Doctor Strange by Mark Waid vol. 4: The Choice

The three issues actually written by Waid in this volume are arguably the best he’s offered up on his run so far.  “Strange, Visitor” has the Doctor barging into a home in Kansas to stop a demonic invasion while the parents inside try to keep up with him and his arrogance.  It’s a fast-paced tale that showcases Strange’s arrogance and kindness while serving up a solution that’s both logical and magical at the same time. Then comes the title story which has the Doctor needing to perform a life-or-death surgical procedure that requires the full use of his damaged hands.  So what does he do? He makes a deal with a demon and a bet on some magical odds, which will no doubt come back to haunt him later on. The last issue, “The Secret of the Ancient One” follows up on the immediate fallout from that decision while drawing a line under this part of Waid’s run.

Had these issues come out back in the 90’s, or even the 00’s, there would’ve been a lot more talk about what the writer does to the character here.  Waid effectively undoes one of Strange’s defining characteristics in the space of a single issue and it’s hard not to feel a little bit of story-based whiplash from that.  As we find out in the following issue, however, there are consequences for it and the Doctor is going to have to do some work in order to get back. It’s a good spot for the doctor to be in, from a storytelling perspective, and these issues make a good case for following what Waid will be doing on “Doctor Strange:  Surgeon Supreme.”

That series will have Kev Walker providing the art, and he’ll make for a worthy follow up to the efforts from Jesus Saiz and Javier Pina here.  The former really kills it in the two issues he illustrates here, giving the volume its most shocking sight in a full-page splash from “The Choice.”  Andy MacDonald and Lalit Kumar Sharma also provide decent art in the stories they illustrate from Tini Howard and Pornsak Pichetshote in the Annual collected here.  The creators’ work in the Annual is fine for what it is, but it’s not quite enough to escape the feeling that Marvel just ginned up some filler with it to pad out this otherwise good collection.