Doctor Strange #7 Review

Written by: Jed MacKay
Art by: Pasqual Ferry
Colors by: Heather Moore
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Alex Ross
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: September 6, 2023

Doctor Strange #7 confronts the good Doctor with his evil doppelganger, honed by 5,000 years of war. Can Strange and Clea stop General Strange from reigniting the War of the Seven Spheres?

Is Doctor Strange #7 Good?

Where?!? Where was this kind of storytelling from Jed MacKay six issues ago when the series floundered in milquetoast one-shots and a half-teased mystery? You could argue MacKay took too long to get here, but it appears your patience has been rewarded.

When last we left Doctor Strange and Clea, Umar the Unrelenting’s wedding was crashed by General Strange, the recently-released version of Doctor Strange who turned into a bloodthirsty warmonger drafted into a 5,000-year war on behalf of the Vishanti. Now, General Strange steals Umar’s unborn child, announces he’s the thief stealing children’s souls, and intends to use those souls as mystical soldiers to gain victory in a war he wasn’t allowed to win.

General Strange has all the makings of a phenomenal villain, from his origin to his motivations to everything in between. Thousands of years of war would be enough to drive anyone off the deep end, and MacKay takes the villain development up a notch by giving readers a peek into what would happen if Doctor Strange decided to let loose without restraint or fear of the consequences. It would be too much to say General Strange is a perfect villain, but he gets pretty darn close.

What’s great about Doctor Strange #7? Technically, the plot doesn’t move very far (more on that in a minute), but this issue is all about the revelations and the implications. Strange and Clea finally learn what the murders and child disappearances are all about while being confronted with a dark mirror image of what the calm, stayed Doctor Strange could become under different circumstances. To be clear, this is a setup issue where the villain enters the public stage and challenges the heroes with a “stop me if you can” speech, and it works beautifully.

What’s not so great about Doctor Strange #7? In and of itself, Doctor Strange #7 is great, but the irritating annoyance of wasting so many issues with extraneous fluff is vexing. Sure, Mackay could eventually reveal that every panel from the first several issues were secret pieces in a larger puzzle, but expecting readers to hang on for so long may have been a costly mistake.

How’s the art? It’s good to very good. Ferry spends a lot of time with off-angle, closeup, bust shots, which start to look repetitive in the last third of the comic, but the art is well-done, and you get your visual money’s worth with General Strange during his speech.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Doctor Strange #7 may be the strongest issue in MacKay’s run to date as General Strange enters the public stage to make his intentions known with a killer introduction. Technically, this is a setup issue, but the writing and art combine to kick off one heck of a challenge for Doctor Strange.