Stephen Strange has returned to his life as a physician after a rather lengthy sabbatical in another life. He has returned to the medical profession having attained the notoriety of being the single most important sorcerer in Earth’s dimension. His latest adventure has him using both science and magic to help a patient in the third issue of Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme. Mark Waid writes the first story in the new series to fully embrace the title character’s new dual role with art by Kev Walker. The new journey into mystery for Dr. Strange is a solidly entertaining fusion of medical drama and magical fantasy.

When 19-year-old Toby Gould checked-in to the hospital, he appeared to be 50 years old. By the time Doctor Strange was called-in, Toby looked like he might have been 90. The heavily-tattooed kid has one piece of ink that looks a bit out of the ordinary. It’s a sigil of possession: a vampiric tattoo that is draining Toby’s life force into another realm. Strange has never seen anything like it. (And that’s saying a lot.) To save the patient, Strange is going to have to dive into the realm where Toby’s life force is being drained into. It’s not going to be easy.

Waid finally dives into a story that’s a fusion between the two ends of Strange’s life. The magical premature aging is smartly fused with a story of adventure in a realm of magic. The new world that Strange enters into may not be terribly interesting in and of itself, but fused as it is with the story of a kid dying in a hospital bed, it feels like a whole new territory for the sorcerer. Strange gets lost in a new realm, which really shouldn’t be as much of a shock for him as Waid seems to be suggesting here. The man has been through so much over the years that it’s challenging to feel as though this latest adventure truly is anything new. That aside, it’s an engaging fusion that Waid is putting to the page in the third issue of the new series.

Kev Walker is working his own kind of magic on this issue. The realm of fantasy that Doctor Strange enters isn’t really all that magical. There’s the typical surrealistic Dali-esque landscape of weirdness featuring the usual visuals. Still, he’s contrasting it against a very emotionally expressive Doctor Strange who manages to look both ancient as hell AND extremely young and inexperienced. The hero is going through a weird change in his life, and his emotions are going to be tumbling around even as he enters ANOTHER foreign realm in the infinite Marvel multiverse. The script might not be offering Strange anything too terribly new, but Walker’s making it look like a true challenge for the Master of the Mystic Arts. 

This is an interesting initial study of how Strange’s life as a surgeon/magician might come together. Anchoring the story in both the hospital AND a fantasy dimension of magic gives the character a momentum that could carry the series in several different interesting directions.

Grade: B+