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brightknightie) wrote2022-12-23 07:36 pm
brightknightie) wrote2022-12-23 07:36 pm
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Jed MacKay confirmed to continue writing Doctor Strange, whew!
I've mentioned before that I'd picked up an issue of Marvel's Strange written by Jed MacKay almost at random for a stack of Halloween comics for my niece and nephew, naturally read it before sending it, fell head over heels for it, and went back for the previous issues. (It's titled just Strange because Stephen is dead [for now] and his wife Clea is the lead character. Clea is many things -- Dormmamu's niece, Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension, once had a fling with Benjamin Franklin, etc. -- but no way is she a doctor.)
After reading the eight issues of the run-to-date twice, I went back and picked up the collected version of its immediate predecessor run by the same author, The Death of Doctor Strange. I have now read that twice and am going to read it yet again. It is so appealing that I'm struggling to differentiate where it is simply all to my own personal taste -- murder mystery! grief! magic! friendship! guest-stars! Marvel history geek-outs! UST! -- and where it is objectively awesome. The nearest comparison I personally have for it is Neil Gaiman's immortal Marvel 1602 or Kurt Busiek's perfect Marvels. Like those famous limited series, MacKay's run here reaches into Marvel's own past and does the beautiful, intricate canon crafting that makes the best of Marvel the high altar of canonical consistency that I love. All these stories are better and better the more you've read of the comics they celebrate; all should also be highly satisfactory for those who haven't. Me, I used to read Doctor Strange never so much for himself as for all the guest appearances, especially, but not only, the Scarlet Witch; Strange's book has always been the hub for all Marvel's magical characters currently without their own titles, and I love many of them. Including Clea. And my version of Stephen is the man who loves -- and periodically loses, to his great pain! -- Clea. This story arc turns that inside out and gives us her perspective and I am so very here for it.
Now, comparatively, Mr. Gaiman's Marvel 1602 wins by light years in a head-on competition, no question -- so rich in metaphor and and history and nostalgia and All The Toys -- and Mr. Busiek is an award-winning maestro of meta insight. This isn't that. But it's shockingly in the ballpark for... a newbie? what?
Who is this Jed MacKay guy of whom I'd never heard before I stumbled into this Doctor Strange run? Wikipedia has an entry for a Jed MacKay who is "a Canadian children's TV producer/writer/composer" but that entry hasn't been updated since 2019. Is it the same man? A little light Googling suggests: maybe? The Jed MacKay who now writes Doctor Strange is from P.E.I.. He's currently writing Moon Knight and Mary Jane and Black Cat as well as Strange, and he has something coming called Timeless that looks like a specialty Kang run, so... whoever he is, wherever he came from, he has been handed some heavy-hitters of great value to the corporate overlords!
Growing up, I would perhaps often have taken the identity of the writer a little for granted -- exception made for my grudge against John Byrne's West Coast Avengers run -- perhaps because of Claremont's seemingly eternal tenure on the mutant books. I would have thought of myself mainly as a fan of the character, whomever was writing or drawing him or her. I don't usually think that way anymore, and that's ... maybe kind of sad? Or maybe just adulting. (Or maybe toxic fallout from the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, still raining down on all serial storytelling, as Red posited in OSP last week.) When I realized that this Strange run is all too soon drawing to a close -- in the way that runs today are timed and spaced for the publishing of collections as a first priority -- my first reaction was distaste that another writer would step in and likely mess up what I'd so enjoyed here. And my second thought was wondering to what book MacKay was going, so that I could, regretfully, say goodbye to these characters and follow him over there.
To my delight, the previously mentioned light Googling suggests that MacKay is staying on Doctor Strange. Yes! I get to have it both ways. I wish him and me both a very long, very happy run with Stephen, Clea, and Wong, with frequent cameos by Wanda, Illyana, and the rest.
After reading the eight issues of the run-to-date twice, I went back and picked up the collected version of its immediate predecessor run by the same author, The Death of Doctor Strange. I have now read that twice and am going to read it yet again. It is so appealing that I'm struggling to differentiate where it is simply all to my own personal taste -- murder mystery! grief! magic! friendship! guest-stars! Marvel history geek-outs! UST! -- and where it is objectively awesome. The nearest comparison I personally have for it is Neil Gaiman's immortal Marvel 1602 or Kurt Busiek's perfect Marvels. Like those famous limited series, MacKay's run here reaches into Marvel's own past and does the beautiful, intricate canon crafting that makes the best of Marvel the high altar of canonical consistency that I love. All these stories are better and better the more you've read of the comics they celebrate; all should also be highly satisfactory for those who haven't. Me, I used to read Doctor Strange never so much for himself as for all the guest appearances, especially, but not only, the Scarlet Witch; Strange's book has always been the hub for all Marvel's magical characters currently without their own titles, and I love many of them. Including Clea. And my version of Stephen is the man who loves -- and periodically loses, to his great pain! -- Clea. This story arc turns that inside out and gives us her perspective and I am so very here for it.
Now, comparatively, Mr. Gaiman's Marvel 1602 wins by light years in a head-on competition, no question -- so rich in metaphor and and history and nostalgia and All The Toys -- and Mr. Busiek is an award-winning maestro of meta insight. This isn't that. But it's shockingly in the ballpark for... a newbie? what?
Who is this Jed MacKay guy of whom I'd never heard before I stumbled into this Doctor Strange run? Wikipedia has an entry for a Jed MacKay who is "a Canadian children's TV producer/writer/composer" but that entry hasn't been updated since 2019. Is it the same man? A little light Googling suggests: maybe? The Jed MacKay who now writes Doctor Strange is from P.E.I.. He's currently writing Moon Knight and Mary Jane and Black Cat as well as Strange, and he has something coming called Timeless that looks like a specialty Kang run, so... whoever he is, wherever he came from, he has been handed some heavy-hitters of great value to the corporate overlords!
Growing up, I would perhaps often have taken the identity of the writer a little for granted -- exception made for my grudge against John Byrne's West Coast Avengers run -- perhaps because of Claremont's seemingly eternal tenure on the mutant books. I would have thought of myself mainly as a fan of the character, whomever was writing or drawing him or her. I don't usually think that way anymore, and that's ... maybe kind of sad? Or maybe just adulting. (Or maybe toxic fallout from the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, still raining down on all serial storytelling, as Red posited in OSP last week.) When I realized that this Strange run is all too soon drawing to a close -- in the way that runs today are timed and spaced for the publishing of collections as a first priority -- my first reaction was distaste that another writer would step in and likely mess up what I'd so enjoyed here. And my second thought was wondering to what book MacKay was going, so that I could, regretfully, say goodbye to these characters and follow him over there.
To my delight, the previously mentioned light Googling suggests that MacKay is staying on Doctor Strange. Yes! I get to have it both ways. I wish him and me both a very long, very happy run with Stephen, Clea, and Wong, with frequent cameos by Wanda, Illyana, and the rest.
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If you'd like to recommend any of the Marvel books you're currently following, I'd be interested to learn more. (I'll also read recommendations for DC with curiosity, but, frankly, I won't buy their books, so I'm a lost cause on that front.)
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Perhaps amusingly, my sister and I divided up Marveldom between us decades ago, and she "owns" the FF and Spidey and their circles. (The X-folks and Avengers and their circles are mine.)