Clea - Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension - Appreciation 2022

[Clea]

Strange #4
writer: Jed MacKay, cover: Lee Garbett, pencils: Marcello Ferreira, inker: Roberto Poggi, colorist: Java Tartaglia, lettering: VC's Cory Petit

Another solid issue, highlighted (for me) by the humorous yet bittersweet mother/daughter chat between Umar and Clea. Umar confesses that she might be open to admitting she loves Clea, BUT also rather amusing states that she assumed Clea had engineered Stephen Strange's death as part of a long time stealth plan to take over the earth, worthy of any decent evil Faltine warlord. LOL. Clea is indignant, of course. I loved Umar's long suffering whining about all the things she sacrificed for Clea over the years. (Note: the only thing Umar sacrificed for Clea was her sanity because she went profoundly off her rocker for ages after giving birth to Clea! LOL!). Meanwhile, the Blasphemy Cartel show up doing what they do best (mayhem), as does a new and improved version of Shadowknight. Clea performs some extremely complicated, fancy spellwork and gets everything back under control, while dear Mama takes care of the Blasphemy Cartel goons who are lurking (and shooting big guns!) outside the Sanctum. The writing, artwork, and lettering are all lovely and the story is quite good fun right up until that very last panel when we learn that [oops, cannot reveal super important SPOILERS!]

Once again I appreciate Jed MacKay's deep understanding of these characters and their magical world. I also am so moved by the way that he is able to so deftly express the bitter history between Clea and Umar, and still manage to make it all hilarious. No lie, just reading these last couple of issues is helping me forgot the decades when Marvel couldn't even be bothered to remember that Clea even existed. I love this book SO MUCH. Thank you, Jed!

Just look at these two, will you? MacKay's version of Umar is so funny.

[SanityOrMadness]

Clea performs some extremely complicated, fancy spellwork and gets everything back under control,...

Yeah, that was bad. Pet hate of mine - character goes "this is incredibly unpossible" and then just does it without a hitch. It's just plain bad plotting.

[DigiCom]

MacKay's version of Umar is so funny.

As I've said elsewhere, Jed's Umar could out-snark Emma Frost.

Yeah, that was bad. Pet hate of mine - character goes "this is incredibly unpossible" and then just does it without a hitch. It's just plain bad plotting.

Technically, all she said was that it was difficult & time-consuming, not "unpossible". And I wouldn't say it went off without a hitch, as she managed to finish the new spell with only moments to spare, as her demonic distraction was defeated.

But hey. You do you.

[Clea]

As I've said elsewhere, Jed's Umar could out-snark Emma Frost.

LOL. I'd love to see Umar and Emma Frost get into a snarky fight. That would be hilarious.

[DigiCom]

LOL. I'd love to see Umar and Emma Frost get into a snarky fight. That would be hilarious.

So many raised eyebrows!

[Frontier]

LOL. I'd love to see Umar and Emma Frost get into a snarky fight. That would be hilarious.

Throw in Sersi and the amount of sass would blow up a country .

[Clea]

Extremely positive review of Strange 4 here on comicon.com:
https://comicon.com/2022/07/29/the-d...ing-strange-4/

[Lukmendes]

So I have a question that is is semi-related to Clea, does anyone know when the "magic has a price" thing started? I remember that Strange was still a power house even in late 2000's considering how much World War Hulk makes it clear Strange outclasses Hulk, but at some point he got hella nerfed, and "magic has a price" really looks like a weird excuse to do so... I noticed he was nerfed in Cates' run, but I get the feeling Aaron did it too, but did it start earlier and did it start with the "magic has a price" thing?

[DigiCom]

So I have a question that is is semi-related to Clea, does anyone know when the "magic has a price" thing started? I remember that Strange was still a power house even in late 2000's considering how much World War Hulk makes it clear Strange outclasses Hulk, but at some point he got hella nerfed, and "magic has a price" really looks like a weird excuse to do so... I noticed he was nerfed in Cates' run, but I get the feeling Aaron did it too, but did it start earlier and did it start with the "magic has a price" thing?

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.

[Frontier]

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

[DigiCom]

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

And Bats, of course. Everyone loves Bats.

[Tulku]

Ummmmmm....no.

Bats was interesting, creative and different. 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.

[Tulku]

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.

[DigiCom]

Ummmmmm....no.

Bats was interesting, creative and different. 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.

My bad. I stopped reading after it became clear Aaron had only one plot and didn't realize when Cates took over.

[Clea]

Ummmmmm....no.

Bats was interesting, creative and different. 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.

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.

LOL. Came here to say the same thing. I don't think Aaron read a single issue of Doctor Strange before he started writing the book. He just wanted to put his stamp on the book and remake the character. His version of Strange struck me as a bad anime take, especially the 'cost of magic' stuff that was done so much better in Fullmetal Alchemist. Zelma truly was just a knockoff of Sarah Wolfe. I like Zelma, though I did think it was horribly unimaginative for Aaron to give Strange yet another young female companion as if Strange is Dr. Who who gets a new girl sidekick every time they switch actors/writing teams.

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