Waid, Mark
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.5 out of 5
(2 books)
TOP PICK:
Doctor Strange: Under The Knife
Captain America: Man Without A Country
(Art by Ron Garney and Scott Koblish)
When secrets known only to Captain America fall into enemy hands, combined with his recent alliance with the Red Skull, the President of the United States strips Steve Rogers of his title and of his American citizenship. Allying himself with the equally disavowed former SHIELD agent Sharon Carter, Steve sets off across Europe to foil the Machinesmith and clear his name.
This is a perfectly adequate 'protagonist has to clear his name after being framed' story, no more nor less than that. We all know that Captain America isn't a traitor, so there's little for the reader to do except wait until he's eventually proven innocent.
There are two slightly more interesting elements to this book, thankfully. The first is Sharon Carter who is still romantically drawn to Steve but ultimately discovers that she's indulging a fantasy rather than acting on any real chemistry. The second is simply that, to save the POTUS, Steve has to seek help from a very unlikely source; Doctor Doom. However, these elements don't do enough to raise the story above the aforementioned level of 'perfectly adequate'.
3 out of 5
Doctor Strange: Under The Knife
(Art by Kev Walker)
Having regained the full use of his hands, Stephen Strange has begun splitting his time between using his gifts as a surgeon and his responsibilities as Sorcerer Supreme. He soon discovers that his own mystical forge has been broken into and robbed, releasing powerful magical weapons into the world and putting pressure on his ability to live up to his role as a doctor of medicine.
Whilst I've always liked Doctor Strange, I've never found him terribly relatable. Which is understandable given that he's a dimension-hopping, demon-fighting sorcerer. Here, however, Waid adds something to the mix that is very much a staple of superhero comics but has never been much of a part of Strange's lore; the difficulty of balancing his life as a superhero with holding down a normal (well, normal by his standards) job. The clash of priorities and responsibilities, combined with the sense of never seeming to have enough time to keep on top of everything, is something that just about any adult can relate to. It humanises Strange in a way that I'm not sure I've seen before and I found it really refreshing to read.
On top of that, I also liked the dynamic between Stephen and the new chief administrator of the hospital he works at, Anthony Ludgate AKA Doctor Druid. To have such strong but very different masters of the mystic arts pushed together in their civilian lives adds an interesting bit of tension to the book and makes it all the more impactful when they have to combine their powers to save the hospital from a demonic bomb.
4 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
Age Of Ultron (here)
Avengers: Unleashed - Secret Empire (here)
Black Widow: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Most Wanted (here)
Daredevil By Mark Waid Vol. 3 (here)
Daredevil: The Autobiography Of Matt Murdock (here)
Fantastic Four: The Movie (here)
House Of M: Spider-Man (here)
JLA: Tower Of Babel (here)
JLA: Year One - Part 1 (here)
JLA: Year One - Part 2 (here)
Mister Fantastic: The Fantastic Four!/Sentient (here)
Onslaught 1: The Awakening (here)
Onslaught 3: Comrades In Arms (here)
Onslaught 6: Pyrrhic Victory (here)
Return To The Amalgam Age Of Comics: The DC Collection (here)
Star Wars: Heroes For A New Hope (here)
Star Wars: Shattered Empire (here)
Superman: Birthright - Part 1 (here)
Superman: Birthright - Part 2 (here)
Superman/Batman: Alternate Histories (here)
The Amalgam Age Of Comics: The DC Collection (here)
The Flash: The Wild Wests (here)