Clea - Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension - Appreciation 2022

[Albert1981]

Swords. Snakes. Whatever:

Strange #3 Preview

I've never seen Clea act like this before. She looks pretty ruthless actually.

[DigiCom]

I've never seen Clea act like this before. She looks pretty ruthless actually.

She's still grieving over Stephen. Stage 2 (anger) I believe, with a soupçon of denial.

[Clea]

Boy. Clea has ... shed any previous ... softness. O_O

Pissed off Clea is quite a mood. I like it. This is the Clea who honed her skills and resolve to stamp out evil after years of leading resistance fighters against Dormammu's reign of terror in the Dark Dimension. I'm on board with this current take on Clea so long as MacKay doesn't imply that Rage!Warlord!Clea is her only true self, because we know it's not. I'm not too concerned about that though, because he's such a good and insightful writer and he's got an extremely good understanding of who all of these characters are.

[Albert1981]

She's still grieving over Stephen. Stage 2 (anger) I believe, with a soupçon of denial.

I get that. But Clea is by nature a very compassionate, sensitive and gentle person. She basically was crying in almost EVERY one of her earlier comic book appearances for Pete's sake! I don't recall her taking pleasure in beating up her enemies. Except for that time when she beat up Nicodemus West back in the day after he tried to get too friendly with her. I never thought of her as a "badass".

[Reviresco]

She's still grieving over Stephen. Stage 2 (anger) I believe, with a soupçon of denial.

Good point.

Pissed off Clea is quite a mood. I like it. This is the Clea who honed her skills and resolve to stamp out evil after years of leading resistance fighters against Dormammu's reign of terror in the Dark Dimension. I'm on board with this current take on Clea so long as MacKay doesn't imply that Rage!Warlord!Clea is her only true self, because we know it's not. I'm not too concerned about that though, because he's such a good and insightful writer and he's got an extremely good understanding of who all of these characters are.

Exactly. Especially given the more wrathful she gets the more she looks like Dormammu. It will be interesting to see where McKay goes with it.

[DigiCom]

I get that. But Clea is by nature a very compassionate, sensitive and gentle person. She basically was crying in almost EVERY one of her earlier comic book appearances for Pete's sake! I don't recall her taking pleasure in beating up her enemies. Except for that time when she beat up Nicodemus West back in the day after he tried to get too friendly with her. I never thought of her as a "badass".

That's just the thing. She hasn't been that "sensitive & gentle" character since she kicked her mother's Faltine backside to gain the Flames of Regency. That sort of Silver/Bronze-age "damsel in distress" take just doesn't work nowadays. I don't think she's bloodthirsty, though. Just PHENOMENALLY pissed off.

[Albert1981]

That's just the thing. She hasn't been that "sensitive & gentle" character since she kicked her mother's Faltine backside to gain the Flames of Regency. That sort of Silver/Bronze-age "damsel in distress" take just doesn't work nowadays. I don't think she's bloodthirsty, though. Just PHENOMENALLY pissed off.

Clea going hardcore "gangsta" is a bit of a tonal shift don't you think? I'm curious to see how Marvel is gonna handle her in the coming months. I don't recall her headlining her own book...Like ever. So it's nice she has the spotlight. She was always just Strange's main love interest to me. To me Clea's just acting like a more vicious version of Jessica Fletcher at the moment.

[Clea]

That's just the thing. She hasn't been that "sensitive & gentle" character since she kicked her mother's Faltine backside to gain the Flames of Regency. That sort of Silver/Bronze-age "damsel in distress" take just doesn't work nowadays. I don't think she's bloodthirsty, though. Just PHENOMENALLY pissed off.

I agree. She's not a frail damsel in distress. That old trope was so eye-rollingly irritating to me, as a female reader. Clea is someone who was raised in the court of the Dark Dimension. Even though the fact that her relationship to Umar and Dormammu was kept secret from her, her father was the heir to the previous lineage of warlord kings that ruled the Dark Dimension before the Faltine siblings showed up. She was never actually a damsel in distress. Writers just stuck her in that mode because they pretty much wrote all of the female characters back then as damsels whose sole role was to be rescued (repeatedly) by the male hero (or else as crazy villainesses, but Umar was put into that role). Strip away all of the damsel nonsense and what we know of Clea is that she was raised in the court. She was in awe of Dormammu because everyone was raised to be in awe of his absolute tyranny, but she hated his cruelty and allied herself with the first person she saw (Stephen) who was brave enough to stand up to him. Her defiance landed her on Dormammu's enemies list from then on. She aided Stephen and eventually fell in love with him. She learned earth magic from Stephen in order to protect herself while on earth, and also take back with her as additional skills to overthrow her Faltine relatives. She led resistance armies against both Umar and Dormammu, and wants nothing more than to restore the Dark Dimension to the side of Light and freedom and harmony. We also know that she is kind, loyal, feisty, and has a wicked sense of humor. She's a terrific character. But NOT bloodthirsty. She's fierce when she needs to be. She's hardened herself up through years of fighting and ruling. But kind, soft Clea is still there now. We see that side of her only when she's cuddled up with Bats and Wong. They're all she has right now to give her any bit of hope and affection, and she desperately needs both if she's going to get through this Strange storyline intact.

[DigiCom]

Clea going hardcore "gangsta" is a bit of a tonal shift don't you think? I'm curious to see how Marvel is gonna handle her in the coming months. I don't recall her headlining her own book...Like ever. So it's nice she has the spotlight. She was always just Strange's main love interest to me. To me Clea's just acting like a more vicious version of Jessica Fletcher at the moment.

This is her first solo, yes. But not the first time she's gone "gangsta" :



From Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #67, published in 1994.

[Albert1981]

This is her first solo, yes. But not the first time she's gone "gangsta" :



From Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #67, published in 1994.

That's crazy! LOL!

[Galerion]

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudi...ed_design_for/

[DigiCom]

That's crazy! LOL!

For the record, she dresses like that to blend into the city. When she meets up with Stephen, she looks more normal:

[SanityOrMadness]

Honestly, I thought we were past shrinkwrapped boobs:

[Albert1981]

For the record, she dresses like that to blend into the city. When she meets up with Stephen, she looks more normal:

I like Clea with longer hair. But 80s and 90s female fashion does not agree with me AT ALL. She really was a mushy dame thirty years ago, wasn't she?

[Ravin' Ray]

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudi...ed_design_for/

Did her MoM mid-credits appearance give you the impression she had really pale skin, like Tilda Swinton in Narnia or paler?