The cover promises Clea and Dormammu.
Then you turn to the first spread and you get the image above. It’s all the best Dr. Strange stuff! How can this be bad?
But…It is bad. Clea loses her throne as head of the Dark Dimension, unseated by Dormammu, who is then unseated by Baron Mordo. Dr. Strange is just a side character chanting the names of mystical things, Dormammu is a villain with the sole motivation to conquer, and Clea is the spurned, exiled leader who looks good in tight clothes. We’ve seen this before. No real character development, no chemistry between the characters…Not even any jealousy or competition between Dr. Strange’s ward Rintrah and his former apprentice when Clea moves back into the Strange household. And no major developments in the “my brother is a vampire” storyline with Baron Blood, which was kind of a cool idea with lots of (unrealized) potential.
I take it back. It’s not bad. It’s just boring.
They don’t even freshen up the corner box on the cover–same one since the mid-’80s.