Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters next week. So if you are not very familiar with his comics, here we bring you a reading guide on how to start reading them.
Everything ready for the premiere of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness? To lighten the waiting time, we bring you a brief reading guide in which we have made a selection of the best comics to start reading Doctor Strange. Ready to discover the true magic of the Marvel Universe?
Doctor Strange by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
The best place to start reading Doctor Strange is to look back to the more classic past and fearlessly give the Grimoire of the Marvel Universe a try. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s early stage of Doctor Strange. The first steps of Doctor Strange. The origins of him. In those pages the rules of magic of the Marvel Universe were dictated. The foundation of the mythology that has always surrounded the good Doctor was born from the pages of Strange Tales. His origins. The great enemies of him. It never hurts to give the most classic a chance, especially for Steve Ditko’s lysergic drawings that distilled pure magic. (Available in Spain at panini comics).
Doctor Strange welcomed Roger Stern with open arms in the 1980s, who had worked real magic wherever he dropped into The House of Ideas and in the Sorcerer Supreme series he did no less. Since apart from updating the myth for a new generation, we are talking about the eighties, it was also in charge of twisting many of the already established pillars, leaving a stage to remember that to this day has still been impossible to overcome. Stern was in charge of reconfiguring many of the most inhospitable corners of the Marvel Supernatural Universe, including that of vampires, with unforeseen consequences. In the end, he also gave us one of the best sagas starring Doctor Death. Triumph and tragedy. Essential.
Doctor Strange: The Oath of Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martín
In the mid-2000s at La Casa de las Ideas the ground was tested to return Doctor Strange to the front page of the editorial and the first step was to include him in the lineup of the Bendisores and for the occasion, taking advantage of that time, Marvel presented the miniseries Doctor Strange: The Oath. TV show Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martín were in charge of updating the myth of Doctor Strange for the 21st century, giving us one of the best stories that the Sorcerer Supreme has never starred in. One of the best comics to start reading Doctor Strange as it offers a closed plot arc, easy to read and leaves a very good taste in the mouth. A real joy. The truth. (Also available on the website of Panini in Spain).
Doctor Strange by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo
Just a few months before the premiere of Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange movie, the Marvel editorial department decided to give the good doctor a new regular series after spending more than twenty years without his own home. Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo were in charge of launching a new number 1 of doctor strange. The creative team went head to head and updated the Marvel Universe’s Sorcerer Supreme mythos to align with his Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe variant. For this, they presented new characters and new threats such as the Empirikul, some technological beings from another dimension, whose maxim was to eliminate all traces of magic from the known cosmos, allowing a great and epic saga in which Doctor Strange and magic were completely redefined in the Marvel Universe. The reading and the most contemporary stage does not allow any respite. And it definitely elevated Doctor Strange into a new privileged position at the center of Marvel Comics. On the first line. You can find it in panini comics.
Doctor Strange by Donny Cates and Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Donny Cates and Gabriel Hernández Walta took the reins of the series of the doctor strange in the Marvel Legacy era and the first blow on the table they gave was giving the title to the Asgardian God of Lies. Loki: Sorcerer Supreme. Read to believe. The creative team played for a few months with an unprecedented situation in which Stephen had been forced to stand on the fringes of his own story to make way for the new Sorcerer Supreme in his mission to protect magic. They gave us moments to remember. Brief stage but impossible to forget.
Doctor Strange: Damnation of Nicke Spencer and Various Authors
After the success of the movie Doctor Strange Marvel Studios and with its regular series going strong, there was no doubt that Marvel had finally managed to make a profit on the Sorcerer Supreme franchise. And taking advantage of the popularity of Doctor Strange, they presented a new crossover in which the good doctor was going to become the main character. Nick Spencer and Rod Reis among other authors made Doctor Strange after the events of Secret Empire, where Hydra destroyed Las Vegas, decide to use a little magic to rebuild the city and bring along the damned souls who fell victims of the deadly attack . But of course. Magic always has a price. And the price of reviving Las Vegas? Bringing hell to literal earth. Mephisto went on to become the great villain of the saga in which Doctor Strange had to gather an impromptu group of the Midnight Sons. Curious how much more. You can find this bow here and here. Since it is a two-part bow.
Doctor Strange by Mark Waid and Javier Saiz
Mark Waid and Javier Saiz made the regular Doctor Strange series with a most suggestive premise. If magic had been extinguished on Earth. Why not look for it further? Why not go to other corners of the galaxy? Neither short nor lazy Stephen embarked on a mission through all the known galaxies of the Marvel Universe to find old mystical artifacts and relics lost in time along the way encountering Infinity Stones, Superkrulls, intergalactic invasions, Galactus and much more. A stage that made it clear that Doctor Strange was much more than the Sorcerer Supreme. Waid closed the stage of the Sorcerer Supreme of the Galaxy with a twist that nobody expected. Stephen was forced to make a pact with a demon to regain the use of his hands to operate on an emergency child, which, of course, changed Doctor Strange forever.
Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme by Mark Waid and Kev Walker
Mark Waid and Kev Walker with Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme gave a sharp turn to the events of the Sorcerer Supreme’s life by giving him back the use of his hands, which would allow him to practice for the first time since he abandoned his career as a surgeon after the accident that caused him. led to becoming the protector of the unknown with the most unexpected consequences. This stage in particular became an interesting twist that brought back the terror in the series but because of the pandemic it never managed to take off beyond the first plot arc. You have this bow in this link.
The Death of Doctor Strange by Jed MacKay and Lee Garbett
One of the commercial movements that La Casa de las Ideas uses most frequently is to kill its main characters and above all announce it with great fanfare. With the premiere of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness just around the corner… They needed to draw attention to Doctor Strange. And what better way to do that than by killing him? With the death of Doctor Strange, the creative team has taken it upon themselves to offer a perfect starting point to begin reading Doctor Strange, since the absence of the protagonist serves as an excuse to explore everything that he has been and was. Who killed Doctor Strange? We already know that death in the Marvel Universe is not forever and this miniseries is nothing more than the prologue for what is promised a stage to remember. You have this bow as well as the special ones that were released from the event here.
Strange by Jed McKay and Marcelo Ferreira
After killing Doctor Strange and finding a replacement for him, we find the new Strange regular series where Clea, Stephen’s eternal pupil and Dormmamu’s niece, who has become the new Supreme Sorceress of the Marvel Universe, will get down to work to try to find a way to bring her mado back from the dead while taking his place as Earth’s last defender. A new twist that sounds familiar to us but that plays with enough advantage to offer us something different while we all know that sooner or later the good doctor will return. And in the series they do not hide it.
Last but not least, we have left two essential spin-offs that have accompanied Doctor Strange in recent years, each one better.
Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme by Robbie Thompson and Javier Rodríguez is a true joy that becomes a love letter to the comic in which they presented a great multiversal threat that forced Doctor Strange to gather an eclectic group made up of Supreme Sorcerers come from different times. It is essential to stay short. Highly recommended if you want to learn more about the past, present and future lore of the Sorcerers Supreme of the Marvel Multiverse. Number 1 available in Spain from July 7, 2022.
Strange Academy by Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos
What if there was a Hogwarts in the Marvel Universe? With that letter of introduction, Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos presented Strange Academy in which, for the first time since his first appearance, Stephen finally decided to open a school to teach young people sensitive to magic to use their gifts to guarantee a future for themselves. The series was in charge of introducing a dozen new characters from the most unexpected corners of the Marvel Universe but embracing all the possible twists and turns of continuity. While the old connoisseurs of magic went on to become the teachers. Can you imagine going to a class on Chaos magic taught by the Scarlet Witch? An Agatha Harkness potions symposium? An excursion to Limbo at the hands of Magik? One of the best Marvel comics in recent years! You can go making the collection in this link.
I hope you have found this selection of the best stories to start reading Doctor Strange.