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Review: Doctor Strange #49

Doctor Strange #49 cover
Cover by Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin

Doctor Strange #49
Published and © by Marvel, October 1981

Title: “This Menace Reborn!”
Synopsis: Baron Mordo escapes from a “focal point of infinity” to once again battle Doctor Strange.

Writer: Roger Stern
Penciler: Marshall Rogers
Inker: Terry Austin

Review: Baron Mordo escapes from a “focal point of infinity” to once again battle Doctor Strange.

Review: This is a fairly by-the-book, Doctor-Strange-vs.-Mordo tale, albeit flavored with the hipster trappings of the era (tantric sex, leisure suits, converted-loft apartments, etc.) But, of course, the story isn’t the real attraction: Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin were born to draw the master of the mystic arts. The Detective duo is in top form here. While it could be argued that their detailed-to-the-point-of-cluttered pages are sometimes more interested in looking pretty than clear storytelling, what better book for such bombastic design and special effects? Doctor Strange has not looked this good since co-creator Steve Ditko’s departure.

Grade: A-

Second opinion: Recommended by The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide (second edition), 2003.

Cool factor: That art!
Not-so-cool factor: Poor kitty.

Collector’s note: According to the Grand Comics Database, there is a 20p British variant of this issue … According to MyComicShop.com, there is also a Mark Jewelers variant.

Character quotable: “A Tantric exercise, Clea! It’s quite useful for mystic growth.” – Doctor Strange, running afoul of Title IX

Editor’s note: This review was written July 17, 2024.

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