This volume of Essential Doctor Strange sees the good doctor back in the starring role of his own title. After renouncing his title as Master of the Mystic Arts with the cancellation of his first series, Stephen Strange went back into medicine. But as with just about any and all comic book universes, you just can't keep a good character down.
After teaming with both the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange donned his mystical cape and formed the Defenders. With the popularity of that super-team title, Strange starred in about a dozen issues of Marvel Premiere. With the horror levels amped up thanks to the recent loosening of the Comics Code, Doctor Strange won over a ton of new fans.
By the summer of 1974, Doctor Strange was leading his own title again. And that's where this book begins. Strange has resettled into his Sanctum Sanctorium. Along with his faithful servant Wong, Strange has taken an apprentice, his lover Clea. Strange has also taken on the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme after his master, The Ancient One, has left this physical plane to become one with the universe.
The adventures in this volume is one to boggle the mind. First Strange must save himself by entering the Orb of Agamotto. Then Doctor Strange must battle Eternity after the Earth has been deemed ready for destruction. After that battle, Strange takes on the Lord of Vampires, Dracula, after the Count attacks Wong. Things wrap up with a twisty little saga called the 'Creator Chronicles'.
The last volume wasn't really something I enjoyed. The level of evil in the characters was upped, especially as Strange went from dueling super-powered beings from other dimensions to magically imbued satanists. From page one of this book, things were mystical and arcane. But I saw that magic as science that wasn't yet understood. Strange and Clea have to struggle with this type of thinking when they go back in time to Colonial America. But when Strange battles Dracula, I started feeling ill at ease again.
Anything magical Doctor Strange does to take on the Lord of the Vampires didn't bother me. But the workings of Dracula and his followers were not my thing. There's literal devil worship and I don't like stories like that. I had been wanting to one day gather the collected Tomb of Dracula books. But if the comics contained in this collection as any indication of such, I won't be taking part.
A good collection of stories. Just some of those stories felt so very evil. I'll be selling this book along with my other 2 Essential volumes.
Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.
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