I found Strange's portrayal in both issues surprisingly good. I also liked Strange's interaction with the child and how it handled his role as Sorcerer Supreme. The War Scrolls issue does what few events do when Strange is involved by not just acknowledging his duties but also showing it. A lot of these styles of crossovers just ignore the fact Strange has many responsibilities protecting reality from threats that are constant and outside whatever current issue other heroes are facing to the realm/s. I also enjoyed his appearance in the Superior SM issue, the rivalry and history they gave Strange and Otto was interesting, and they collaborated and used their powers in ways that made sense for their characters. Not a bad week for the Sorcerer Supreme overall.

@andromeda101: Pretty sure what was shown in #10 is that Nightmare is afraid of Strange, not that Strange can easily defeat him or that Nightmare has no power over him, since it is a dream sequence after all. I think Strange’s raw power levels should be below the entities he usually fights. At least, fighting them should be a struggle. Anything else is kind of missing the point of the character imo

Been away for awhile, finally had the chance to read them. My thoughts basically mirror wastelandman's. It's good to see the character handled with respect and care outside of Waid's run.

@andromeda101: Right, I do like Nightmare more in a schemer/malicious jester role, but he still feels a little too weak or rather, ineffective recently. But then again, he didn’t appear too much, and in the main run he’s still treated as a decently big deal so maybe this was just an exception

@andromeda101: Yeah, it wasn't half as bad as expected, doesn't necessarily make it good though. The writing style didn't do much for me.

Also, even with prep (didn't seem like ritual magic, so what was involved is incredibly unclear) her pulling off the spell and Strange falling into it (unable to block, he had no attempt at a counter, no senses going off as to what she was doing, him only noticing her coming to them only after she got there) came off as a lazy way to accomplish the goal of the body swap story. And yeah, the comments about him being a jerk (admittedly off the cuff, for laughs) were pretty annoying. But she's also not one of the characters who would know him particularly well. But overall I didn't mind the story.

@andromeda101: Honestly, I always found it annoying how underwhelming a lot of the Asgardian magic users are compared to high end human sorcerers like Strange, Mordo, Doom, etc. It would be nice if the Enchantress and other major Asgardians were treated as actual deities instead of just mystical aliens that are kinda sorta powered by belief.

@andromeda101: They don't need to be big shots in the grand scheme of things, but they are still gods. The whole concept of pagan deities, is that they are beings that were worshiped by humans. They should be the types of entities that a human sorcerer like Strange, Mordo, Doom, etc. would invoke for power. Again, actual abstract entities like Eternity, Death, Oblivion, Agamotto, Dormammu, etc, should be more powerful. I don't have an issue with that.

I just wish the Asgardians and other deities were a bit more godly and involved in Earth sorcery. Like Thor, Thor should be someone an Earth sorcerer like Strange would invoke for a lightning spell for example.

IMO someone like Loki should be a powerful adversary for Strange as well as someone that Strange would occasionally invoke for magic. I don't have an issue with Strange being able to tango and even defeat Loki by invoking higher beings, and yes I agree the gods being too prideful to invoke higher entities is a very interesting flaw and definitely a great way to explain why a human sorcerer can compete (I was actually going to say something on this in my follow up); HOWEVER, I feel like invoking higher beings in order to tango with a god should require a big price and should be something Strange would want to avoid doing unless as a last resort.

@andromeda101:

I feel like you're looking at this differently from what I am actually arguing. I am not just talking about Loki, I only used him as an example because he's one of the more iconic mythology based villains in the Marvel Universe.

It's not that it should be "capped" at Loki's level. It's that IMO deities such as Loki and those of similar position should naturally be above what a human sorcerer can achieve without either transcending to godhood themselves, or just paying a massive price with clear impact on the story. Otherwise, there's nothing separating them as "gods".

Okay, fair enough. I kinda don't know how does that necessarily translate into/fit into the main-topic of them being less underwhelming, though. Because even if that was still always the case, I already said that were times when Strange has easily defeated entities that also invoked for power by calling another entity more powerful.

Yes, he does... But do you consider those beings to be "underwhelming"? Or do you consider them to be immensely powerful entities that required context to defeat?

Doctor Strange often has to tango with beings more powerful than himself, yet even when he wins they are still nonetheless considered more powerful. Loki, Amora, Thor, Ares, and many other deities aren't that... They are treated as just flat out weaker than many of the high-tier human wizards in marvel, and I feel like that undermines the entire concept of their existence in the first place.

The magical systems we use in fiction are things that draw inspiration from mythological stories in the first place. If gods are real and magic is real, then the gods are the ones who gave us or taught us magic in the first place. In a world where magic functions by invoking entities, what is a god if not one of those entities being invoked?

By reducing the various mythological deities to just super-powered individuals who can't even compete with high end human sorcerers; it kind of undermines the concept of what a god is IMO.

As for humans being given positions/jobs that are higher than normal deities, well... At that point, they should really be considered transcended entities and hold the titles of deities themselves.

You're seeing gods as just characters and lesser than major entities. I am saying gods should be the same sort of higher beings that it's Strange's job to deal with, utilizing more than just brute force; because, well... That's kind of the whole point of being a deity in the first place.

@andromeda101: Sigh... Now I feel like you're angry at me... =(

tbh I find nothing wrong with amora tangling with strange. she's supposed to be insanely powerful especially when she actually cuts lose .

I wasn't a fan of the previous issue since the arc is just the cliche body swap story we've seen before in so many other stores already and the preview is just more of the same but at least it handles Enchantress and Strange decent enough.

Her art is great! Dormammu and Nightmare could look fantastic in this otherworldly style. I wouldn't mind an issue with her art paired with Waid's writing. Doubt it will happen, but if she's just starting work for Marvel and her art is received well enough hopefully we'll see a lot more from her.

The solicit for #20 is so obviously bullshit (a run doesn’t end in the middle of a trade these days), but I am excited to see what the change will be

@andromeda101:

Yep, it turned out to be just another pointless filler that's inevitably forced with these kinds of events, though I figured it was heading that way anyway since these side stories only rarely ever develops a story with any kind of substance and the previous issue was already lackluster. I do feel Strange and Carol's moment came the closest to anything with potential, but it was honestly held back a lot by the terrible dialogue throughout.

There's not much there, but there doesn't need to be, they know we're on board by now. Sad to see it end, nervous for the future.

As for Captain Marvel, I think we all suspected it would ultimately be irrelevant. But that's honestly a better fate than to have someone do something radical and game changing in the middle of a series that doesn't give a lot of room for departure. Not only continuity wise but in regards to character. There would need to be a collaboration which I think is too much to expect from the CM writer. And yeah, the dialog was pretty bad. It happens with a lot of characters but with Strange in particular, I hate when they morph the personality and speech in guest appearances to conform to the comic he's in. Heaven forbid the writer change things up and introduce something (a character, this being Strange) that clashes with the main character and story. As if something completely different collided with another character and their status quo. Which is why I particularly always had a soft spot for Strange and Spider-Man team ups. They're both still true to themselves and thus written differently. Strange has a bit more playful banter with Parker than usual but it's something that developed from a relationship. *sigh* I just find it tiring that the best we can usually hope for for Strange in a guest role is for it to not be offensive.

Also, that artwork is beautiful. But unrealistic to see a full comic of that if not for a special.

Eh, I have mixed feelings about Ultimate stuff coming back to the mainframe.

On the one hand, there's more Miles and other established good characters to be developed on, and there's plenty of characters (like Strange, as already mentioned, or Loki, his backstory was pretty interesting tbh, there's room for something) that have the potential for great stories.

On the other hand, most of the titles were kinda shitty (Ultimate X-Men and Fantastic Four for the most part aren't good) and some of them caused the utter deconstruction of some characters (Magneto, Quicksliver and Scarlet Witch, that whole Wasp thing.......) so I'll be pumped to see some characters back in good hands and expanded on, but I'm hoping they don't fall into the same trap of pure quantity and shock value over quality storytelling.

@andromeda101: While it is true previous runs didn’t last long either, sales for Waid’s run has been good so far and the solicit for #20 seems to be hinting at something else, a relaunch maybe, but not a cancellation or conclusion

Oh yeah, and both Aaron and Cates have 5 issue trades iirc, Waid’s run is collected in sixes, so ending at #20 would be very weird. I just hope that whatever happens next, the Creative team will stay the same

@andromeda101: From sales numbers #14 sold around 27k (discounting digital, which judging by comixology rankings weren’t too shabby either) which is decent enough and definitely above cancellation numbers. Pretty sure the delays are due to art, they even brought in a fill in artist iirc. Don’t think delays happen as a response to sales these days, in fact I can’t really recall the last time it happened. But yes, we shall see

@andromeda101:

I never got into the Ultimate stuff, but the concept for this Strange could be interesting to explore. I don't know how I feel about the idea of the Ultimate verse coming back in general though. It's a shame Strange's current run is ending prematurely. I would have liked Strange to have an ongoing series that didn't end early like so many series with other heroes in recent years, but it might be justified here if Waid is leaving entirely, possibly warranting a new direction for the character again. It's a shame though because there was still so much potential for this run.

Speaking of which, I really didn't like how easily Strange manipulated Dormammu's ego in the preview. It was far more subtle and clever the last arc but here his attempt is so blatantly obvious that it makes Dormammu look like an idiot when he falls for it. It's a shame we may not be be getting the Dormammu vs Galactus fight due to seemingly Mephisto's trickery, but Dormammu did suggest he should have been normally powerful enough to defeat Galactus even in his amped state though.

what's with this writer wanking Galactus like this? lol I'm starting to get fed up

Well, this last issue got me hyped up for the next one, more than the entire War of the Realms, tbh. I'm not only sure whether or not this "Herald Supreme" story arc is happening at the same time as War of the Realms is or before. I'm really curious on what happens next. And I'm also curios how the hell Stephen thinks he can take on Galactus/Dormammu with a bunch of High Tiers/Heralds, with few exceptions, but I guess we'll see. Also, no matter what happens, Dormammu is still above Galactus, normally, lol.

And of course, I think that motherfucker Mephisto is probably behind EVERYTHING here.

There's a lot to really unpack before I can unload my full thoughts. But I also agree with @wastelandman about Mephisto. Which explains the situation with Dormammu. He gave Galactus so much of his own power to wield thinking he would have control but it didn't work, the issue quite strongly implied Mephisto being responsible.

idk, Modern Marvel? Being consistent? Sounds like a rather obvious oxymoron to me, unless this is a 3000 IQ play and this actually takes place in the same universe as the Pet Avengers