So, thanks to the same friend who bought me the last Doctor Strange comic I read, I got this comic book as well…which immediately intrigued me through the title and the blurb of the book.
It was interesting to see that, by this point, Doctor Strange had the use of his hands back. I did think that he was clearly trying to juggle too much, from performing surgery, to dealing with magical threats, and teaching students…so it did make me think he was obviously taking on too much.
I liked the feel of the murder mystery around this book…and it was pretty interesting to see the contrast between Doctor Strange of the present and Doctor Strange of the past. I did find myself getting amused by the exclamations of, “Zounds!” as well as Mordo commenting that he’d forgotten what Doctor Strange used to call himself.
I found the three mothers and their monstrous baby to be really intriguing villains, and I would have liked to see a bit more detail about them. Where did their baby come from? It probably wasn’t a biological connection, considering each of the mothers were so vastly different to each other and to the baby, so it would have been good to see a bit more about their history.
I really liked seeing the Avengers appear in this comic. I really liked the fact that they clearly had close friendships with Doctor Strange…or, at least, that Steve did; there wasn’t so much interaction with the rest of the group. And I really liked the dog, Bats. It was pretty awesome to see that Doctor Strange had a spirit dog (I assume) who he could talk to…and I liked the fact that his younger self acknowledged that he’d always wanted a dog.
It was interesting to see the younger version of Doctor Strange trying to navigate people and situations he wasn’t aware of. I also found Clea to be an interesting character, and it would have been nice to see more about her history with Doctor Strange.
On the whole, I found this comic book to be a really engaging storyline, with good villains and great use of foreshadowing. I definitely want to read more of Doctor Strange’s story in other comics.
Ink of Blood 