Doctor Strange Epic Collection, Vol. 13: Afterlife

Doctor Strange Epic Collection

by David Quinn, Evan Skolnick (Script), Kurt Busiek

A new look for Strange - but will it be his last? The Sorcerer Supreme has a youthful appearance, yet he's still taking care of business - including Nightmare's hunt for an heir! But long hair and dark glasses don't suit a man as urbane as Stephen Strange. It's time for a dapper new wardrobe and a new source of catastrophe magic! Which is fitting, given what archfoe Baron Mordo has in store. Mordo has had a profound impact on Strange's life - and now the villain is plotting his death! In an award-winning classic, discover what disturbs Stephen! And a particularly Strange Tale unites the Sorcerer Supreme with the Thing and Human Torch! Collecting STRANGE TALES (1994) #1; DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME #76-90 and ASHCAN EDITION; and DOCTOR WHAT IS IT THAT DISTURBS YOU, STEPHEN?.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Collections, Fiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2017

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

David Quinn is a comic book writer. His main graphic novel Faust (with co-creator Tim Vigil) was adapted by Brian Yuzna as the 2001 movie Faust: Love of the Damned. The follow-up Faust: Book of M, was nominated for the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Illustrated Narrative.

Among other work, he has written runs on Marvel's Doctor Strange and Chaos! Comics' Purgatori and Lady Death.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so much an Epic Collection as a Meh Collection. This was so poorly put together. Starts off with Strange Tales by Kurt Busiek. It's a story Dr. strange barely even appears in. Then it's onto the end of David Quinn's story that had been going on for the 16 previous issues. It was a really great story that would have been "epic" if it had been collected here in its entirety instead. You're completely lost without the context of the rest of the story. Dr. Strange looks like John Lennon and is running a corporation under the guise of his doppleganger Vincent Stevens. It's all quite confusing. At this point David Quinn have already left the book and Evan Skolnick and Marie Severin come in to bring it in to a limp dick finish. Then Marvel brought in Warren Ellis and Mark Buckingham to revamp the comic into a Vertigo comic under the Marvel Edge imprint. But Ellis bailed before he could even write a script for more than the first issue and Skolnick and Todd Dezago step in to script the rest of the story. Finally J.M. DeMatteis comes in to write the book into cancellation. Also included is a P. Craig Russell story featuring the classic Dr. Strange. It's a story he drew in 1973 and redrew and expanded in 1996. At the very end of the collection is an ash can that somewhat explains David Quinn's run on the book which wold have been helpful about 400 pages earlier. The entire thing is an editorial quagmire and I don't really see why Marvel bothered to collect this travesty.

Highlights include the Warren Ellis story of a cult who uses magic to transform themselves to be able to live off pollution. Mark Buckingham's redesign of Dr. Strange looks wonderful and his art is glorious throughout the back half of the book. The classic P. Craig Russell story is kind of cool too.

[Jonathan Ammon · Rating 3 out of 5]

DOCTOR STRANGE: AFTERLIFE includes Sorcerer Supreme #76-90 and the end of Strange having his own book for many years. This collection opens with David Quinn moving on past his main story ideas featuring the Strange/Vincent Stevens constructs and into the bizarre John Lennon version of Strange. Quinn tells several crime stories trying to clean up the loose ends created with the Vincent Stevens character but he is nowhere close to coherently tying them up before leaving the book. Several writers attempt to give some coherence to the remaining story. They fail. It is the most incoherent comics story I've read (granted I'm not an expert). Reading it gives me whiplash and vertigo. Speaking of vertigo . . .

Warren Ellis steps in with some interesting ideas that propel things in the right direction, but leaves the book immediately after starting them. Strange fulfills what he owes to the Vishanti and explores new sources of "Catastrophe Magic." Work continues on getting Strange back to normal as the title transitions to Marvel Edge, a Vertigo imprint. J. M. Dematteis joins as the regular writer and begins a very enjoyable and thoughtful run to sum up the book. Dematteis still has to spend time tying up stories from Quinn's run, but does so admirably while injecting the book with more overtly spiritual stories and themes, favoring judeao-Christian ideas rather than eastern ones (though perhaps within a pluralist/universalist framework).
90's Strange is often bad, but Dematteis's run at the end of the book might be one of my all time favorite Dr. Strange story-arcs.

The collection includes P. Craig Russell's "What Is It That Disturbs You Stephen?" which I remember seeing numerous ads for as a teenager. This is a "re-imagining" of Russell's previous Dr. Strange annual. I found both the original and the "re-imagining" just okay. But I am very pleased with the collection if only because Dematteis showed me another spiritual facet in Strange stories and one that I have long wanted to see.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is what happens if a string of writers each write 2-3 issues and each of them tries to "fix" the plotlines of the previous writer. It's a confusing muddle of a story, and I never could make much sense of what exactly was happening. (Was the character in the first third of the book Stephen Strange, or not? Why was SS suddenly back, and what happened to the other character? It's all a muddle.) Despite the promise on the book, this is far, far from a good starting point. This is a lackluster slide to cancellation, and it's pretty obvious.

I'm going to bump up to 2 stars because there's a good, weird Warren Ellis piece in here, and I actually liked the Baron Mordo story pretty well, even though it had some severe flaws.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've generally been thrilled by Marvel's EPIC COLLECTION series, slowly putting much of their back catalogue into print. But this volume suggests that perhaps there are eras that would be better left unreprinted.

Part of the problem is the horrendous arrangement of this collection, which starts in media res with a story from (I Presume) Epic Collection #12. Except there is currently no Epic Collection #12. So it makes not a wit of sense.

And as the senseless story slowly coheres it continues to be ... senseless. Strange is possessing some other form (or something) and he's now a global multimillionaire running a business. Or something. Even in the horrible '90s I can't believe someone thought that was a good idea.

And then the whole plotline is 99% dropped with 1% explanation. What!?

And then we get a Warren Ellis Dr. Strange arc which is totally unsatisfying and has him using catastrophe magic or something. What!?

And then _finally_ we get a few worthwhile issues when DeMatteis comes aboard and tells a Baron Mordo story (the final Baron Mordo story? It should be. But he apparently returns in ASM #500 because DC + Marvel suck that way) that is really quite good. And then his run apparently gets chopped off and we get an overstuffed (but beautiful Craig Russell story).

So is this volume worth it for a strong Baron Mordo story that's since been invalidated and ignored? Probably not.

[Mike Reiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, to be clear, my rating is pretty niche. Like other reviewers I’ll warn people that this book is really confusing, due to the 90s trends of too many writers moving too quickly through a book, bad concepts that were popular (techno babble, “edgy”’stuff without reason) and the first half of art is bad. Yet I love this kind of experience. I love the mess of a book coming apart, partly the train wreck quality, but also the cool stuff that comes out when the limits are off. The Warren Ellis story is awesome, his single issue one of the best in the 90s for marvel (now we know he’s an abusive asshole). Mark Buckingham’s art is wonderful. The final run by JMD is the kind of swan song I don’t think you could publish today - too thoughtful and introspective and meta. So get ready for a mess, but if you like a mess, you’ll also get some real gems.

[Lucy Batson · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extremely puzzling collection of early 90's Dr. Strange work: The Strange Tales reprint and What Is It That Disturbs You, Stephen? are fairly strong, but the rest is your standard mid-90's drek, made all the worse by the odd decision to start the collection immediately after a major status-quo change, with no explanation of what happened befose. Definitely best skipped.

[Cameron H · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s “the Nineties,” and then there’s “Vincent Stevens.”

https://goo.gl/images/KHYMmV

[Edward Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair, the individual stories in here were okay, but there was pretty much no continuity throughout. Did Wong's girlfriend die at one point? Then a few issues later she's still alive, and dies again? And Strange comes back from somewhere (?) when he hadn't been away? Or had he? I don't know! The first story was great fun, though it goes downhill from there...

[Socialite · Rating 4 out of 5]

this volume has both high-quality Doctor Strange stories and what I can only assume was a 90s edgy interpretation of Doctor Strange which has aged hilariously poorly. The Strange Tales at the start is a beautifully drawn story where different.characters recollect I identify and in some cases, recollections are recollection within recollections. THEN comes the hilariously "extreme" 90s stuff that I never knew about. I know about the big 90s stories, the clone saga for spiderman, the heroes reborn stuff for the avengers, even Daredevils armour but this is funny. I wont say anymore.
the volume is saved by the following stories and it get gets back on track to good stories instead of so bad it's good stories.
overall fun, would recommend for some good quality Strange tales and some 90s cheese.

[KaroLin (Fiktion fetzt) · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some great stories in this book (especially 'The Homecoming') but all in all this collection felt poorly put together. Sometimes I had no idea what was going on, because this collection throws you right in the middle of a story without explaining what happened before. (What was the deal with Vincent Stevens? Where did he come from, where did he go? Was he Doctor Strange or not? Where did the woman that Strange kept in his cellar come from (btw: WTF?)) This is an editorial mess if there ever was one. Also Doctor Strange just looks ridiculous most of the time. Like so many other people he obviously made some really bad fashion choices in the nineties. 'The Overcoat of Levitation' - seriously?

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

As other reviewers note, this is a weird & poorly arranged collection in fifths:
It opens w/ a mid nostalgia GN from Kurt Busiek.
The second piece is the conclusion to David Quinn's run that started in Epic v12, arguably the worst Strange run of all time.
The third piece is a Warren Ellis run that starts promisingly but is swiftly aborted.
The fourth piece is the excellent return of JM DeMatteis to Strange for the final run of the 90s Strange ongoing including what should have been the final Bar. Mordo story (yet another classic tarnished by JM Straczynski).
The final piece is an excellent graphic novel by PC Russell

[Gabriel Rojo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a disastrous time for Marvel as a company and it shows in the myriad changes the series goes through in barely 15 issues. That said, it is all quite readable, so you just need to be a little patient until you reach the J.M. DeMatteis/ Mark Buckingham run. It's only 7 issues because the series gets cancelled, but they are absolute gold and provide a fitting end for Doc. This is the kind of material the Epic Collection was born to reprint.

[Terrance · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very scattered book. Definitely an attempt at the time of competing with Vertigo titles, but unable to create or resurrect a complete, enticing universe. The P. Craig Russell art in the special is fantastic, and certainly gives it some of that Vertigo cred, but Dr. Strange always deserves better. I feel like there is so much to explore with this character and this book just didn't capture it.

[a reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Doctor Strange from the movies so I picked up this book to learn more about him cause he's cool. Very nice stories. I loved the one where he rediscovered himself and came at peace with his life and stuff.

[Matt Fuller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a mess of a collection and without the context of the previous issues the story arcs were nonsensical and Dr. Strange looks like John Lennon. The art is ok but this ends the Strange run in a whimper. 1994-1997. 3/10

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection - the art in the opening story is superb, and the Mordo story is fantastic.

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 4 stars are for the P. Craig Russell GN at the end. The rest of it, the less said, the better. I’ll say one thing: I don’t like concepts like God, Heaven, Jesus, etc., appearing in a Dr. Strange comic, and stranger still to come from J. M. DeMatteis.