Doctor Strange of Asgard: a review

In case you didn't know, as of July of 2024, Doctor Doom is Sorcerer Supreme.  While he did it to deal with all the vampires, we all know it was really just to be an ass.  Anyway, he never gave up the role after using his newfound magical can of vampire-be-gone, booting poor Stephen to the street.  Looking for a new gig and place to crash, Doctor Strange decides to try filling out a job application in Asgard.  

Thor, jovial and eager to hug, accepts our magic man and some laughs are had.  I have to say, it was nice seeing Thor Odinson being in a healthy place between very comedic movie Thor and artless, grimly serious traditional comic Thor.  As far as the rest of the issue goes, I would say it is definitely worth the cover price.  Stephen decides to forgo the comforts offered by Thor and the ruling class and heads out into the streets to make a name for himself.  I confess that my knowledge of things average Asgardian is not really refined, but I dare say this is the first time we get to see "street level" people in Asgard and the gritty underbelly of the whole thing.  Strange gets into a street fight, gets his tail kicked around a bit, but then goes magic on everyone and makes it to the end of the issue intact, at which point Loki gets involved, a mundane walk down a gritty street sandwiched between brushes with greatness.  This is pretty significant in my book, as Doctor Strange has always been a very upper level character.

He was, after all, our introduction to the prime cosmic beings like Eternity and the Living Tribunal.  This is because when you are a potent magic user, you often come into contact with other magical beings, demons, etc.  Many of those are also quite cosmic in scale and importance.  I had never really been that involved in his books before, despite my penchant for cosmic fixations, which I've lately been rectifying.  Even his earliest books are grand in scale and full of what made the House of Ideas get the name in the first place, often pondering philosophical questions of meaning while also looking like the artists of the time were on a psychedelic drug trip.  Here, however, despite being off world in Asgard, the former Sorcerer Supreme is just starting over.  I find myself eager to go along for the trip.

I say this because he's a really interesting combination of hubris and humility, a man who is very much a mortal but often deals with very immortal situations.  While Jean might fully ascend into a godlike state, and while Norrin will live forever and has long since left behind his days of the 9-5, Stephen still finds himself there, taking odd jobs, becoming a veterinarian, and engaging the mysteries of the universe from a much more ordinary vantage point than the girl next door who became the incarnation of life itself.