Clea - Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension - Appreciation 2022

[Lukmendes]

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

"Every time I used a spell to clobber a buncha nazi warlocks and save some poor blonde's life, I'd go home that night... And drown one of my rabbits."



What the ****.

This sounds like a story made by someone trying to say magic is bad, and only bad.

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.

And annoyingly enough, that **** isn't gone.

Strange's own death is an example of this, once that Temporal Remnant Strange brought Strange back, the fucking "magic has a price" **** comes back to kill him off, which's just weird because you'd assume that the healing being used to force Strange back at the cost of killing Kaecilius would mean he'd be able to remain, you would think killing one to bring another back would fucking sate magic, but no lol.

Meanwhile, in Trial of Magneto, which was out at around the same time, had Wanda basically killing herself and resurrecting herself, and she had to pay for jack **** lol.

So yeah, "magic has a price" **** only has Strange paying for it, which's obnoxious even if he wasn't the only one affected by this... A friend of mine joked that everyone else puts their magic debt on Strange's tab and he might be right lol.

The only thing people seemed to take from Aaron's run is Zelma.

If that's all writers took from it too it wouldn't be as damaging, but the "magic has a price" is what got Strange killed...

Ummmmmm....no.

Bats was interesting, creative and different.

Yeah, Bats is just adorable, while Strange was being an obnoxious manchild with the whole "Loki Sorcerer Supreme" thing, Bats was fun, I didn't like it when he died, and then glad when he came back as a ghost, and he tends to be amusing whenever he shows up.

Three words that are NEVER applied to Aaron. Cates created Bats. Zelma was created by Aaron, but she was basically Sarah Wolfe in a different body, because Aaron is not interesting, or creative or different. He borrows other (better) writers' concepts and then arrogantly claims them for his own. He is the definition of a hack writer.

What I saw of Aaron, his stuff may be boring even when I didn't know what he was ruining, the anguish of knowing what he's ruining on top of bad writing, man, sounds like a great time.

To be fair to Aaron, I don't think that he realized that Zelma was just a re-version of Sarah Wolfe. To know that, he would have had to actually research the character of Dr. Strange, which he clearly didn't do. He knew squat all about Strange when he wrote his issues.

Seems to be a thing he does, in the Namor thread, it was complained that Aaron changed Namor's origin for no reason, and his origin remained consistent for over 80 years, so yeah, that's a noticeable and consistent problem...

And yes, Donny Cates created Bats, to work through the loss of his own beloved pet cat who'd just died.

Ah, wasn't aware of that, that sucks.

[DigiCom]

"Every time I used a spell to clobber a buncha nazi warlocks and save some poor blonde's life, I'd go home that night... And drown one of my rabbits."



What the ****.

This sounds like a story made by someone trying to say magic is bad, and only bad.

Basically, yeah.

Strange's own death is an example of this, once that Temporal Remnant Strange brought Strange back, the fucking "magic has a price" **** comes back to kill him off, which's just weird because you'd assume that the healing being used to force Strange back at the cost of killing Kaecilius would mean he'd be able to remain, you would think killing one to bring another back would fucking sate magic, but no lol.

In all fairness, that was apparently editorial mandate.

So yeah, "magic has a price" **** only has Strange paying for it, which's obnoxious even if he wasn't the only one affected by this... A friend of mine joked that everyone else puts their magic debt on Strange's tab and he might be right lol.

That... actually makes a lot of sense.

[Agent Z]

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.

I'm confused by this dialogue. Is he saying that he had to drown rabbits as a price to pay for using magic or that he just drowned rabbits on his own accord?

[Reviresco]

I'm confused by this dialogue. Is he saying that he had to drown rabbits as a price to pay for using magic or that he just drowned rabbits on his own accord?

The price he paid for his magic.

The idea isn't without merit, but man it was executed badly. Plus, what everyone else said. Strange was the one who did all the paying -- and we heard NONE of this in his decade long history before.

[Clea]

Strange 5 cover

Due out this Wednesday!

Now, who could that be in those swanky yellow gloves with the cool Ditko dots on them? Hmmm...

Looks like Moon Knight is in this issue, too, per Jed MacKay's twitter.

[Clea]

Strange 5
writer: Jed MacKay, cover: Lee Garbett, penciler: Marcelo Ferreira, Inker: Roberto Poggi, Colorist: Java Tartaglia, Lettering: VC's Cory Petit

LOL, called it.

This is another fun-filled issue. Umar drinks blood cocktails, Clea pals around with Moon Knight, and the Harvestman provides more background about the turmoil in Death's domain to Clea. Death is getting rather ticked off at Clea for interfering in Death's business but the Harvestman says that he won't take any punitive actions against her because she's just doing her job and she's fighting to be reunited with her lost love. He's clearly a softie for a good story about fighting for love against overwhelming odds.

One of my favorite snarky pages from this issue: Clea looks heroic and determined! The Harvestman snarks that Stephen Strange isn't all that actually, and isn't worth her love. Umar snarks that Clea's taste in men continues to be awful, and Clea snarks back at Umar and tells her to hit the bricks because honestly? Umar is a complete drag and is ruining the mood of what was already a pretty bad day.



Oh yes, and we get a peak of Stephen Strange in the afterlife. He's not looking too bad for a dead guy, all things considered.

[The Cool Thatguy]

The price he paid for his magic.

The idea isn't without merit, but man it was executed badly. Plus, what everyone else said. Strange was the one who did all the paying -- and we heard NONE of this in his decade long history before.

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

[lordozone]

Jed McKay is one of the few authors who can write about a character that don't interest me very much (Black Cat, Clea) and make it one of my must reads every month

[Tendrin]

Strange 5
writer: Jed MacKay, cover: Lee Garbett, penciler: Marcelo Ferreira, Inker: Roberto Poggi, Colorist: Java Tartaglia, Lettering: VC's Cory Petit

LOL, called it.

I think we all did. xD

[Clea]

I think we all did. xD

It was pretty obvious. Still cute, though!

[Celtic1967]

Flipped through the latest issue today, looks really cool. Might go and grab the back issues or at least pick up the TPB when it comes out.

[Tendrin]

It was pretty obvious. Still cute, though!

I think we're in for much bigger twists to come.

[Clea]

I think we're in for much bigger twists to come.

I assume so. It looks like Clea has the current twist figured out.



I don't know how much longer this series is going to run before Marvel decides to bring Stephen back from the dead but there is still room in this story for many more surprising twists. Plus, I want to see more of Umar being horrid towards Clea before (and after) Stephen returns. I need Jed MacKay to keep writing Umar forever because she's freaking hilarious. I also want to find out what in the multiverse is happening in the Dark Dimension.

[DigiCom]

I don't know how much longer this series is going to run before Marvel decides to bring Stephen back from the dead but there is still room in this story for many more surprising twists. Plus, I want to see more of Umar being horrid towards Clea before (and after) Stephen returns. I need Jed MacKay to keep writing Umar forever because she's freaking hilarious. I also want to find out what in the multiverse is happening in the Dark Dimension.

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...

[Albert1981]

The price he paid for his magic.

The idea isn't without merit, but man it was executed badly. Plus, what everyone else said. Strange was the one who did all the paying -- and we heard NONE of this in his decade long history before.

I think writers keep trying to figure out ways to avoid deus ex machinas when writing about magic and the best solution they often can come up with is attaching costs to magic use. I think magic USERS who use magic to "solve problems" kind of need some rules and limitations to make stories satisfying. That being said, I do prefer magic to be beautiful and mysterious myself. But some level of consistency is nice (I like to give writers some leeway so the rules should be consistent at LEAST 75%-80% of the time). I thought Strange 1, WandaVision and Loki 1 did a pretty good job of making magic "work" in the MCU my opinion. But the way Marvel Studios handled magic in the MoM was pretty bad in my view. And I'm starting to have the same complaints about MCU "technology" as well:

"The overuse of nanotechnology has also become overbearing. When things can literally materialize out of nothing from Spider Man’s suit in the blink of an eye “because nanotechnology,” it’s hard to add a lot of tension or follow any sort of consistent in-universe rules. Combined with the multiverse stuff and even literal “magic”, it’s like each scene is just a bunch of random stuff happening based on what the writers think would look cool (or what they need to happen so they can get from point A to point B) without having to follow any consistent logic."

I liked how the MCU explained nanotechnology in the first three phases and I REALLY liked NWH. BUT I felt Parker in NWH used his "tech" like "ill-defined magic" in that movie (at the beginning of it).