When I saw the cover of this comic book, I was immediately intrigued. After all, Stephen Strange is supposed to be the Sorcerer Supreme, able to do extremely powerful magic, with a cloak that enables him to fly…but the Stephen Strange on the cover pictured above isn’t wearing the normal cloak. And he’s preparing to shoot an arrow, so…what’s going on? At least, those were the thoughts that went through my head when I initially saw this.
It was really good to see the opening scene of this comic, where Stephen was trying to find a way to fix his hands. I did feel bad that he was so clearly going through a lot of difficulty…and so obviously failing at finding a solution.
From that initial flashback, the comic moved to the present, showing a Stephen Strange with less access to magic. I found it really interesting to see him needing to resort to using what amounted to tricks and gadgets…and I also liked seeing the kinds of weapons he ended up using, such as a sword and a bat. Like he said, there was no rule against using a baseball bat in a fight against a magical enemy.
One of the particularly effective parts of this comic was when Stephen opened his third eye. There was a huge difference between that reality and the rest of the world…and I thought it was especially good to see the art style choice, in the complete lack of colour when Stephen opened his third eye.
I was especially interested in seeing the different enemies that came at Stephen, as if reacting to his reduced magical power. The title made me think that the enemies were sharks, scenting blood in the water…and I did feel bad that Stephen didn’t seem to catch a break. On the other hand, however, I felt a tiny stab of empathy for Mister Misery, who was actually Stephen’s own creation and, according to what I found out, was basically a vessel for all the negative things about magic. Really, that felt like one enemy who was justified in going after Stephen…though not in involving innocent people.
A lot of the danger to Stephen through this comic felt real…and I did like his brief interactions with Wong, even though those didn’t make up much of the story.
On the whole, I did really enjoy reading this comic book. It was good to see Stephen’s interactions with his various enemies and how much tension there was. This comic book did end on a cliffhanger, which is slightly annoying…because then I have to find the next issues that follow on, so I can find out what happens next. But that was probably the whole intention anyway!
Ink of Blood 