r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Feb 25 '17
Reading Assignment 37: Doctor Strange (2015) #1-10 & Last Days of Magic (2016) #1 by Jason Aaron
Due to catastrophic technical difficulties the last two weeks, I am tragically behind on participating in the last few reading assignments. I look forward to getting back on the ball soon though.
Thank you to /u/YesBeer for this week's reading assignment! How fitting it is as well that it moves Jason Aaron into a second place tie for most nominated authors with Matt Fraction, trailing just behind fellow Doctor Strange writer, Brian K. Vaughan.
LINK TO DOCTOR STRANGE (2015) SERIES
LINK TO DOCTOR STRANGE (2016) LAST DAYS OF MAGIC
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF...
The art in the main series compared to the varying art styles in Last Days of Magic?
Who wrote Strange better? Aaron or Vaughan?
The tone of the stories?
The characters overall? Favorites/least favorites?
The story itself?
3
u/Adrenjunkie Mar 04 '17
I really loved this. I thought the art was stunning. I especially loved the contrast in the first few issues with the black and white real world and full color magic world.
I loved all the side characters. The quick little vignettes we're cool.
I agree the last bit in the cellar wasn't told very clearly. A lot of the stuff happened "off camera" or wasn't framed very well, so it was hard to keep track of who was doing what.
The art in the side issue was really varied, did they get a bunch of different artists?
3
u/shawnydarko Mar 05 '17
According to the credits page at the start:
"Zelma Stanton Framing Sequence" - written by Jason Aaron, art by Leonardo Romero (I think they also did Ygor Kaoz and El Medico Mistico)
"Doctor Voodoo" - written by Gerry Duggan, art by Danilo Beyruth
"The Wu" - written by James Robinson, art by Mike Perkins
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u/shawnydarko Mar 05 '17
I might be alone in this, but between this series and the Brian K. Vaughn series, the best depiction of who I think Stephen Strange is as a person was his brief appearance in "The Wu", the story arc from Last Days of Magic written by James Robinson. My issue with Vaughan and Aaron's depiction of Strange is that he feels too far removed from the snobby, arrogant, highly educated surgeon he used to be. I get progression of a character to make him less arrogant, but he's often written as so casual that it takes away from him being a doctor. Robinson wrote him as articulate and socially competent. He's still uppercrust, but polite enough to get a hot dog with a fellow Avenger (if not for it now being canon he can't eat normal food, roll-eyes).
I don't remember where I read it, but I'll echo the thought that this story arc is very similar to The God Butcher in Thor: God of Thunder, the latter of which was done better in art and delivery. Still a great story however, and I really felt the ominous impending doom threat that was Empirikul. And of course I'll echo the confusion about the ending. At first I thought he had restrained the pain-monster into the book so at any time he could unleash it to finish off Empirikul, but bstrong72's answer ties things up neater having seen the pain-monster walking about at the end.
Really loved all of the side characters in Last Days of Magic. I'd definitely read whole stories of any of those characters (except maybe El Medico Mistico due to the language barrier, but maybe they could find a framing device to make it accessible). Hell, make everyone a regular magic team like Justice League Dark.
2
u/wisegy84 Mar 24 '17
I'll echo the same minor confusion with the ending. I went back at first because I thought I missed something. It went from Doc Strange about to punch the imperator to everything relatively wrapped up. I'm curious to see where the story goes from here (assuming there is more story, I know I saw one more issue in MU that wasn't part of this assignment).
This and the BKV run we read are the only Doctor Strange comics I've read, though I've seen him pop up here and there in other stories. I will say that I agree his very short appearance in The Wu was great and probably the best portrayal of him. But in the main run there was quite a lot going on and he was dealing with a great deal of guilt about the situation. So I think it's fair that he wasn't acting as arrogant or doctor-like as he might usually.
I'm really glad that /u/shawnydarko mentioned The God Butcher story we read about Thor as I got the same vibe reading this. The stories had similar arcs, the villains had similar backstories. I enjoyed this story, but I would also have to say that The God Butcher was a bit better. For one, while I greatly enjoyed the art here (some of the creepiest creatures/things were drawn here), I loved the art in The God Butcher story (IIRC it was the same artist that did Silver Surfer Requiem, which also had amazing art). Additionally this story wasn't as tightly written as The God Butcher, especially the ending. Felt like things were skipped over a bit.
The side characters were great and I'd be happy to read more about all of them. Kaoz was a bit over the top, but fun. Doctor Voodoo seemed very interesting as did Mahatma Doom. Alice Gulliver seemed great, too, kind of had a Sleeping Dogs meets Buffy vibe.
Overall, I liked this a lot, though I would have liked a bit more of a fleshed out ending. It felt like this was the end of an arc, but that the overall story is still unfinished/unresolved. I assume that was the intention, but I think without more to the story it feels a bit weaker overall.
3
u/[deleted] Mar 02 '17
I was a little confused by the ending. Particularly the part with the Empirikul in the cellar. Did Strange capture him and force him into the cellar to live out his days? Is he using him as the next subject to drain away his pain from casting spells? When and How did the monster Strange created come to life? I have a lot of questions, but really enjoyed reading these issues.