#clea

[why-i-love-comics]

Doctor Strange #13 - "Cobolorum" (2024)

written by Jed MacKay art by Pasqual Ferry & Heather Moore

[comicbookwomen]

Dan Brereton

[heckcareoxytwit]

A preview of Incredible Hulk #24

INCREDIBLE HULK #24

MUSCLE VS. MAGIC! The newly returned Bruce Banner leads Charlie to New York City to seek an audience with DOCTOR STRANGE… but are met instead by someone they don’t expect! When a magic rite goes horribly wrong, can Banner put aside his terror of Hulk… and will Hulk put aside his hatred of Banner in order to save them? Leads straight into Incredible Hulk #25, featuring a fan-requested “Hulk Vs.” rematch for the ages!

LEGACY #805

Written by: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art by: Kev Walker, Matt Wilson Cover by: Nic Klein Page Count: 32 Pages Release Date: April 9, 2025

[soranatus]

The Sorcerers! By freelance artist, Jay

[wwprice1]

These Disco Dazzler covers are phenomenal! So fun!

[dirtyriver]

I haven't read this run, but this preview looks intriguing. I wonder if it's,worth catching up?

Preview of Incredible Hulk #24, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, interior art by Kev Walker

[artkpa7]

Clea Baseado nessa cosplay.

[mrswxyne]

Always ready to help his lovely goth wife 🖤

[cgbcomics]

[joegualtieri-blog]

Beyond the Moon: More MacKay

Strange vol 1-2 by MacKay, Ferreira, and co. Doctor Strange vol 1-3 by MacKay, Ferry, and co. Avengers vol 1-3 by MacKay, Villa, Fiorelli, Mortarino, and co. Blood Hunt by MacKay, Larraz, and Pichelli Vengeance of the Moon Knight vol 2 by MacKay, Cappuccio, and co.

I read the Death of Doctor Strange some time ago. I probably should have reread prior to reading the rest of his run. MacKay's Strange run isn't the home run that his Moon Knight run is, but it is still very, very good. His Avengers run... is far less successful, but some of that can be chalked up to the choice of cast, and I think to artist. I'm really glad I stopped reading Vengeance of Moon Knight vol 2 when the first issue in it ends leading directly into Blood Hunt, and continuing reading would have spoiled one of the big moments in Blood Hunt. I similarly stopped reading the third volume of Doctor Strange and Avengers when they too led directly into Blood Hunt, read that, and then read all of MacKay's crossovers. That... was not exactly the ideal way to read it, but it wasn't wrong either.

One of the things almost no one remembers about the Infinity Crusade was that unlike its two predecessors in Starlin's Infinity Trilogy, it was not just a six part mini-series. It was actually 16 issues long, with the Infinity Watch and Warlock Chronicles issues being a necessary part of the story. By contrast, the Watch issues during Infinity War fleshed out parts of the story, but weren't really necessary. With Blood Hunt, MacKay goes more for that latter approach, but it leaves the main book feeling very hollow and rushed. The longer version of events from Doctor Strange and Vengeance of the Moon Knight really flesh things out and make the story not feel as bare bones. It is possible to split the difference and not have an event comic feel rushed and barebones, but MacKay badly fumbles the ball on that here. He also errs in regards to set up. I had heard how Blood Hunt built off of work MacKay had done in Moon Knight, and that's technically true, but the Structure hadn't appeared in the book for well over a year when Blood Hunt was published. To suddenly have it reappear with “Blade” as its head, well, that doesn't feel like organic storytelling. The series has some excellent moments and brings back some obscure elements, but it's on weak scaffolding.

Similarly, his Avengers run a disappointment. I complained the other day because the opening arc has the Avengers taking on an ersatz Authority, and living on their “Carrier” after that. It feels so very early 2000s, and not in a good way. That's actually skipping ahead a bit. One of Marvel's Timeless one-shots serves as a prelude to the run. It focuses on Kang, who is looking for the one moment in time chrononauts cannot journey to (I assume this is actually when Peter and MJ sell their marriage to Mephisto). He's got a rival with a mysterious identity who's created heroes based on the Knights of the Roundtable. The one-shot is actually pretty good, and ends with a mortally wounded Kang seeking out the Avengers for aid. Kang bribes the newly reformed Avengers by telling them about impending disasters so they'll take him seriously about the other threat, before collapsing into a coma. The fake Authority are apparently the first of a series of events related to the Missing Moment. After that, the new threat tries to finish off Kang, and the Avengers take on the other team. Kang wakes up, gets pissed, and leaves.

The third Avengers volume opens with a two-parter involving Nightmare, who's also afraid of the coming threat. The remainder of the third volume is the Blood Hunt tie-in, and involves a b-team of Cap (Steve), Hercules, Quicksilver, Hawkeye (Kate), and Hazmat. These three issues are a lot more fun than the rest of the series. There's more banter and compelling interplay between these five characters than the main cast of the run, who are prominently featured in the main Blood Hunt series. The art still stinks though. You've probably seen one panel from here, of Cap talking about how he's met good vampires but never met a good Nazi, with giant ears. Well, that art isn't by some scrub fill-in, it's by the lead artist on MacKay's Avengers run, CF Villa. The art by the actual fill-ins on this run are better, but not by much. It's remarkable given how Avengers is now ostensibly Marvel's biggest team book, and they're not putting their best foot forward in terms of art. And look, there's places for different styles, I like the think I've made that obvious over talking about comics for nearly 25 years with all of you, but I just don't think Cilla is very good at drawing people. The less slick aesthetic is fine, but you need to make up for it with something else, and I just haven't found anything appealing about his work in these three volumes.

After expanding on moments from Blood Hunt, Vengeance of the Moon Knight ends with the resurrected Marc Spector “killing” the Shroud for impersonating him at Khonshu's insistence. Well, that was a big nothing-burger of a plot. There's an essay in the back from MacKay about how to make the deaths and resurrections of superheroes count when we know they'll be back, and I think he conducted a masterclass of it both Moon Knight and Doctor Strange... except for the Shroud impersonating Moon Knight. It doesn't really do anything or add anything to the overall story, except for a cliffhanger hook when his darkforce explodes at the end of #5 to lead into Blood Hunt. But Moon Knight's death in #30? His return in Blood Hunt? Both fantastically well done. The Shroud impersonation feels like it was just done to spark discussion and sales, not for any other reason. It's something of a shame, too, as the concept of the Shroud as a hero undercover as a villain is one that never seems like it's properly explored, and given his ties to Moon Knight and Tigra from their West Coast Avengers days, it could have worked given more space.

While Doctor Strange's return lacks the visceral thrill of Moon Knight's, MacKay also nails that storyline. Clea's grief and commitment to resurrecting him, in a universe where that's de rigeuer is palpable. That Death already resurrected him (sort of) as the Harvestman, who debuts on page 1 of the Strange series, makes for a delightful subversion of expectations. The main villain of the Strange series is a rogue former SHIELD unit (yawn), but their leader, Number None, has a look (a blank void shaped like a person) that could have come straight out of Grant Morrison and Richard Case's Brotherhood of Dada.

Of course the full resurrection of Stephen Strange after defeating the Blasphemy Cartel means a new issue one (MacKay's Doctor Strange run totals 31 issues and has three issue ones). The first trade of the new volume has Strange and Clea adjusting to their married life, Wong co-founding a new pseudo-SHIELD police force for the magical side of the Marvel U, and climaxes with the reveal of a who's been killing magical villains in the background of the book at the wedding of Umar, Clea's mother. It makes for an excellent not-exactly-slice-of-life in the Marvel Universe comic, but not not-that either. Pasqual Ferry is the main artist for this volume, and he's a perfect fit, delivering his own modernized spin on an aesthetic originally created by Steve Ditko back in the 1960s. It's a marked contrast to Hickman and Schitti's contemporary G.O.D.s series, where the redesigns were too radical and obscured what was going on.

The killer revealed at the wedding is Strange himself, or more specifically a 5000 year old version of himself who had gone to war for the Vishanti, and at the conclusion of it, was separated and imprisoned. I have to confess, I'm not nearly as well-read in Doctor Strange comics as I'd like to be. It's not a title I've ever read regularly off the rack; I've picked up some collections here and there, particularly by Steve Englehart (expect entries here when I start on my stack of Epics). One of the few new Strange comics I've bought was Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #50, with its holographic foil cover. In that one, by Len Kamanski and Geoff Isherwood, Strange has lost much of his power after refusing to go to war for the Vishanti, so this is an interesting change to me. I'm genuinely curious if this is original to MacKay or not. Having a hero fighting an older, more cynical and amoral version of himself is an old trope in superhero comics at this point, but as with so much, MacKay handles with with aplomb. Strange's marriage to Clea also gives the story extra stakes; as a warlord from an alternate dimension, with a lower threshold than Strange for violence and killing, it works as an open question about whether or not she would prefer this version of her husband. She does not, but MacKay's characterization of Clea over the previous 20-odd issues makes the reader believe it's possible. That the story ends not with the War Hound version of Strange banished, killed, or imprisoned again, but in treatment with his younger self to heal is a terrific, Morrisonian conclusion. And MacKay does not just forget about General Strange either! During Blood Hunt, Doctor Strange considers unleashing him and decides not to do it when he sees how much progresses he's made already. It's a tremendously moving scene.

The third and final volume of MacKay's Doctor Strange, which contains the Blood Hunt tie-ins, opens with a delightful tale involving a new Circus of Crime that hopefully will appear again and a Dungeons and Dragons inspired two-parter where Strange leads a party of Black Cat, Taskmaster, and Hunter's Moon venture into a pocket reality generated by a sentient role playing. These stories a relief in between the General Strange and Blood Hunt epics, but also demonstrate the ease with which MacKay operates in the shared Marvel Universe. He's able to build on to that universe using elements both pre-existing and new. I previously compared him Roger Stern and Kurt Busiek for his work on Moon Knight, and these additional volumes just further confirm that he operates at that level of talent. While not everything he writes is successful (Avengers), the highs are more than worth the occasional misfire.

[ciggycat-art]

doodles of my Wilds hunter, Clea

[browsethestacks]

The Women Of Comics

Art by Mike McKone

[curtvilescomic]

Doctor Strange and Clea by Giovanni Romanini

[eileen-crys]

Clea Strange

The huge wave of AI generated aberrations that are invading the Clea/Strange tag made me do the impossible and actually pushed me to finish this big illustration that was 90% done in 2022 and just needed some final adjustments to be finished 💜✨

I previously published only the movie version but this was how the illustration was meant to be, featuring a whole range of looks Clea had through the years! Clockwise around MCU Clea: the first, "Steve Ditko" version, the straight-haired Clea from the 70s, the super curly 80s version, the most recent post-DoDS "witchy" look, and the beautiful look from the 2016 Annual look.

This was a massive effort and after two years there are things I would redraw from scratch, but I still hope you'll like it 💕

Please do not repost without credits! Comments and reblogs are welcomed!

[why-i-love-comics]

Doctor Strange #18 - "Deathless" (2024)

written by Jed MacKay art by Pasqual Ferry & Heather Moore

[dirtyriver]

Doctor Strange of Asgard #2, cover by Dan Panosian