Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Kev Walker, Java Tartaglia, and VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 29, 2020

I fell off of Mark Waid’s Fresh Start Doctor Strange reasonably quickly. The story went nowhere slow and changed it’s own rules every issue it seemed. Looking at the sales and the fact that we just restarted again, I was not the only one. I am back to see what this Surgeon Supreme thing is all about, and I liked the first issue enough to keep going for now. Does this #2 follow suit? Let’s find out…

This issue picks up right from the last issue’s cliffhanger. Doctor Strange is sinking fast into the Hudson River, encased in concrete and rebar. Four panels in, however, and he is free and on his way to the Mystic Forge. I wasn’t expecting Doctor Strange to die here, but at least give the reader a little bit of time to get worried!

That continues at the Forge where Strange tells us that he can’t instantly heal his injuries, but they will be better in hours and makes a weapon to fight the Wrecker.

The story continues with Strange doing what I am guessing is the obligatory surgery bit, and it is so quick and glossed over that I am wondering if this book will drop the “Surgeon” part of the title before too long. We finally get to something interesting when Steven visits Anthony Ludgate, and while he isn’t quite Dr. Druid here, he does seem to be up to something. The scene ends with that something possibly involving Weirdworld!

Mark Waid then throws progression and setup to the wind to get Doctor Strange to battle the Wrecker as well as Thunderball. It’s standard fare here until the Wrecker hit Strange with his overpowered pry bar, and it releases a multitude of Multiversal Doctors from his chest. Strange says they all work together, but the visuals don’t push that, and after plucking the pry bar from Wrecker, the fight is over. Oh yea, I forgot that Wrecker has no answers about anything that went on. The cliffhanger was ominous enough, but a bit silly to matter just yet.

This book took a steep nosedive in this second issue. We get more of the sorcery this issue, which I wanted, but it wasn’t that exciting and felt like it had no stakes and thus no importance whatsoever. The little bit with Dr. Druid seems interesting, but the rest of the issue fell flat and felt like filler. How can that happen already?!? The art by Kev Walker is good, but it can’t go it alone, and the story doesn’t help it much at all.

Final Thoughts:

I’m already getting bored with this series after two issues! While a fight between Doctor Strange and an overpowered Wrecker seems like some fun, Waid sets up things that hardly play out, and it all amounts to nothing anyway. I am giving this one more issue to grab me before I bail…just like the last Doctor Strange book by Mark Waid.