Strange #1

“A Whole New Ballgame”

Cover Price: $3.99
Bargain Price: 3/$1.00
Cover Date: January 2010

Dr. Strange, who recently lost most of his powers to Brother Voodoo over in the pages of New Avengers, gets a new miniseries with this issue from Mark Waid and artist Emma Rios. Rios’ Manga influenced art is nice and clean, if not really my cup of tea, and Waid’s story, about a baseball team playing a gang of demons for their immortal souls, makes for a light and fun one and done tale. The end result is an issue that’s good enough, but feels like it could have been more. The has been magician breaking in a new assistant angle that Waid seems to be taking with this series was done much better in last year’s excellent Mysterius, The Unfathomable, which also had a slew of much more creative and gruesome looking demons. True, the story seems a little hampered from really indulging its premise by a general all ages vibe, but even that is contradicted by the Vertigo-eque cover and a T+ content rating that seems a little extreme to me (but then I suppose demons and immortal souls are probably a bit much for a lot of kids). Still, Thor: The Mighty Avenger is telling truly memorable, amazing stories right now without letting it’s A rating hold it back. All in all, I suppose my main complaint, and it’s sort of a double-edged one, is that the issue is good, but it’s just not as interesting or memorable as it could be.