Strange – Marvel Knights (2004)

During a wait between comic release dates I came across this “Strange” series from 2004. Part of the “Marvel Knights” set of releases.

I admit i went in pretty blindly. I found them fairly cheaply and thought well, why not. Plus, look at that issue 5. Man, that is some gorgeous cover art right there. I’d seen that image floating around a lot it’s cool to see where it’s come from.

Upon reading the comics and a small amount of research i found it was a re-telling of Doctor Strange’s origin story. Because of this i wouldn’t call it super ESSENTIAL reading if you’re delving into the world of Strange but it was certainly interesting and entertaining!

The art, as you can see by the covers, if absolutely gorgeous. Really some of the best i’ve seen personally. Most of the characters are familiar to us though i’d personally never properly come across Clea before. I looked her up – niece of Dormammu who betrays him and is on the good guy team. She’s all magic too. Even at one point becomes Mrs Strange. Oooo.

In a way, being fairly familiar with Strange’s origin story, i didn’t feel like it had stretched the original that much. The nature of his surgery was slightly different, his accident circumstances changed slightly, and his links with Tibet were established early on. But in the end the dealings with The Ancient One and Mordo and things were fairly similar, except maybe the setting. I liked the Wong story-line very much.

However, this is the first “re-telling” of any kind i’ve ever come across. I’m not sure of the general standard and expectation of these things. It was certainly interesting and a good story and visually beautiful. Plus Stephen was as sassy as always. Also Wong is hot. Is that a weird thing to say about a comic character? Just, yeah. They have a good look for him.

As a final point, i couldn’t help but make some comparisons between this series and the film especially when it came to the visuals. The Ancient One is very much dressed in yellow, the sort of circular crest-like magic shapes are used and just some little things like Strange’s apartment and him saying “teach me”. It’s really fun to see where possible inspiration for the film came from!