Doctor Strange Epic Collection, Vol. 5: The Reality War

Doctor Strange Epic Collection

by Roger Stern, Gene Colan (Illustrator), Marvel Various (Writer)

Roger Stern and Chris Claremont turn their magic towards the Master of the Mystic Arts—Doctor Strange! Joined by artistic icons Gene Colan, Marshall Rogers and Tom Sutton, there is no doubt the Doctor is in. Their stories featuring villains Nightmare, D’Spayre and the Dream Weaver twist reality and rend Strange and Clea’s souls with inconceivable fears. Next, Baron Mordo returns, armed with the occult secrets of the Vatican. Then, Wong is captured by the Shadowqueen and Clea and Strange must traverse dimensions and battle the demonic N’Garai to save him! Also featuring mystic encounters with Nighthawk, Namor, the Avengers and the Black Knight and the return of a figure from one of Doctor Strange’s first adventures.

COLLECTING:  Doctor Strange (1974) 29-51, Man-Thing (1979) 4; material from Chamber of Chills (1972) 3-4, Defenders (1972) 53

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Collections, Fantasy

504 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2022

About the author

Roger Stern is an American comic book author and novelist.

Reviews

[Michael Emond · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection - IMO - is a great way to get a comprehensive look at Doctor Strange stories from the 80's and get an idea of both the fun of the character and the difficulties writers had writing him.

You get some amazing artists Tom Sutton, Gene Colon, and (my fav) the team of Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin. And they ARE a team because Rogers always looked the best when Terry was his inker. See their run on Batman is you don't believe me.

Gene Colon isn't my fav artist because his style is a little too loose for my tastes but, out of all the work he did, his art is best suited for he magical realm of Doctor Strange and he shines in this collection.

I won't get into the details of the stories because - I have to be honest - none of them are classics - but they are still a good read. Stern - who is one of the best comic book writers of the 80's does the first stories and the last set. The first have an arc with the Dweller in Darkness that is interesting but ends with a whimper. Basically the Dweller is a huge threat to our world and he sends challenges at Doctor Strange (who defeats each challenge) to weaken him until...the Dweller gives up and declares "he has won because Doctor Strange still doesn't know who was sending those attacks against him and this will weaken his confidence". Or - if I could be more accurate - the writer had run out of ideas and a way to end the arc and gave up or moved on to writing a different book.

Chris Claremont - who is another of the best 80's writers - tries his hand and is a bit more successful (IMO) at giving form to the stories and grounding Doctor Strange. But I think both writers had a few fundamental problems writing Strange which persists to this day. a) What to do about Clea, his love and student - her personality seems to change from issue to issue and she never has agency of her own outside of "should I be with Stephen Strange"? b) building up secondary characters - Strange has no job and Wong is never developed as a character so there is no one for Stephen to play against (other than Clea but the writers fail to take advantage of her) c) how do you write stories when "magic solves everything" - it is hard to write for a character when their powers are so ill defined and omnipotent d) how do you find challenges for them to face?

One story by Claremont that I actually thought was promising is when a newspaper man tries to expose him - it gave the story stakes beyond "battle for the mystic fate of the world!!!" and became more grounded in "Strange has to protect his reputation and secrets". I thought it could have been a nice thread but Claremont ends the "threat" in that same issue. If I had my way - that newspaper publisher would have continued to dig and become a thorn in the side of Dr. Strange OR visa versa - they became friends and he sent Strange around the land investigating "mysteries" his reporters uncovered. Giving Strange a reason to go on monthly adventures.

This collection ends with the start of my FAV run of Doctor Strange. Roger Stern returns as the writer and he has the amazing art of Rogers and Austin to back up his stories. These are the jewel of this collection and it is a shame the Stern/Rogers/Austin run hasn't been collected before (to my knowledge) outside the over priced Marvel Masterworks. So this is a great way to see that run and the next Epic volume in this run should complete that run (and start the also fun Paul Smith run).

Overall - outside the very first Lee and Ditko stories - these are my favourite Doctor Strange stories. The recent run by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo is also good but I felt "taking Strange's magic away" was a cop out so I don't rate it as highly.

[Chris Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Stern & Rodgers have their hands on it, it’s utterly brilliant and almost unbelievable that it got printed.
When anyone else is on it, it’s pretty awful.

[Martin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third Dr Strange epic collection in a row where the back end is much stronger than what came before. The promise of the end of the last volume was a wonderful couple of issues by Roger Stern and Tom Sutton. That doesn’t quite near out here. Stern ends up providing plots for others to script while Sutton is given a range of inkers less suited to him than previously. This makes for decent but not spectacular comics, which just abruptly ends an ongoing story on a half-beat.

Sutton is followed by the return of Gene Colan for his third and easily worst stint on Dr Strange. I’m not sure if it’s just him also being given inappropriate inkers (and Colan was notoriously hard to ink) or if he’d just gone off the boil, but his art is not a highlight here. His deficiencies in pacing really come to fore at times here too.

Colan is mostly paired with Chris Claremont, who does some decent work. It never reaches the highs of his X-Men or even Iron Fist and I think that’s at least in part because Claremont lives and dies by the artist he’s paired with and him and Colan just never quite feels right. It seems at times he’s having to overwrite (Chris Claremont?! Never!) to patch up Colan’s story-telling.

The volume ends with the return of Roger Stern, writing solo this time, along with Marshall Rogers, one of the most under-rated artists in comics history. Crucially, Rogers is paired with an inker that gets him, Terry Austin, which means that however trippy and inventive his pages get (there’s a lot if experimentation with colour holds here that instantly make this run feel like a breath of fresh air) it’s rooted in clear readability, which is crucial.

What I really like about Stern’s work on Dr Strange, both at the end with Rogers but earlier, plotting for others, is that he connects Strange to other parts of the Marvel U in a way that feels organic. Many other writers get so wrapped up in the solo stories that they forget this is a character who is also concurrently in a team book and lives in New York, superhero central. Stern uses those connections as a strength to add texture to stories that are still valid, far out mystical tales worthy of Strange.

Once again, I was kinda torn on this between three and four stars, but it’s the strength of the Stern-Rogers issues that push it up to four. Hopefully, the next volume will live up to that and soar.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume of Doctor Strange is a mixed bag of stories, writers, and artists, and because of this, the book isn't as good as it could have been with more consistency. Even the editors changed every couple of issues. There were multiple storylines that managed to come to completion, but again, inconsistencies in the character's abilities just changed with the authors. Doctor Strange doesn't need airplanes of you'be read any early stories or Defenders Vol. 1. So at least three times, when speed is necessary, he's on a plane, then Astral projects off the plane to fight the issues bad guy. Sometimes he has powers in that gotten and other times... not so much.
There was never any ending to the Dweller of the Deep, but they have a sort of half-assed ending with a different monster. It was really weird
The artists are all good artists, but each issue has Clea and Strange different features. It could have been handled better.
With all that, it is still Doctor Strange, and I have always found him to be at least a cool character in the Mar el Universe and worth reading.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gems include Strange & Nighthawk v. Death-Stalker, Strange & Clea v. Dweller-n-Darkness, Strange & Clea + Subby v. Alaric, Dream Weaver 2parter, Strange reads Midsummer Night’s Dream, the debuts of Sara Wolfe & Azrael the Angel of Death, Cardinal Spinosa dies, Strange v. Man-Thing 2parter, the debut of Ikonn, Strange v. Brother Voodoo, & Mordo kills Morgana Blessing’s cat.

Roger Stern, Tom Sutton, & al. (under the editorship of Jim Shooter) take Strange in a more superheroic direction. It’s not as wild as Ditko, Englehart, & Starlin, but it remains fun