Doctor Strange vol. 1: Way of the Weird

Creators: Jason Aaron (Author) and Chris Bachalo (Illustrator)

Publisher: Marvel

Pages: 136

For every spell cast there is a cost, but if you are the Sorcerer Supreme and have to protect the world from dark forces, you cannot stop no matter the cost. Doctor Strange is falling behind on his spell tab and the repercussion are getting worse, but new threats lurks in our world, so what can he do than to further his debt. At the same time, someone is going around killing off wizards left and right.

The artstyle seemed to suggest that this series was made for a younger audience, but i quickly realized that it might not be true, and the ending really showed the more serious and dark undertones to the story. Even though the art gave me some false presumptions it was really well done with amazing colourful pagespreads and weird monster designs.

The plot twist near the end of the book really made it all come together and overall raised my expecations for the series, and underlined the darker tone of the story, while making a great cliffhanger.

The heavy use of big pagespreads and stuff overlapping panel borders is a really cool idea, but it may sometimes result in a more confusing layout for the reader. Especially when read digitally as i did, where you see both pages at once without a clear middle to seperate the images.

I liked the side-character of Selma who dr. Strange develops a connection with over this book, and they might be trying to tie her more up in the plot later on, which is pretty interesting. This book also has a small introduction to the character of Doctor Strange and the weird convoluted world he inhabits, which really helps newer readers like myself to make this a viable jumping on point.

Much of the first chapters also focus on showing what Doctor stranges daily life looks life and what kind of threats he is up against.

Pros:

• Amazing artwork
• Good jumping on point

Cons:

• Confusing pagespreads

8/10 Excellent