Clea - Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension - Appreciation 2022

[Albert1981]

Jason Aaron in Doctor Strange #1 (2015). Similar ideas had been mentioned elsewhere, but Aaron made it the centerpiece of his run.



The annoying part, for me, is that Strange was the only character who seemed to have to worry about it. Aaron even had him being forced to eat weird food to stay alive, while everyone else had perfectly ordinary diets.

Drowning rabbits is a really EXTREME price for magic use. I don't mind Strange eating eyeball casseroles. It can be played for laughs. But I agree, why don't other magic users in the Marvel Universe pay any prices for THEIR magic use?

I think SOME rules for magic can create stakes in magic-based stories. You don't want readers/viewers to ask, "What can these people do?" and "Why can they only do it sometimes but not all of the time?" As other folks have mentioned, in Strange 2, magic sometimes worked and sometimes it didn't. If people can't have at least a general or even vague understanding of the powers being used in superhero and fantasy films/books, then nothing means anything. There are ZERO stakes. I think cause and effect can totally be applied to magic (if this happens then that happens).

I only started getting interested in magic in comic book storytelling AFTER watching WandaVision to be honest. After Slate published an article criticizing boring magic duels in Hollywood movies and shows. And I started wondering why can't magic battles be more creative and imaginative? Then I read about "magic systems" and understood why some writers/authors might wanna tone things down. I eventually stumbled upon a a blog entry by noted fantasy author NK Jemisin which aroused my curiosity regarding the debate over whether magic should "make sense" in fiction:

https://nkjemisin.com/2012/06/but-bu...to-make-sense/

The comments were EXTREMELY interesting to me. I thought Marvel/DC writers would be interested in the debates taking place in fantasy fiction circles in the past twenty years, and apparently Aaron is one of them?

[DigiCom]

This is only a problem when writers focus on HOW a character can do things, as opposed to WHY.

If you take the current STRANGE series as an example, we have 2 or 3 sides going on here.

Clea: What's really interesting is the lengths she's willing to go to achieve her goals. Might she go too far down the path of the warlord?
Death: One of the oldest conceptual entities in the 616 universe. Why did she create the Harvestman now of all times? Does it have something to do with the sudden outflow of souls from the afterlife?
The Blasphemy Cartel: At first, their goals seemed simply criminal & financial, but they seem to have skills that would make that trivial. So what is their deal?

NONE of this requires us to discuss "the rules" or "the cost" of magic.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Issue 5 was a good issue. I liked the big reveal and curious where it goes.

[your_name_here]

I hope Mackay stays on for a good long while. This run has been really good fun.
Nice to see a Strange comic with actual magic with no loss of powers etc.

[DigiCom]

I've been thinking lately about the depiction of magic in comics specifically, and I've identified three challenges that no other medium has had to confront.

1. Comics are a visual medium. So magic has to be visually interesting. I think that's why it's so often reduced to floating runes and funky energy bolts. They make for arresting panels. After all, while Clea is an interesting character, it's panels like this that catch the eye:



2. Comics are a static medium. So it's much more difficult to depict things like transformations or dynamic movement. MCU Strange uses complex gestures (derived from a dance style called "tutting") to cast spells, but showing that in a story either requires the use of afterimages, or multiple panels, which can slow a story down at a critical moment.

This:



is a lot less interesting than this:



3. Comics are a serial medium. It's not just that you have to worry about how a mage can defeat one foe. You have to come up with new challenges every month, and defeat them in new ways, without consciously violating what came before. I suspect this is why Stephen was depowered so often. Some writers have come up with new spells to solve one problem that, if they are still usable, would break the story they want to tell. So, rather than come up with a different story, they eliminate the magic that gets in the way.

[Lukmendes]

In all fairness, that was apparently editorial mandate.

Still though, it doesn't make the whole "magic has a price" any better, since it has been fucking over Strange for years, and now it got him killed lol.

I hope Mackay stays on for a good long while. This run has been really good fun.
Nice to see a Strange comic with actual magic with no loss of powers etc.

Just wait until Strange is back .

I've been thinking lately about the depiction of magic in comics specifically, and I've identified three challenges that no other medium has had to confront.

1. Comics are a visual medium. So magic has to be visually interesting. I think that's why it's so often reduced to floating runes and funky energy bolts. They make for arresting panels. After all, while Clea is an interesting character, it's panels like this that catch the eye:

https://64.media.tumblr.com/fc593407...25dc0a1b9a.jpg

2. Comics are a static medium. So it's much more difficult to depict things like transformations or dynamic movement.

Dynamic movement can be done, it's done very often in mangas with good art, though it is difficult.

In Attack on Titan, I saw one hilarious case where the manga had a better sense of movement than the anime lol.

But yeah, hand movements just aren't interesting to look at consistently in a comic, and hell, Naruto itself dropped them after a while, with the hand movements only being mentioned but not really shown.

I do think Strange doesn't really have this problem though, in old comics he just said weird words and did a specific hand gesture when doing spells as far as I've seen, what's important is making the spell itself look cool once it comes out.

3. Comics are a serial medium. It's not just that you have to worry about how a mage can defeat one foe. You have to come up with new challenges every month, and defeat them in new ways, without consciously violating what came before. I suspect this is why Stephen was depowered so often. Some writers have come up with new spells to solve one problem that, if they are still usable, would break the story they want to tell. So, rather than come up with a different story, they eliminate the magic that gets in the way.

I mean, "eliminating the magic that gets in the way" is fine, and I do understand the point of Strange being too strong (Old comics had him, Thor and Silver Surfer being around the same level, but his spells are so ridiculously flexible, and he dealt with overpowered beings even stronger than he is, he was safely way above Thor and Silver Surfer), but instead of just making Strange conveniently forget some overpowered spells, they just **** him over and make him bad at magic with a bad personality too.

Superman back in silver age was ridiculously overpowered, Bronze Age nerfed him, and Post-Crisis nerfed him even further, while a lot of people didn't like how weak he became, his personality was still fine, and the powers were still there, only nerfed, Strange doesn't get such luxuries and loses cool powers and become a manchild, a problem that Thor also has, and I'm 100% sure that Jason Aaron being the one starting the most drastic changes is just a coincidence .

[Lee Stone]

Jason Aaron, who has seemingly denounced spirituality, probably shouldn't write characters centered around spirituality

This.

Aaron's run to me felt like a scientist trying to explain how magic works, and then proceeding to break it because it didn't make sense to them.

[Lee Stone]

The great thing about the situation is, if Marvel DOES choose to bring Strange back and Jed wants to keep writing the book, they can do so without even a relaunch. After all, the title doesn't say WHICH Strange it is about...

I hope Mackay stays on for a good long while. This run has been really good fun.
Nice to see a Strange comic with actual magic with no loss of powers etc.

The current run has me the most interested I've been in a looong time.
And it sounds like he actually respects the characters and their 'world'.

I may finally break down and get it.

[Tendrin]

Mackay came out of nowhere and has been absolutely amazing on everything. Moon Knight and Strange are great. I've heard lovely things about Black Cat.

[Clea]

Lee Garbett posted the cover art to Strange 9 in his Twitter acct today. It's so, so pretty! And so spoilery! I'm editing this post to just link to the tweet in case anyone doesn't want to be spoiled by seeing the cover just yet.

https://twitter.com/LeeGarbett/statu...rsLL_Fb7fbBlyg

[Lukmendes]

Lee Garbett posted the cover art to Strange 9 in his Twitter acct today. It's so, so pretty! And so spoilery! I put it under a spoiler tag but I'm not sure the tag is working because I still see the picture.

spoilers:

https://images2.imgbox.com/b6/23/YqmNUhZP_o.jpg

end of spoilers

Pictures and links aren't covered by spoilers, you might as well just leave the link to the tweet and warn that it's a spoiler.

[Clea]

Pictures and links aren't covered by spoilers, you might as well just leave the link to the tweet and warn that it's a spoiler.

Oh yeah, I can definitely just link to the Tweet. Good idea!

[Shadowcat]

Marvel needs to have a Clea/Wanda crossover next year seriously.

[Lukmendes]

Marvel needs to have a Clea/Wanda crossover next year seriously.

Wanda did resurrect herself a while ago, maybe Clea could ask her how she did so while avoiding the "price of magic" after they punch some villain in the face .

[Shadowcat]

Wanda did resurrect herself a while ago, maybe Clea could ask her how she did so while avoiding the "price of magic" after they punch some villain in the face .

On second thought, scrap that. Id like an adventure with these two, plus throw in Captain Britsy, and Otherworld, into the mix.