The New Avengers, Vol. 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme

The New Avengers (2004)

by Brian Michael Bendis, Billy Tan (Illustrator), Chris Bachalo (Illustrator)

Who is the new Sorcerer Supreme?
Doctor Strange has failed as the Master of the Mystic Arts and all the other mystic characters are the heir apparent. Strange comes to the New Avengers for help as the mystic battle royale begins. And how can the Avengers trust Spider-Man if he won't take his mask off?

Collecting: The New Avengers 51-54

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Fiction

112 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2009

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Strange is no longer the Sorcerer Supreme due to some deals he made in order to help the Avengers. Now he's searching for the new Sorcerer Supreme, but so is The Hood. The stuff between Peter Parker, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage is hilarious. It all spins out of Peter spilling his identity to the team and Jessica went to high school with him. Bendis has such a great handle on Spider-Man. He knows just how to make him hilarious while getting under everyone's skin.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read this 3/8/2021. Still holds up. That Luke Cage/Spidey convo made me laugh again. 😂

Really good book here. The new Avengers are looking for The Hood and so is Doctor strange. So of the course they join forces in the hunt. This volume checks of all the “good comic” boxes. Great art, some good action, some nice banter between our heroes ( a convo between Luke Cage and Spidey literally had me LOL) and some good writing. We also get to see who is the new sorcerer supreme. All in all pretty cool.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty okayish volume.

It starts with Dr Strange losing his status as Sorcerer Supreme and well new one being chosen and the Avengers have to deal with that and also fight the Hood who has been possessed by Dormammu, Strange's arch nemesis and its a big battle with startling revelations for the magic community. Its a great volume and has loads of fun and excitement, great battles but the art if iffy though and also great banter between Spidey and the other team members. Its a good one time read.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Strange is out and a new Sorcerer Supreme is going to be picked by an ancient relic. Toss in the New Avengers and we might have a loose story here. The best part are the introductions of mostly unknown heroes/villains.

OVERALL GRADE: B minus to B.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Search for the Sorcerer Supreme (#51-54). Dr. Strange having lost his title and looking for the next Sorcerer Supreme? Kinda cool as it allows a magic mystery tour of Marvel's mystics. However, Brother Voodoo is such a culturally clichéd character that his choice is a little awkward; it's no surprise that his subsequent series (Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural) and his reign as "Doctor Voodoo" were both so short-lived. A final beat-down with the devil empowering the Hood? Kinda cool too, though Strange learning that he's Dormammu gets almost no attention, and then the story is undercut by Robbins immediately being powered up again. The Hood would end up pretty overused by the end of Bendis' Marvel run, in Defenders, Vol. 2: Kingpins of New York, also featuring Robbins, and this may well be the turning point. Overall, it's really the small elements that make this story, such as Peter Parker and Jessica Jones' discovery that they know each other (and Luke's reaction!). [4-/5].

[˙⋆✮ Anny ✮⋆˙ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Sometimes a bit much with the demonic stuff, but I enjoyed having Doctor Strange and some magic in this volume. The art was amazing!

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well...it started well, but the art changes were bad. Tan is solid art, Bendis has real dialogue, Spidey gets more focus, jokes, and Dr. Strange returns to pass on the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme...but the Hood stands in his way...featuring Damion Hellstrom and Brother Voodoo, plus Jessica Jones knows Peter from way back in the day!

I miss Danny Rand, Clint gets angrier by the minute, Bucky is being overlooked, and issue 55 is shit.

[Brian Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Strange returned. Having determined he was no longer fit to be Sorcerer Supreme, he was on the hunt for his successor. The Hood attacked, attempting to seize Strange’s power totems, which sent Strange and the New Avengers to New Orleans. The Hood attacked Daimon Hellstrom and employed Madame Masque to help distract the Avengers while he went after Strange. Brother Voodoo emerged as Strange’s true successor and, in cooperation with Strange and Hellstrom, de-powered The Hood. The Hood wasn’t down for long, though: Loki showed up with a new power source for the villain. Hawkeye and Osborn continued to trade barbs in the media and Hawkeye finally decided the only solution was to kill Osborn.

This was probably Bendis’s most focused story during the “Dark Reign” year. It followed up on the earlier plot strands about Doctor Strange quite effectively and climaxed with one of those reclamations of a character that had been written off as a joke at which Bendis excels. Who knew that Brother Voodoo could be that compelling? Billy Tan split art duties with Chris Bachalo and the tandem proved quite effective. Tan’s cleaner, more classic style was a good fit for the more Earthbound parts of the narrative, while Bachalo’s exaggerated approach was a well deployed for the mystical sequences. In all, this was a strong arc that’s worth experiencing and can be enjoyed even if a reader hadn’t been steeped in the previous four years of stories.

A version of this review originally appeared on www.thunderalleybcp.com

[Judah Radd · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s ok. Nothing mind blowing.

There are some cute/fun/humorous moments that I certainly enjoyed (involving Spidey, Cage and Jess Jones), but the main story was a bit tiresome.

Strange is not allowed to be Sorceror Supreme anymore (or he decided not to... there are conflicting accounts.) ::shrug:: either way... now he’s searching for the new one. He ends up running into Damian Helstorm, battling The Hood and also encountering Brother Voodoo in what can only be described as a by-the-numbers showdown.

The art is very cool in some spots, plain in others.

All in all... this is just maintenance. I don’t feel like I’m being driven towards anything particularly cool (except, perhaps, the chick-Loki stuff.) We shall see.

[Tym · Rating 3 out of 5]

Characters seem off but the art is good

[Javier X · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t bad, is just that it was filler material, the volume before this was better and this felt like it stuck the plot

[Kyle Berk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this is one of the weaker volumes in this run I still had lots of fun reading it. Though it’s also not strong in the technical sides, the art is inconsistent and the storyline is dragged out, then it gets interesting in the last issue and it’s time for the next volume.

If you like Bendis it’s an enjoyable read if you don’t it won’t work for you. It’s a Doctor Strange story focus which sounds good on paper but isn’t so here.

I feel like they take out Dorrmamu way too easily, also Clint is still trying to take down Norman Osborn through media. Though this leads to a Spidey stand out moment which I loved with him and his no killing.

Overall it feels more like it’s spinning the wheels and going nowhere. But it’s put together well enough to be enjoyable.

3 stars.

[Majid Nobles · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay, first of all, I would like to commend Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo for the awesome art! The story is catchy, but with some loose ends somewhere in the middle. It's about time for Strange to come back to the scene. I love the dialogues, especially the scene where Luke Cage's wife admitted to having a crush on Peter Parker way back in high school. LOL, i just hope they put more of Strange in the New Avengers. They SERIOUSLY need a mystic in their roster!

[Craig · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Can someone explain how people killed in Volume 5 are alive, or why Captain Marvel is now Ms. Marvel again?

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reprints New Avengers (1) #51-54 (May 2009-August 2009). Doctor Strange has lost the title of Sorcerer Supreme and now he is trying to help find his own replacement. Unfortunately, the Hood and his master doesn’t intend to let a new Sorcerer Supreme be discovered. With the help the Avengers, Doctor Strange finds himself in a race against time…and a new Sorcerer Supreme will be chosen!

Written by Brian Michael Bendis, New Avengers Volume 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme is a superhero comic book collection. Following New Avengers Volume 10: Power, the issues feature art by Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo. The issues in this volume were also collected as New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection—Volume 4.

I haven’t enjoyed much of Brian Michael Bendis run. I held on to it for too long when it was new and going back and re-reading it further points to its weaknesses. I hadn’t read these issues when they were new, but of the New Avengers comics, I do enjoy it more.

The Avengers themselves are putting themselves in a position to go to war with Norman Osborn. Hawkeye finds himself facing off against Osborn and the conclusion of the collection has Hawkeye calling out Osborn to a public audience (something that Osborn has seemingly avoided most of the Amazing Spider-Man and with his tenure as the leader of H.A.M.M.E.R. It shows a plan for an end of Bendis’ Dark Reign storyline that wasn’t very cohesive to begin with.

What makes this collection stand out a bit more is my love of minor characters. Even the Hood was on my radar back during his limited series (though I found Bendis ruined him as well). The appearance of Son of Satan (yeah, I still have a hard time calling him Hellstrom) and Brother Voodoo are pleasing…plus, Brother Voodoo finally gets his due in this volume. It is a bit too short, and I almost feel that Doctor Strange should have had a limited series to really do this storyline justice.

New Avengers is a problematic title because the issues often don’t stand on their own nor do they really flow together as a whole. The shortness of this collection is unfortunate and I wish that this story had been expanded upon (when other stories presented in New Avengers often feel too drawn out). I look forward to Brother Voodoo’s tenure as Sorcerer Supreme (though as a typical comic book reader, I know it won’t be permanent). New Avengers 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme is followed by New Avengers 12: Powerloss.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bendis's run on New Avengers is such a hit or miss book. It's surprising that I don't love aspects of the series, but then there are some volumes that just hit right with me. I don't know why or what it is that creates such a disconnect with me as a reader, but its there.
The st0ry is pretty interesting in premise. Strange has done a couple not so good things that conflict with his title as the Sorcerer Supreme, which means that the title will be passed to a new magic user. This could be really interesting and even dragged out a little longer if Bendis wanted to . I think I would like the story even more if there was a larger focus on magic characters and how they could improve the Sorcerer Supreme title.
Instead, the story is petty short, and its Bendis giving the role to a character that I don't have a particular love for, but that could be different for bigger fans of the greater magic side of the Marvel Universe.
Not sure how others feel about Brother Voodoo, ut something feels like a poorly aged stereotype here and I think that's why I don't like this particular choice. Props need to go to Bendis, who has worked to include other cultures, races, and perspectives in his superhero books, but reading this, I felt some level of discomfort with how the character was written. It just doesn't feel great.
Not just that, but Bendis's Spider-Man in team up books is just awful to read. He's annoying, he's unlikable, and it really creates that loser stench that the 2010s Peter Parker went on to have through Slott and other writers of the time. He's not nearly as annoying in this volume, but there are other Bendis issues that will make him even more annoying than he was here.
The art by Tan is okay, but its Chris Bachalo's art that I especially like. I've always liked Bachalo artwork, and its really no different here. The art is dynamic, a little cartoony, but ultimately fun and captures the elements that I want in a Marvel book.
If I'm being honest, there's something about me that really likes a more realistic art style for DC characters and a cartoony one for Marvel. I'm not sure if its because I find Marvel books to usually be more schlocky fun and DC to be more narratively compelling, but its something I've noticed over the years.
I thought the book was fun for what it was, but its listed as like an all time great Doctor Strange story. I wouldn't go that far. Its got Strange, sure, but ultimately its just an Avengers high chase action book.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 11.
Doctor Strange, having relinquished his position as Sorcerer Supreme, sets out to find and support whoever has been chosen as his replacement. The New Avengers offer him their help in preventing the powerful Eye of Agamotto from falling into the hands of their recurring foe The Hood.

I enjoyed this book allowing us to check in with a number of Marvel's prominent magic users amid the Dark Reign, including Wiccan, Helstrom and Brother Voodoo, as well as measuring them (and Doctor Strange) against the growing power of The Hood.

It was also nice to get a few scenes focusing on the struggles of this post-Secret Invasion team of Avengers in their efforts to gel as a team. Unfortunately, they don't actually have a lot to do in regards to the main plot of this book though.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Selenay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New Avengers serisinin 11. çizgi romanı ama benim seriden okuduğum ilk cilt oldu. Stoklarda kolay bulunmadığı için sırasıyla okuma şansım yok, o yüzden elime geçenleri okuyorum. Buna rağmen tek başına anlaşılır ve keyifliydi.

Bu hikâyede Doctor Strange, karanlık güçleri kullandığı için Yüce Büyücü unvanından alınmış ve yerine geçecek kişiyi bulup eğitmesi gerekiyor. Ancak bu sırada, iblisin ele geçirdiği Hood ondan önce davranıp Agamotto’nun Gözü’ne ulaşmaya çalışıyor. Bu mücadelede Strange’e Avengers ekibi destek veriyor.

Okuması zevkliydi ve olay örgüsü hiç kopmuyordu. Spider-Man’in esprileri beni çok güldürdü, Wolverine ise hem felsefi konuşmaları hem de eğlenceli tavrıyla ayrı bir renk kattı. Serinin tüm ciltlerini bulup okumak istiyorum. Yaşanan olayları çok bilmediğim için bazı kısımlarda kopukluk yaşasam da, genel olarak okunması kolay ve keyifli bir çizgi roman oldu.

[Judith Groen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. The story has some characters that were not known by me, but it didn't mind too much. Don't really know who Voodoo is, but he seems kind of cool. I wonder if they let him be the sorcerer supreme in the future or if Dr Strange takes it back. Also enjoyed the free comic book day issue where the Dark Avengers and New Avengers are forced to work together. Thor is also badass for forbidding Osborn to arrest the New Avengers that day, and intimidated by that Osborn let's them walk, mhuaha.

I loved the Jessica Jones, Peter Parker and Luke Cage part!

[Terry Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the single greatest short arcs that I have read on a major title in years.

Bendis' run on New Avengers continues to stun, this time taking the team to the mystic team and the hunt for the new Sorcerer Supreme.

Bendis' dialogue is crackling, and the pacing of the story had me swiping to discover what happened next.

Bachalo's pencils are suitably perfect for the esoteric and bizarre, and serve the story so well.

A phenomenal story that is a must read, with or without the framing of the Dark Reign event.

[Sr. Lado Brillante · Rating 3 out of 5]

¿Lo bueno? Chris Bachalo. ¿Lo malo? Billy Tan.
Bachalo se encarga de la historia de Dr. Strange, que lidia con las consecuencias de World War Hulk. Billy Tan se hace cargo de la poca historia que queda sobre los New Avengers. Es una elección extraña, pues Bachalo tiene la capacidad de llevar una serie mensual por si mismo, sin embargo la historia es mejor que en sus últimos dos arcos lo cual se agradece.

[Therese]

I’ve been watching all the Marvel movies recently, and I don’t have time to read right now (a conflicting statement, I know, but that’s just how things are right now) so I thought it was the perfect time to continue this comic book series (run?). This one was okay, funny dialogue but the action fell flat for me.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Strange has proven himself unworthy of the title of Sorcerer Supreme and so the Eye of Agamotto will choose a successor. He really hopes it isn't Doom.

Meanwhile, Clint Barton is now the official leader of the Avengers and he keeps making television appearances talking about how evil Norman Osborn is. I'm sure that won't have negative consequences.

[Ernest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Strange is no longer Sorcerer Supreme and this volume looks at how the magical world goes about the search for a new Sorcerer Supreme. Some lesser characters get a turn to be used and there were some nicely drawn moments, yet for something with arguably great significance for the Marvel 616 universe, I thought that this storyline and its impacts would have been greater.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I'd actually be happy if the New Avengers was just them chatting around Bucky's table forever

Also damn the blue of his suit again, so satisfying

"You want to be a renegade Avengers? You want to rage against the machine?"

"Take a gun."
"What? No thanks."
"You should all take guns."
"Nope."
"I don't understand."

"Stop calling me "Bucky Cap"!!"

"I'm already peeing"

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collects New Avengers (2004) issues #51-54

In this volume Doctor Strange is on the hunt for the new Sorcerer Supreme and...

SPOILERS:

...it ends up being Brother Voodoo.

Also, the New Avengers assist Strange in his quest while they also have to face off against the Hood.

[Thomas Crawford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong intro, but honestly this is one of those volumes where Bendis’s decompressed storytelling style doesn’t work for me. The stakes are laid out really well in the opening chapter, but then it’s a lot of standing around reiterating those stakes until the big fight at the end.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Search for the Sorcerer Supreme is the story that begins the book and capturing the Hood and Madame Mask.

Loki give The Hood power then takes it away.

Doctor Voodoo send Dormammu back to hell, the son of Satan guest stars.

Magic and mayhem.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this Doctor Strange storyline but vehemently dislike the way the artist drew Spider-Man just before (with noodles hanging out of his mouth) and after his unmasking (with such a fat face). Four stars for the story, one taken away because of those panels.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

More lazy Bendis writing, but at least something happens in this arc. I don't understand the whole "Doctor Voodoo" handle, though, because Jericho Drumm is not a doctor. He's still Brother Voodoo whether he is the new Sorcerer Supreme or not.