“Attack on Emerald City, Part 1”
Creative Staff:
Story: Jed MacKay
Art: Marcel Ferreira, Roberto Poggi
Colors: Jana Cartaglia
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
What They Say:
Stephen Strange Is Alive! Clea is finally reunited with her husband, Stephen. But it’s a bittersweet reunion, as the Blasphemy Cartel unleash their deadliest weapon yet… What is it? More like WHO is it?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The release schedule for this series has been a bit chaotic since the start but it’s settled into a more predictable monthly release now and that’s definitely helped a lot, though that doesn’t mean I don’t fall behind myself once in a while. It doesn’t hurt that it’s operating with a pretty simplistic storyline so far, making it easy to reconnect with. The opening issues did a solid job of introducing the core basics and making it clear who this version of Clea is and I really think Jed MacKay hit it out of the park in setting the tone and establishing the basics. MacKay is joined by artists Marcel Ferreira and Roberto Poggi while Jana Cartaglia handles the color design. With this issue breaking things up a bit, Stefano Landini handles most of the artwork with the regulars helping provide the framing material for it in the present.
With a bunch of flashbacks and getting some of the details of the Blasphemy Cartel thanks to Pandora, this installment is pretty much a tight focus on a fight sequence and getting closer to the truth of things. With Stephen and Clea going after Director None and the floating Emerald City where the Cartel has set up, it’s a lot of pretty basic fight sequence stuff for the first half. It works well because we get the dynamic of these two working together and the narration from Clea about how she feels about him and how his ways, originating in being a doctor, were so contrary to her existence before meeting him. She’ll still kill as necessary but that side of him has made an impact and she does, mostly, try to listen to him. And he’s intent on not killing any of the people here because it’s the right thing to do but also for information.
The problem is that Director None is just intent on achieving his goal, which we slowly learn is essentially creating a form in which his actual boss can exist on this plane. This goes back to the five-thousand-year war that Strange was involved in that I have no context for but you don’t need more than the couple of sentences that we get about it. With it being a fight Strange was a part of but had his memory removed about, those that lost that fight are making sure they get the final victory and are using the Director to achieve that. It ratchets up the intensity level but it also turns this series, for a casual reader like me, into more of an epilogue to something I haven’t read. Of course, there’s not much left in this series either as it’s going to reform as something else, which is the perfect jumping-off point for me since I just wanted a Clea book.
In Summary:
With Strange wrapping up in the next issue and evolving into something else, it’s a reminder of why Marvel frustrates me and why I’ve fallen off so many of their works for so long. A series that actually dealt with Clea as the Sorcerer Supreme and interactions with others would have been interesting. But it’s an epilogue to a past project and a setup for a future one and it brought out Strange almost from the start, albeit as the Harvestman. That’s not bad but it just keeps us from engaging with Clea when she should have been the focus. This issue does some nice stuff in relation to how she views Stephen and her life with him, and the new complications, while also providing for some fun but forgettable action sequences. Consequences, once again, feel slight.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: December 21st, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
