October
1 Going Solo

Strange #1

Creators: J. Michael Straczynski and Sara Barnes, writers; Brandon Peterson, artist

Marvel Knights, 32 pages. color, $3.50

So? Marvel Knights goes back to the beginning for Doctor Strange, retelling his origin from the start with a more modern sensibility than Stan Lee and Steve Ditko gave him way back in Strange Tales #110. This time, the gifted surgeon Stephen Strange is working in Tibet providing medical care to the poor. His interest in helping them is sincere and he is fascinated by a distant monastery. But his return to New York sees him take the easy route of becoming a highly paid cosmetic surgeon. This estranges him from his med school mentor, who dies in a mysterious crash and sparks a crisis of faith. The writing by Straczynski and Barnes is solid and makes the good doctor — who has always struggled to rise above being a second-tier Marvel character — sympathetic and accessible for the first time in ages. Peterson has always been a fine artist, from his work on X-Men to CrossGen and back again. His art has always improved and this project shows him to have developed into an excellent comicbook storyteller and artist. Whether Straczynski and Barnes can amp up the action and bring in the often-kooky mystical aspects the character originally had to be palatable to a modern audience remains to be seen, though this has a better chance of succeeding than the series' die-hard fans might expect. Grade: B

Nightcrawler #1

Creators: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, writer; Darick Robertson, pencils; Wayne Faucher, inker

Marvel Comics, 32 pages, color, $2.99

So? Marvel has lately been putting out a wave of solo titles for X-Men characters that, despite its record with such series in the past, have been a lot better than they have a right to be. Of the new titles, Nightcrawler features the longest running character, having first appeared back in 1975's seminal Giant-Size X-Men #1, and it's surprising to realize that the Dave Cockrum-Len Wein creation has had only two previous miniseries of his own to star in. What has always set Nightcrawler apart from his angst-filled and often-violent X-Men teammates is he has always been a compassionate and swashbuckling character who views violence as a last resort. His compassion is played up in this debut issue, which sees Nightcrawler investigating a deadly, possibly mutant-related accident at a children's hospital. Aguirre-Sacasa has had a good run on "4," the Marvel Knights version of the Fantastic Four, and does a good job here with a fine setup, believable dialogue and a surprise ending. "Transmetropolitan" co-creator Darick Robertson stays in the X-Men corner after his run with Greg Rucka on "Wolverine" and does his usual superlative work with excellent storytelling and expressive faces and body language. What this seems to lack, so far, is a premise that would make it about more than just what Nightcrawler does between X-Men stories. We don't really need more solo X-Men books, but as long as they're as well done and sincere as this one, it's nothing to complain about. Grade: B-