Strange Academy: Finals

Strange Academy #4

by Skottie Young, Humberto Ramos (Illustrator), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

Collects Strange Finals (2022) #1-6. The spellcasting students are ready to face their final exams! From day one, people have been Who is the savior of Strange Academy, and who can bring it all down? Prepare to find out as the students who have chosen to remain at the Academy must meet their biggest challenge yet! They've finally got a lead on Gaslamp and their missing friend - now all they have to do is fight and defeat the most terrifying villain they've ever known! The endgame is here, the future of Marvel magic is about to be decided, and students past and present will face a battle for their very souls! Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos reunite for the spellbinding climax of their Eisner Award-nominated saga!

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Superheroes, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2023

About the author

Skottie Young has been an illustrator and cartoonist for over ten years working for entertainment and publishing companies such Marvel, Warner Bros., Image, Upper Deck, Mattel, and many more.

He is currently illustrating the New York Times Best Selling and Eisner Award Nominated adaptions of L. Frank Baum's OZ novels with writer Eric Shanower. The series has gained acclaim from both fans and critics.

Skottie currently lives in Illinois with his family, Casey, Baxter and their Saint Bernard, Emma.

Reviews

[Nick Pratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great conclusion to the series. Hoping the whole thing is collected as an omnibus soon. This better be the first of many tales for this young crew!

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
A huge portion of this run has been about redemption and determining your place in the world. This Volume continues those themes, and takes them to the most extreme. As the student approach finals, Emily Bright (potentially corrupted by the parts of Doyle she absorbed) decides she has had enough of being controlled, and takes some of the students and goes off to Limbo on her own. One by one, they come back to the school, realizing their mistakes, all except Emily, who instead decides to team up with Dormammu to invade the school. Obviously, the only one who can defeat her is Doyle (not only saw that coming, but it is the ultimate drama of storytelling).
By the end, it makes me wonder if this title will continue. The class we've spend 4 Volumes with has now completed their first year, making room for both wiser versions of our characters, as well as a new Freshman class. Who knows?
Good run though. Nice to see future important characters being given their chance to shine, especially in a format that makes it more accessible to young readers.
Recommmend.

[Khurram · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the Strange Acadrmy books. I am glad the finale lived up to my expectations. I have enjoyed watching all these characters grow and develop.

Sides must be chosen as the time of the prophecy approaches. I don't think it is a spoiler by now yo say who is good and bad, but it is still interesting to see which side each student will choose. I really like the huge (in some cases double page) artwork of particularly big magic battles. Yes, there are a lot of those. I also like how the teachers "let" the students sort out their battles.

It's a great final book for now. I would love to see the surviving characters' continued journeys. The book finishes with a thumbnail variant that covers gallery.

[ShamNoop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rushed ending but still good

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 61/100 for 2023. A fitting ending to the overall series, although I am massively bummed that it had to end at all. I would have happily kept buying it in trades for years and years.

[Fiyinfoluwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

They never showed us what happened to Emily, did they?

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Academia do Estranho tem uma reviravolta chocante que desenvolve uma verdadeira guerra, com o apoio de Dormammu, entre duas facções da escola. Antes disso, contudo, os alunos vão ajudar Calvin a se livrar da influência do manipulador Lamparina. Diferente da imensa maioria das batalhas entre super-heróis e entre super-heróis e vilões, essa é bastante empolgante, a ponto de nos fazer mudar de posição da leitura para acompanhar melhor o que está acontecendo. Você deve saber do que eu estou falando! Um dos feitos dessa série foi ser uma das poucas que achei que a arte de Humberto Ramos casou muito bem. Embora eu preferisse que ela fosse desenhada pelo seu roteirista, Skottie Young, Ramos não faz feio. Essa foi a última minissérie da Academia do Estranho lá fora (excetuando um trio de especiais com outros personagens), mas espero que a Marvel traga mais sobre esses personagens e essa dinâmica tão interessante de escola de magia que ganharam meu coração.

[Mattthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really cool series. I am a sucker for magic weilders, so this was right up my alley. I must say I am surprised where the story ended up, but I'm mostly happy with the ending. Definitely Recommend

[Cristhian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me parece una buena resolución.

Me agrada que no haya habido una reinvindicación que echara a perder la evolución de los personajes aunque eso sí, se sintió todo apresurado al final.

[🫶Ali🫶 · Rating 4 out of 5]

If strange academy has no fans then I’m dead!!!

[Alex Sarll]

The art is still mostly glorious, especially when it flirts with the grotesque, as in the student bathroom that needs cleaning on multiple planes at once. But the story seems rushed and confused, taking in big events (a mutiny, an explosion) - only to shy away from the consequences and mostly roll them back, without even much explanation of why. Two consecutive issues play out essentially the same scene with different characters (a student who messed up apologises; their friend acts as if they're not accepting it to fuck with them, then hugs). A so-so conclusion to a series that deserved better.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve really enjoyed the Strange Academy series and this “Finals” story brings all of it to a close very well. Zoe has already appeared outside this series so it gives me hope some more of them will start to pop around the place. And I’m excited to see what they do with this series next because they said it’s not the end forever. Marvel magic is always super awesome.

[Freddie🏳️‍⚧️🐀 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flawed but still a fabulous final issue. I was disappointed with the last volume as it felt too much like set up and had too many things going on.
This volume feels more focused, though it does have a weird story progression. Things kinda just happen like okay we're doing this now. Ig trying to cram everything into 6 issuses. But yeah I really enjoyed this volume despite the flaws. Some great character moments too. I think not everyone got a chance to shine in this series unfortunately though.
I think Emily being a villain actually made her character more interesting. Previously felt so much like her personality was just "main character". Forutanely the prophecy thing that was being so hyped up wrapped up really well. I really didn't expect them to make the main character the villain at the end seriously. The final battle was really crazy. Though I was confused what happened at the end a bit. I really wish there was another volume, I think there will be?
I really loved Doyle and I want to see if he's in more comics after this. Him introducing his mom was so sweet.
So yeah strange academy... great read.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, Young fails to stick the landing for Strange Academy.

Part of the problem is the character assassination of a full half the cast. It's not that they're just EEEEVIL now, it's that they get almost no characterization, and worse we lose their meaningful interactions with the rest of the cast.

But then Young entirely fails to maintain a mood in this story. First it's all apocalyptic sound and fury, and then it's ha-ha fund raising, and then it's the apocalypse again. I really felt like I missed some issues as my I cranked my head back and forth so abruptly.

Technically, Finals does its job of closing up the threads of Strange Academy, but it's very, very messy in doing so.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange Academy is plunged into civil war as Emily tries to show her previous teachers the error of their ways the only way she knows how - by tearing the place to the damn ground.

I think the biggest issue I had with this is that it became really hard to see Emily's point by the end of the story. In the past it's been easy to see both sides of the argument going on here between Emily and her classmates and the teachers, but as the situation deteriorates, it becomes more of a generic supervillain battle, which feels like a disservice to the characters.

This isn't a bad end to this chapter of the series, but it does feel like it squandered its potential right at the last second.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange Academy had an amazing run...

This collection is their much anticipated send off. We already had a internal civil war split the academy in half. A bunch of other stuff happened around them in the Marvel Universe (including the death of Doctor Strange, himself). We follow them as they march along the path of the prophecy we'd seen discussed in earlier issues of Strange Academy.

Loved it. This series was so popular that you KNOW they'll go back to the 'well' for more
===
Bonus: Trying to deal street magic doses and STILL get beat down?! Harsh.
Bonus Bonus: Redemption arcs for so many people. Why am I tearing up so much??

[Estibaliz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Once again, I loved the art on this one, and also the fact that this was the final volume (at list, when it comes to this arc), so the story didn't drag too much.

But I still feel that, after a great start, the whole plot got a bit stagnant and predictable, and I certainly would have prefer a different approach to the villain character here.

Still, it works and, though lacking a bit of that fun factor that always characterized the series, this volume entertains and delivers.

Bye, for now, Strange Academy...

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first year students of Strange Academy get a commencement ceremony - most of them, anyway.

I'm disappointed by this volume and the last one. It feels like they had a ton of great ideas and then decided to slam way too many bits together to get to the ending. We veer from apocalypse to street fair to apocalypse to an hour of fighting demons with Magick to commencement ceremony interrupted, of course, by apocalypse. I wish they had covered about two of these plot threads more thoroughly because I feel like the students (and me, by extension) got cheated.

[Peter Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

How the sales bump works with a mini that is clearly just the end of the previous run I don't know, but they do wrap this up well (whilst leaving it open for the characters and concepts to re-occur). The battle for the hearts and minds of the students swings pretty quickly to isolate Emily's crew - it was never an ideological problem that she could win beyond teenage petulance. Calvi get some redemption and the core thrust (just because you are the son of a dread villain with a glowing ball of pitch for a head doesn't mean your a villain) is nailed on solidly.

[Dante Eduardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 3 was so all over the place that nothing made sense, volume 4 had a nice pace and then right at the ending it was so rushed I had to read it a couple of times to understand what happened. Other than those two little details this is a very interesting series it just needs to pick up its pace and storylines.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good finale that wrapped up the Emily corruption arc and also explained how something like Dormammu can have a kid. The build up was there as we slowly see Emily becoming more corrupted and eventually trying to help Dormammu conquer Earth. The heading felt a little rush but it was still a good story. I hope we get more in the future or at least see these characters again.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finals ties up all the loose ends from the end of the previous series. All of the school stuff is quickly dropped in order finish everything up and it all goes pretty much how you expected it to. No surprises. I always enjoy Humberto Ramos energetic art.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay end to the series, it hits the right emotional notes but the plot is messy and confusing and turns into a magic blast fest. Ramos's art is usually strong but struggles to convey clarity at key points here

[Raul Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was finitely a dip in quality (mainly because they had to rush the ending) but it was still good it had the great and charm of the other 3 volumes, just wish that the ending and the death of the Asgardian kid had more time to develop

[Benji Glaab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rad art, however my interest was wavering as the story rounded its final corner. Fun story all around. I know I'm not the target demographic for these high school aged super heroes, but I can't help myself once in a while

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this series! It has heart and enough self awareness to address common magic school tropes but not so much as to be annoyingly meta. I originally read this just to get the backstory of the Enchantress's sons but ended up enjoying it on its own merit.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only downside to how quickly I devoured these volumes is that I find myself struggling to remember what takes place in each volume. Still, a strong conclusion that delivers on the arcs initiated in the prior volumes.

[Alondra López · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐
Sentí que el final fue muy apresurado y que las últimas dos páginas parecieron una simple conveniencia para el guion. La serie me había encantado hasta ese momento por el desarrollo que mostraron, pero ese desenlace no me gustó.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt a little rushed - ending was unclear! I wonder what happened to Emily after all

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grand confrontation at the end that could be considered a graduation of sorts. Fun, expressive art.