In Review: Doctor Strange: The End (2020) #1

Synopsis: The Sorcerer Supreme makes his final journey through a cyberpunk sprawl that forgot about magic!

Review: This book is part of a series of Marvel one-shot adventures featuring some of their most iconic heroes.

The Story

Doctor Strange is the last Sorcerer Supreme and is living in a cyberpunk world that has forgotten about and shunned magic. His only companion is a holographic A.I. who is protective of him to a point where she is concerned about him using all that is left of his magic. In this world, the lack of other sorcerers means that Strange has no way to sustain his own magic. The whole comic pretty much deal with Strange trying to keep what little magic there is in the world. It’s an interesting and fun read with some interesting commentary on magic versus science and technology.  Which sees strange trying to get his holographic A.I. to interact with the magical illusion of an apple.

The Artwork

The art by Filipe Andrade put me in mind of the 1980s comic strips with a slightly pixelated look to the pages. I can’t say that I am a fan of this style, but it kind of works for this story, which has a sort of retro feel and vibe to it. I quite liked the pages where we saw Strange sacrifice himself in order to keep magic in the world, but beyond that. It wasn’t really an art style that grabbed me.

Overall

This story from Leah Williams is quite interesting due to its exploration of a world that has lost most of its magic and shows the lengths that Strange will go to in order to try and keep magic in the world. I particularly enjoyed the magic verse technology element as well as the brief few panels where Strange sees off some dim Whitted thugs using what little magic he had left. The dialogue between strange and his A.I. worked well as a means by which to bring the reader into the story before it got into discussing metaphysics and the wane of Strange’s powers.

I think at the end of the day. This story relies heavily on the reader actually knowing a bit about the world of Doctor Strange, which kind of works against it a little bit.