Sunday, April 25, 2021

Sunday Splash Page #163

 
"An Empty Monument," in Doctor Strange: What is it that Disturbs You, Stephen?, by Marc Andreyko (writer), P. Craig Russell (artist), Lovern Kindzierski (colorist), Galen Showman (letterer)

I did a review of this when I purchased it back in 2012. I knew it had been a while - I think I bought this around the same time as Triumph and Torment during a Dr. Strange binge I went on - but I didn't realize it had been that long ago.

I don't think I'd change any of what I said in that first review, but looking at the story now, it's interesting how much of a bystander Stephen is in some respects. A bit like the Phantom Stranger is sometimes presented. Trying to nudge things to a proper conclusion through minor words or actions. He's drawn in by Wong's abduction, and Electra seemingly wants his help in finding away around her father's protective ward. A way that all the power that she shares with her sister can be hers, as well as the angel Galtus. She frames it differently, of course, but Stephen learns the truth quickly.

Once he has, though, it turns more into more of a struggle between Electra and her sister. Or maybe Electra and her inner demons. Stephen tries to convince her to make peace, to stop grabbing so feverishly for what's not hers, and she won't. Any such argument reads as either madness or treachery to her. Strange ultimately can't do anything to save the realm, or any of the three inhabitants. He's able to send Wong home, and he escapes alive, or is thrown away by the forces unleashed, but that's about it. At the end of the day, Strange and Wong just got sucked into somebody else's family drama, and that's always messy and unpleasant.

Russell and Kindzierski's artwork is spectacular. All the little flourishes in the architecture, or in the form Stephen's spells take as they leave his fingers. When he's trying to hold something together, they may have more of a rigid, blocky design. Right angles and sharp corners. Or the spell may be an onion-shaped purple mass with little spines sticking out. Just a lot of variety in it. The way dialogue can follow actions through a portal or circling around an important object. I think it's worth finding for the art alone, if you can.

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