at times, I felt bored.
But saying that, I really liked the twist towards the end of the graphic novel, which relates to the villain.
Overall, I just found this okay. It wasn't ground-breaking for me and I think the movie that takes inspiration from this is so much better. I wish I could find a Doctor Strange graphic novel that I like.
I'm not a huge fan of the way the characters are wrote. Their characterisation is just bland in my opinion. I felt like none of them had a personality other than the stereotypical this is the hero and this is the villain character type. I felt more could have been done to flesh the characters out more.
The plot felt dragged out towards the end. I felt like this could have been shorter or had 2 stories in one. Mainly because at times, I felt bored.
But saying that, I really liked the twist towards the end of the graphic novel, which relates to the villain.
librarycobwebs's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The way this story wove actual medicine and the pharmaceutical industry into it did a great job of centering the character. Although really the best part was the reprints of the original Ditko stories!
sabregirl's review against another edition
4.0
Good story, and interesting. It seemed like with this story though that if you don't really know all that much about Doctor Strange you'd be confused. Kinda had me laughing though that they had Sherlock Holmes references and this was nine years before they cast Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange.
nick_jenkins's review against another edition
4.0
Like a lot of Marvel, there is a suggestion that the hero may not have made the right choice, that he failed the trolley problem, but not in an unambiguous way—his decisions are defensible and basically coherent. Those decisions just somehow feel inadequate, as if the hero (and the writer) hadn’t had the time to fully think through the options before them, as if there was a move on the chessboard you can tell they aren’t seeing. We want a more complete solution to the dilemmas that Marvel characters face—we want to see them visualize and execute that path to checkmate—but that is seldom the way a storyline concludes.
That is, in a way, what I find most remarkable about Marvel—that so frequently characters do not simply make “mistakes” from which they can learn some “lesson.” Real errors happen, but more common are choices that we feel to be suboptimal, that don’t make future choices clearer or easier, but that do continue to have repercussions. Marvel character development is cumulative but non-linear; what they did in the past lingers and forces them to adapt, but only rarely in a way that makes them inarguably a better or a worse person. Marvel comics suggest that the alternative to black and white morality is not shades of gray—it is far too simplistic to imagine that our toughest moral choices can be resolved by doing a little evil in order to secure a greater good. The problem more often is that we quite often have to live with situations where we didn’t opt for the best good, or where we couldn’t rank different goods due to lack of knowledge or just the complexity of not knowing how to weigh various outcomes.
Trying to do good—even mostly succeeding at doing good—has no correlation with happiness or even satisfaction. That is a surprisingly sophisticated idea to find in any kind of fiction, more sophisticated than a lot of what Christianity proclaims, at least. Marvel—neither Christian nor Nietzschean; Marvel heroes—neither suffering Christs nor extramoral Übermenschen? Perhaps.
That is, in a way, what I find most remarkable about Marvel—that so frequently characters do not simply make “mistakes” from which they can learn some “lesson.” Real errors happen, but more common are choices that we feel to be suboptimal, that don’t make future choices clearer or easier, but that do continue to have repercussions. Marvel character development is cumulative but non-linear; what they did in the past lingers and forces them to adapt, but only rarely in a way that makes them inarguably a better or a worse person. Marvel comics suggest that the alternative to black and white morality is not shades of gray—it is far too simplistic to imagine that our toughest moral choices can be resolved by doing a little evil in order to secure a greater good. The problem more often is that we quite often have to live with situations where we didn’t opt for the best good, or where we couldn’t rank different goods due to lack of knowledge or just the complexity of not knowing how to weigh various outcomes.
Trying to do good—even mostly succeeding at doing good—has no correlation with happiness or even satisfaction. That is a surprisingly sophisticated idea to find in any kind of fiction, more sophisticated than a lot of what Christianity proclaims, at least. Marvel—neither Christian nor Nietzschean; Marvel heroes—neither suffering Christs nor extramoral Übermenschen? Perhaps.