I'm not a follower–per se–of Brian K. Vaughan. I couldn't rattle off every title he's been involved with or how he's impacted storylines. And to perfectly blunt, I couldn't really care less. I pick up a title and if it's well done, I keep reading it until it seems to dip in quality (are you listening Green Arrow?) or the storyline goes crazy (Spider-Man). I've always been a sucker for second-stringers. I don't know if it's the thrill of a character that doesn't get much attention, thus making it a "my little secret" of sorts, or if the material is just vastly unnoticed because people like shiny variant covers and your commonplace heroes slashing their way through mountains of bad guys, but damn I like the lesser-knowns. I have always enjoyed Dr. Strange as a character. There's a cheese-factor to him, I'll admit. The spouting of Lovecraftian (?) names as enchantments, the weird mystical objects, or maybe it's the weird leopard-print gloves. Either way, I've enjoyed his stuff. I was intrigued to see him pop up on the newsstands in a short series penned by Vaughan titled "The Oath."
I was intrigued for several reasons.
1.) Dr. Strange has been a quiet commodity for Marvel for quite some time. His hey-day was in the 1970's and early 80's, the Bronze Age of comics, and since the early 1990's his appearance has been scattershot with no real continuing series. Also the story attempts to revamp another forgotten Marvel unknown, Night Nurse. Night Nurse had her own series for awhile, mostly murder mystery or ER style storylines where the fledgling medical care-giver had to save lives and produce justice. Something you'll find stacks of in the back-issues of any larger comics retailer.
2.) It is actually well written. It doesn't steep itself in the over-the-top flambuoyancy that some Dr. Strange stories have had, where it's all "Eye of Agamotto" this and "Seven Rings of Raggador" that. It has humor, action and enough arcane magic thrown in to keep the character grounded but expand on him.
Some things I don't like:
1.) Every time a someone gets their mini-series, we need to recap the origin story. If we took a count how many issues of Batman had the same origin story filler we'd be able to set aside half of the Batman comics published in the entity's entire history. The same with Spider-Man. WE KNOW ALREADY! I understand that this is a lesser-known character and many people don't know where he's coming from, but it seems so redundant, like such an obvious starting point.
2.) Every time a smaller character like this has a group of die-hard fans who actually like the content of the character's storyline and his 2D world, we are soiled when the character suddenly becomes an overmarketed buzz word. I've been to the Source twice looking for current issues of this mag and it's out, because everyone's buying it. I'm led to believe, because it is a mag one is "Supposed" to have because of Vaughan or whatever. Anyways everyone deserves a chance to read it. People who don't like the usual Strange fare will like this and it's understandable why it would get snatched up by the general reading public. But come on, exploiting a character because it's trendy is annoying to those who actually enjoy the character.
3.) Finally I dread the end of this series because I know in my heart of hearts that Dr. Strange will go back into back issue obscurity or even worse, if the rumors are true, end up in the aftermath of this hideous 'Civil War' that Marvel has going on, as a member of the New Avengers. I've seen the line-ups and come ON! Storm on the FF? Dr. Strange on a team? WTF? I know he was on the Defenders but that was a laughable premise to begin with...wait...JUST LIKE CIVIL WAR!
Overall my gripe is that this is being pumped into another fad, and as soon as this series is over Dr. Strange will be lucky to see the light of an (decent) ongoing series. My praise is that, well, he finally getting some light and with good foundation. I recommend it fully (if you can find it).
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