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The front and back cover of Doctor Strange #1 (Marvel Comics, 2022), a psychedelic wraparound illustration where Doctor Strange strikes a pose with a hand on his hip on the front and a number of ghostly silhouettes and visages appear on the back, including his face in profile, a green shaded drawing of Strange drifting off to sleep, and a black and gold woman in front of a crucifix. Image: Tradd Moore and Heather Moore/Marvel Comics

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You aren’t ready for how good Marvel’s new Doctor Strange comic looks

The true master of the mystic arts is writer and artist Tradd Moore

Joshua Rivera (he/him) is an entertainment and culture journalist specializing in film, TV, and video game criticism, the latest stop in a decade-plus career as a critic.

While the movie version of Doctor Strange made a big 2022 return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a Sam Raimi film that briefly turned him into an animated corpse, the comic book version of the character has spent the last few months as a much less lively cadaver. That’s because he’s been dead. Clea, Stephen Strange’s estranged partner, has taken over as Sorceress Supreme in his stead, and she’s managing just fine, thank you.

Death in comics, however, is often just marketing for an eventual narrative reboot. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, especially in the case of the forthcoming 4-issue miniseries Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise #1. Written and illustrated by Tradd Moore, the newest chapter in the life of Stephen Strange looks absolutely gorgeous, with Moore — one of the most distinctively kinetic artists in superhero comics — taking the opportunity to go absolutely buck-wild on the page.

Taking advantage of Doctor Strange’s current plight beyond the land of the living, Moore — along with colorist Heather Moore — uses the character’s otherworldly powers and current situation to re-introduce him to readers, while experimenting with a loose, dreamlike style. In the preview pages below, the results speak for themselves, with vivid colors that look like they’re barely contained by the linework, serving up a wonderful visual metaphor for how unpredictable Strange’s world of magic is.

The front and back cover of Doctor Strange #1 (Marvel Comics, 2022), a psychedelic wraparound illustration where Doctor Strange strikes a pose with a hand on his hip on the front and a number of ghostly silhouettes and visages appear on the back, including his face in profile, a green shaded drawing of Strange drifting off to sleep, and a black and gold woman in front of a crucifix.
A nondescript red dreamscape of nightmarish quality. Arcs and waves sprawl across the page above a poem in the left hand corner, some look like teeth, and on the whole the image can appear to look like a monstrous face. From Doctor Strange #1 (Marvel Comics, 2022)
A beautiful dreamlike mountainside with a single tree in a clearing on the left, where Doctor Strange sleeps in the distance. On the right hand side of the page is a close up running along the margin, of Doctor Strange’s gloved hands and face twitching in a fitful sleep. (From Doctor Strange #1, Marvel Comics, 2022)
Doctor Strange is curled up in a sleeping pose with his cape spread above him and the word NOTHING in bold jagged text above him. From Doctor Strange #1 (Marvel Comics, 2022)
A page from Doctor Strange #1 (Marvel Comics, 2022) where Doctor Strange wakes from sleep and a ghostly tiger appears next to taunt him.
A page from Doctor Strange #1 (Marvel Comics, 2022) where dreamlike scenes from Doctor Strange’s origin story are intercut with a scene in the present where Doctor Strange fights a ghost tiger.

Doctor Strange #1 releases on Nov. 23.

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