The Death of Doctor Strange #2

The Death of Doctor Strange #2

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Jed MacKay

Illustrated by Lee Garbett

Coloured by Antonio Fabela

Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit

REST IN PEACE STEPHEN STRANGE!

With the Sorcerer Supreme gone, so too are Earth’s magical defenses! Now the rest of Earth’s heroes have their hands full with multiple invasions from other dimensions. Some are familiar…but some are new…and frightening! Meet the Three Mothers!

Last issue was a delightful surprise and by that I mean it was just full of surprises as Doctor Strange was killed, old foes and friends showed up and a version of him from the past arrived as well. Plus all hell seemed to be breaking loose on Earth. Now there are a couple of truths when it comes to comics these days and that’s that no one really dies, unfortunately. So Stephen Strange should be back among the living by the time that this is over. In the meantime this is going to be extremely fun to see play out. It is still a great story and I have to say that this is so far exceeding all my expectations and it is causing me to up my expectations for those issues still to come. That’s a lot to live up to now.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job bringing their personalities to life. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more intriguing and interesting things become.

I really like the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I’m enjoying how we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored and how we see these different aspects coming into play, along with new characters. What this does is add some wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

I’m a fan of the interiors here. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the attention to detail is exceptional work. That two page Mother spread is something fierce; it encapsulates everything I’m talking about here. I wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised, there are so few here. Still how we see the composition of the panels bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a superb eye for how colour works.

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There are so many different noteworthy moments in this issue and they really get me excited for what we’re still going to see. Ah Mordo how you disappoint me so the idea I had in my mind with his presence was shattered and it’s a little sad, predictable but sad. One of these days I’d like to see his old teammates from his Defenders days come to his aid instead of the current Avengers but it is what it is. It’s a strong story thanks to this exceptional writing and characterisation along with this really interesting interior artwork.