Clea - Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension - Appreciation 2022

[Steroid]

I absolutely loved this newest issue and Clea is quickly becoming a favorite character for me. It does feel like this run is coming to a close but I also definitely believe Mackay isn't finished with Mr. and Mrs. Strange by a longshot.

[Lukmendes]

Yeah, I don't watch that many scripted movies and shows either. I'm more of a reader of books and viewer of documentaries than anything else. Hell, my passion for sports and music is far greater than my enthusiasm for films and television series. But the superhero stuff is fun because of the ridiculousness of the genre. And the MCU has done a pretty good job of making their stuff entertaining. A lot of that has to do with the humor for me. I do think Cap and Black Panther were serious, but they weren't grimdark like the more recent Superman and Batman movies. Not even close. I agree that cosmic horror is tough to do in any medium. I think that stuff is just too weird to do onscreen. I LOVED the trippy visuals of the first Strange movie though. It's hard to do magical battles in live-action. The Sword in the Stone reality warping battle was VERY cool, but that was done through animation, not in live-action.

What can I say, I LIKE banter. I don't like it when characters monologue to each other and their counterparts don't say anything. Oftentimes they're just dumping exposition or being bitchy. THAT is boring to me. And She-Hulk, Loki and the MoM had a lot of that kind of thing and I didn't like it. I enjoy the back-and-forth nature of combative "quippy" dialogue.



"Because they didn't try, Colonel. I saw it myself. Half of your men never left the trenches."

"A third of my men were pinned down because the fire was so intense."

"Don't quibble over fractions, Colonel."

OR

"They've skim milk in their veins instead of blood."

"It's the reddest milk I've ever seen. My trenches are soaked with it!"

OR

"Why not shoot the entire regiment? I'm perfectly serious."

"Well now Colonel, you're missing the point entirely. We don't want to slaughter the French Army. All we want is to do is set an example."

That kind of dialogue is a HUGE reason why Paths of Glory is in my top three favorite movies of ALL TIME. Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson combined hardboiled prose and black comedy to GREAT effect in that film. I wanna see more of that kind of wordplay in the MCU, not less.

Banter is fine, and it can show the kind of relationship characters have (A big reason I like Spidey's relationship with MJ is how amusing their banter could be), but characters shouldn't sound interchangeable (Specially if they're all supposed to sound important), and about every hero in the MCU having about the same sense of humor is boring and lazy.

Captain America and Black Panther don't talk like that and is still very popular. Daredevil was popular before he appeared on the She-Hulk show and he didn't talk like that either.

Thor only started being written more humorously when the writer realized Chris Hemsworth was better at comedy than in serious roles.

On the other side, we have Ultron who talks like the typical Whedon character and is considered one of the worst MCU characters.

Ultron talked like a Whedon character? Man...

The MCU brand of bantering, quippy humor is so overplayed that it makes all of the characters sound alike. I understand all of the reasons why the MCU likes to intercut the action in their stories with humor. That's a perfectly valid way to brand and unify the MCU products so that they flow easily from one to the next for audience. But I don't like the fact that all of the characters share exactly the same sense of humor and quip constantly. That's just lazy writing, IMO. Comics and the MCU films are essentially repetitive and formulaic, but they could at least try to give each character a more unique voice. Someone's sense of humor (or lack thereof) reveals a lot about a person. When they all sound alike and joke alike, the characters just blend together into a dull mash.

It's also worth pointing out that characters contrasting each other is a good way to show who each one is as a person, different philosophies, speech patterns, attitudes do that, and the type of sense of humor they have are definitely part of that too.

When everyone sounds the same, telling them apart gets messy, and is less interesting to even try to do so.

I fear that STRANGE #10 may be the final issue, however:

STRANGE #10
JED MACKAY (W) • MARCELO FERREIRA (A) • Cover by Lee Garbett
Demonized Variant Cover by TBA • Classic Homage Variant Cover by IBAN COELLO
Games Variant Cover by NETEASE
SORCERERS SUPREME UNITE!
Clea and Stephen Strange team up to take down the Blasphemy Cartel and their dreaded super-powered weapon! But will two Sorcerers Supreme be enough for this final battle? And what will finally become of Stephen Strange by the end of it? As one chapter closes, a new one is about to begin in the house of Strange…
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

It's worth pointing out that even after Black Cat's comic was cancelled, she gets minis here and there, something of the like could happen with Clea and Strange once he comes back (Or maybe he won't for now, who knows, he could be Death's Sorcerer Supreme for a while), though it's also less likely 'cause Clear is a much smaller name, and even with the minis Felicia gets, they come out rather sporadically

[DigiCom]

Sady, it appears issue #10 will be the last.

Here's hoping Jed gets another series to follow up on things.

[Steroid]

Sady, it appears issue #10 will be the last.

Here's hoping Jed gets another series to follow up on things.

Really hoping Mackay is given another series to keep things going with this franchise. His run has been an amazing read and it would be a shame for this to be the end.

[kcekada]

I haven't been to a comic book shop since Summer, but I don't think they had any of the latest series on the stands (they don't tend to order more than what the regulars order). But I would be interested in a trade or maybe just the digital comics. I read a good bit of McKay's Black Cat and was impressed with his writing.

[DigiCom]

Really hoping Mackay is given another series to keep things going with this franchise. His run has been an amazing read and it would be a shame for this to be the end.

You and me both.

[Steroid]

I haven't been to a comic book shop since Summer, but I don't think they had any of the latest series on the stands (they don't tend to order more than what the regulars order). But I would be interested in a trade or maybe just the digital comics. I read a good bit of McKay's Black Cat and was impressed with his writing.

Strange has been great and if you're a fan of Mackay's writing I HIGHLY suggest giving the current run of Moon Knight a shot.

[Frontier]

I would love it if they relaunch it as a book with both Clea and Stephen .

[DigiCom]

I would love it if they relaunch it as a book with both Clea and Stephen .

And Wong & Bats. Call it STRANGE TALES.

[Steroid]

And Wong & Bats. Call it STRANGE TALES.

That would be perfect.

[Dioman-san]

Sady, it appears issue #10 will be the last.

Here's hoping Jed gets another series to follow up on things.

No necessarily, it happen Marvel jump one month in the publishing of a series.

If we don't new issue sollicited for March or April. That we can say the serie is finish.

[DigiCom]

No necessarily, it happen Marvel jump one month in the publishing of a series.

If we don't new issue sollicited for March or April. That we can say the serie is finish.

True, but the solicit for #10 certainly SOUNDS like an ending, and the second trade also ends there. it's a reasonable guess.

[Rzerox21xx]

https://aiptcomics.com/2022/11/23/ma...iew-strange-8/

Should this be in the Strange Appreciation thread?

[DigiCom]

https://aiptcomics.com/2022/11/23/ma...iew-strange-8/

Should this be in the Strange Appreciation thread?

I believe both here and there are appropriate.

[Clea]

Strange #8
writer: Jed MacKay, cover art: Lee Garbett, Artist: Stefano Landini, Present Day Penciller: Marcello Ferreira, Present Day Inker: Roberto Poggi, Colorist: Java Tartaglia, Lettering: VC’s Cory Petit

This is the first time I can recall seeing the art credited as 'present day' penciller and inker with the rest presumably all drawn by Stefano Landini. Interesting.

My thoughts on this issue can mainly be summed up by two words: exposition dump. Because WOW, there was a metric ton of exposition in this issue. Pretty much the entire backstory about WAND and the Blasphemy Cartel is laid out in this issue. It was also pretty much a Stephen Strange story, with a only couple cursory appearances by Clea (plus Wong and Bats who got to cuddle with ghost Stephen while Clea watched from a distance with quite a cross expression on her face).

Plot: WAND stuff. Blasphemy Cartel stuff. Pages and pages of exposition about them. If I'm being honest, I'll say that I was annoyed by this massive backstory dump, especially considering that so many issues in this series have been breezy pulp style adventure vignettes that were scanty on exposition of any kind aside from sass.

Stephen look splendid. Clea was told that nobody expected her to show up as Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, so Clea inadvertently screwed up all of the Blasphemy Cartel plans. So yay for Clea's unanticipated arrival on Earth as Sorcerer Supreme.


I'm intrigued by the teaser for the next issue. Who is the Blasphemy Cartel's unexpected, deadliest weapon??? (And if it isn't Sophia Strange, why isn't it her, I will ask. Because that would be amazing.)