Film Review : "Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"

 Calling this film Dr. Strange vs Scarlet Witch would have been a more fitting title. Would I have preferred a villain like Nightmare or Mephisto?  Sure, but I will take what we got here. If anyone is going to complain about anything it would be the depth of the story. This lack of depth gave it more of a comic feel and made me think that director Sam Rami might have read some Dr Strange comics from the 70s. Marvel said it was going to be a horror movie, and it was not. Is there talk of demons and a darker tone than say the Avengers movies? Yes, but that does not make it a horror movie, so do not go into this expecting that. Yes, I know there have been comparisons made to "Army of Darkness" but the iconic Sam Rami film might be connected to "Evil Dead" but it's not a horror movie either. Is it a lot of fun yes, but does it scare you ? No thus not a horror movie, the same can be said for this movie.  

The movies biggest enemy was the internet that had set up expectations that everyone was going to be in the movie, and I think the What If Series was helping to set the tone. With that said the number of new characters introduced into the MCU felt right, it did not feel cluttered. The guest appearances of the cheer rousing Reed Richards, who got the loudest applause of any moment in the theater and his Illuminati partners gave me a lot more from these characters than I had bargained for going into this movie. Black Bolt looked and felt better, though I am not sure that mentioned the Inhumans, where the Fantastic Four was mentioned. 

The end could have relied on America Chavez less, since well it was not her move, she is not a character who can hold her own movie but work well with someone like Captain Marvel. I was glad to see Charlize Theron's take on Clea, who I feel might have worked better than the Christine Relationship which never really felt like great chemistry from the first movie. But Cumberbatch shone in his role as he takes the character seriously and owns it. It never felt like they were apologizing for the source material. The action was balanced, and while all the Marvel movies have begun to take on a uniform CGI glaze it worked here.  

Marvel 2017 Update

This has been floating around for a while so forcing myself to finish it. The comics have been so uninspiring it is hard to get inspired enough to write about them. So Kevin Feige announced that the Marvel movies are done at 22. So Dr. Strange will get a sequel , but not a 3rd movie? Or the tie-ins will stop and everyone has to stand on their own two feet. If the Spider-man sequel does well I have a  hard time imagining that they wont make a third. In cases it would be clearly going to the well too many times. Is the focus going to shift on tv? With In-humans proved to be a bust. This is too becomes a gamble. The actors are dropping from the contracts so re-booting is imminent. Though they have learned their lesson from the comics and Legacy finds them returning to the status quo. Jane Foster will die. Iron-heart could never get off the ground. I was going to write separate reviews for The Punisher and Runaways shows , but I can sum them up in a few sentences. The Punisher, had it's moments and ended strong. Too many extra story lines, and Jigsaw should have been a thing and not just an old Army buddy. More ties into organized crime would have been nice. My major complaint is no costume, having a costume is an establishing an identity which is like the crest of his shield that symbolizes what he is fighting for. Without this he is not a super-hero or anything but another character in a crime drama. The Runaways gets a good feel of the characters. It wastes too much time with origins and gets mired down into a soap opera with their parents that eclipses the kids. I keep telling myself if this doesn't change I am giving up on the show.

The bottom line is numbers talk and bull-shit walks so the cancellations this year now include The Un-believable Gwen-pool gets cancelled, Luke Cage ( a good character not meant to support a book of his own), Hawkeye, Gen X, and America Chavez. Can Squirrel-girl be far behind one wonders. Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers and X-men Blue are said to be Marvel's biggest selling books. As of Amazing Spider-Man 793, it's been reduced to haphazard mess,  this time is one with Venom symbiotes taking over people and the new Flash Thompson Anti-Venom is the only hope, as Spider-Man himself is possessed by a symbiote. Black Cat who is taking a much larger role as a villain seems to be stepping up to orchestrate this. X-men has some focus and now they have become a cluster fuck of mindless stories that feel like the kind of plot chaos that goes on in your average issue of Justice League. Avengers is not much better they are going into "No Surrender" so far it seems murky something with Kang, or High Evolutionary and building into another Infinity War in time for Infinity War to go to the big screen.


Planet Hulk is Greg Pak trying to recreate what they had with Banner using Cho-Hulk and it falls flat, though the last page of issue 711 shows Cho and Thor about to go at it. This trend continues as the go into a "World War Hulk" coming out of Planet Hulk, as this point Banner Hulk will be back so Cho-Hulk will be a mute point. Maybe he will get killed off, we can only hope, but not likely since Pak is writing it. The comics trying to cash in one the movies. Speaking of movies cashing in Black Panther continues to prove that Black Panther is a great supporting character who works in the context of the Avengers or Fantastic Four, but can't support his own book. They throw in other black characters from the Marvel Universe to try to offer support in the comic and it seems forced. The movie looks like a video and while it will be rallied behind since it is the politically correct thing to do, the story will suck, because there are no memorable Black Panther solo adventures to pull from, unless you are talking about his feud with Dr. Doom, which isn't happening in this movie.  Iron Man is taking to long to bring Tony back and in the process things could not be more convoluted than they already are.


The best news of the year is Dr. Strange bringing back THE SENTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Loki is stealing Strange's thunder and we know Sentry has ripped one god in half, and Are's is tougher than Loki. When he actually gets into action by making a triumphant return to Asgard. Moon Knight is showing some promise. The art looks like it is drawn by the same due who does Crossed, which is a good thing.

Catching up with Marvel

With everything that has been going on with my life, I have still been reading comics, have done little else than compile the reviews here and never finish it so this is a helter skelter compilation of issues that came out in December and have been sitting here for a month, I am going to make another post where I sum up the year maybe even do a top ten comic books of 2016, but until then lets catch up with what Marvel did last month.


The 8th issue of Black Panther finds it going back into a contrived Game of Thrones like family drama and losing all of the fun a super-hero comic should have. Contrived story lines abound in the explanation of Gwen's jump into this world in Amazing Spider-man as now the tangled web grows bringing Kaine into the mix. The 15th issue of the Sam Wilson book veers from his story to focus on Demolition man's wrestling. Not bad but not great either. The 13th issue of Old Man Logan turned into a bizarre anime like thing. I'm fine with Black Cat coming on board for the 12th issue of Hell-cat, but what is up with Jubilee? The book would benefit from better art and less of a Squirrel Girl attitude.The 16th issue of Extraordinary X-men wraps up the silly Inferno like story line so they can go head on with the In-humans, it all felt a little contrived. The same could be said for Black Widow which finds the book floundering by it's 8th issue. The first issue of this new volume of Ghost Rider doesn't owe too much to the Agents of SHIELD version of the character allowing Robbie to be who is is. With the addition of Cho Hulk and X-23, I think it was too cluttered as those guys don't show a connection to Ghost Rider. The second issue of the Great Lakes Avengers was well drawn and not a thoughtfully plotted out.

All New Wolverine's 14th issue is predictable but keeps the story moving in the new Enemy of the State arc that finds Laura at odd with Shield. The 14th issue of Dr. Strange brings in Satanna, who attempts to force fed strange into the role of her celebrity hell, I like the way she is drawn in this and want to see more of her in the Marvel U. The second issue of Jessica Jones does a great job of blending the feel of the show with what a Marvel comic books should have and much of this is due to the inclusion of Spot from Spider-man's rogues gallery. Not of fan of the break up with Luke Cage. The second issue of the Infamous Iron-man only just begins the show down with Ben Grimm that is teased on the cover. It's ok, nothing to really get too excited about. Mosaic's second issue was better, but I am not sure he can hold his own book, he belongs in the In-humans.