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Written by: Jed MacKay
Art by: Pasqual Ferry
Colors by: Heather Moore
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Alex Ross (cover A)
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: March 5, 2024
Doctor Strange #13 rolls a four when the Good Doctor assembles a team of Secret Defenders to take on a fantasy board game come to life.
Is Doctor Strange #13 Good?
Jed MacKay continues his penchant for oddly timed and paced work on an ongoing title by starting a new adventure that has nothing to do with the start of the adventure in the previous issue. Either Marvel Editorial has a scheduling screw loose (very likely), or Jed MacKay has less focus than a kitten chasing a laser dot. Negativity aside, Doctor Strange #13 is a mildly entertaining issue.
Doctor Strange and Clea enjoy an evening stroll when they happen upon a street that looks like the set from a Medieval Times stage play. Strange immediately recognizes the decor as Cobolorum, a magically enchanted tabletop game that comes to life. Strange has tangled with the game in the past, and he knows he has to assemble a raiding party, infiltrate the core of the game according to its rules, and save the unsuspecting players who activated the game in the first place. It’s the D&D version of Jumanji.
Strange taps, Taskmaster, Black Cat, and Hunter’s Moon to play their roles, and the team sets off. After a hasty montage of challenges and side quests, the “Secret Defenders” reach the entranced players, only to learn Baron Mordo figured out how to become Cobolorum’s Game Master.
What’s great about Doctor Strange #13? The eclectic collection of characters that makes up this new “Secret Defenders” has a sort of buffoonish charm. Taskmaster plays the oafish comic relief, which significantly undercuts Taskmaster’s status as a formidable villain, but that ship has sailed. If you’re going to demote Taskmaster to a goof, at least have fun with him, which MacKay does.
What’s not so great about Doctor Strange #13? If you’re going to lean into a life-sized TTRPG, why not put the team through its paces in one or more campaigns? MacKay quickly glosses over the fun of playing a TTRGP by speed montaging through the fun to get to the end. Why bother with the concept if you’re not going to leverage it? It’s as if MacKay had a concept but either doesn’t know anything about TTRPGs or wasn’t granted the page space to make the concept work, so everything feels rushed and short-changed.
How’s the Art? With a story like this one, Pasqual Ferry can make or break the visuals with cool mashup designs. In this case, Ferry is largely successful. The Secret Defenders find the usual outfits redesigned by the game to create fantasy versions of themselves, and it works to create the aesthetic and tone MacKay is going forward. Again, MacKay rushes through the game to get to the end, so Ferry isn’t given much time to flex, but the small bit we get looks good.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Bits and Pieces
Doctor Strange #13 continues Jed MacKay’s bizarre habit of starting new adventures before completing the previous ones, with Doctor Strange enlisting a new Secret Defenders to battle the Marvel version of Jumanji. Still, the team dynamic is mildly amusing, particularly via Taskmaster, whose been (it seems) permanently demoted to comic relief, and Ferry’s fantasy artwork is solid.
7.2/10
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