Clea Strange fromMarvelis going to super hell for pan crimes, murder, sorcery crimes, being an alien princess who loves the colour pink and the film Rocky, and hiding the existence of their teenage daughter from her husband!!!
Saw it a couple weeks ago! Had been really looking forward to it, for a lot of reasons. I liked it, but tbh I wanted to like it more than I actually did.
- The main issue for me was that I didn’t buy into the central premise of Wanda as the villain, post Wandavision. It’s not that I don’t believe she has the potential because she 100% does, after all, this is the same character who in the comics went “no more mutants” and in the MCU mind controlled an entire town. It’s that they didn’t convince me that the Wanda who understood the wrongs she committed in Wandavision and genuinely regretted her actions would then immediately turn around and go full ‘I don’t give a shit who I have to murder to steal this other woman’s life and her kids’. I gather the Darkhold was negatively influencing her but IMO they didn’t sell it all the way as ‘this is why, it’s not really Wanda’, and even if they had, honestly I find that a cop-out. So anyway it was hard to appreciate the movie for what it was when the whole time I was just thinking ‘this is not Wanda wtf’. Which is a shame, because I think a villain Wanda I believed in would have been great, and she certainly was pretty scary.
- But I did like a lot of parts of the movie! Especially just Stephen himself. I LOVE HIM.
- I loved America, and I loved her relationship with Stephen. So good. (And at least they kept her moms, though I’m honestly not surprised they managed to avoid yet again showing a character as LGBTQ+.)
- Wong is so great. I was about to be so fucking mad that they killed him off, in my head I was just like ‘no they didn’t no they didn’t he’s FINE’ until finally they showed him okay. Him trying to get Stephen to bow to him was the best.
- Loved the Illuminati! And what a fun way to include some AU things we don’t have in the main timeline, like Maria!Captain Marvel, and Captain Carter (CAPTAIN CARTER OH MY GOD SHE WAS SOOOOO COOL). Xavier in his hover chair! With the cartoon music! I was so surprised to see what’s his name as Reed. (I always think of him first as Emily Blunt’s husband, lol.)
- There were some really cool visuals, notably the montage where America and Stephen are moving from universe to universe. I also liked the fighting with musical notes, and Wanda fighting through reflections.
- Zombie Strange was fucking weird but I liked it.
- I think they used Christine well, and I believed that Stephen genuinely loved her but couldn’t figure out how to be with her, and I believed in her importance to him. I really liked the last scene of him and the other universe’s Christine together, where he finds a sort of closure and peace.
- Also loved Stephen being faced with all the other Stephens’ bad choices, and then being able to make better ones himself, even to the point of saving America when she herself was at peace with that not happening. I got a little teary when he helped her find her own control.
- And for all that this way of doing villain Wanda didn’t work for me, I still cried when Billy and Tommy were scared of her and she realized she had become their monster. That really got me.
- I want Young Avengers Billy (and Billy/Teddy!!) SO MUCH but I was still pleased to see the Wandavision versions of him and Tommy again because the child actors are so charming.
- I loved the goat dude. Glad he’s okay!!
- CLEA! CHARLIZE THERON! CHARLIZE THERON AS CLEA!!!! Oh my fucking God. I almost jumped out of my seat and cheered. Marvel, thank you for this gift, holy shit.
The lovely ladies who I know are a sorceress, i couldnt include anymore because I didn’t really know anymore. If you do, request them to me and maybe i’ll add em!
the doctor strange group chat was discussing how wong and the rest would have a group chat to roast stephen. i am ashamed to say i spent entirely too long on this. pov is wong
Cause I need people to understand real quick that Stephen is a being of love and has loved many many many times before. Also I’m not considering his one-night stands (Vishanti knows there are plenty of them). I’m actually writing about the significant ones as established in canon.
Laura Robson
Excalibur v3 #14.
We don’t know much about her other than that she’s considered Stephen’s first love.
“Alice”
Strange Tales v2 #16.
He felt a platonic love toward a girl whose name he didn’t know, so he came up with Alice in order to identify her. It’s said to be one of the most sincere moments of Stephen’s love life. That was during his years in med school.
Martha
Defenders v4 #4.
Martha is a curious case. She and Stephen dated back in med school, but they didn’t work out. She moved on, had a family and died due to a cancer. Years later, Stephen accidentally brought her back to life with magic. They rekindled their love for a while but she eventually got her memories back and left him for her family.
Madeleine
Doctor Strange v2 - Master of the Mystic Arts #40; #42.
During his years as resident, Stephen met Madeleine and soon fell in love with her. She refused his proposal because of the man Stephen was becoming. Twenty years later, they met again due a mystic threat and, before saying goodbye, confessed that they still love each other, even though she’s married and Stephen was dating Clea back then, which establishes Stephen as polyamorous.
–
AAAAAAAAAAAAAND that settles it. As you can see, the man has fallen in love SEVERAL TIMES, even during quick flings such as Carol, in which he was REALLY committed to giving his all for her despite being super one-sided (pain).
Friendly reminder that Martha and Madeleine’s second encounters happened after he met Clea, which means he’s truly able to love more than one person at the same time.
So maybe… juuuuust maybe, please consider that it is okay for Stephen to move on and/or still love Christine in the MCU even though he met Clea, which is meant to be the great love of his life. I know there’s this need for things to be canon and such, but they also established that they were not working out due to their differences in subjectivity. What I mean is, it’s perfectly fine for Stephen to still love Christine and move on because he’s capable of doing so. And I’m not talking about this as someone who doesn’t experience the same thing becase I am polyamorous as well - and I know it’s hard to conceive this from a monogamous point of view - but surprise surprise, it happens to people all the time, even when it doesn’t happen to you.
BESIDES, all these relationships made Stephen grow as a person, and still it wasn’t enough for Clea to stay since they both had their own issues to solve. Mostly because that’s… that’s exactly what happens in real life, in case you haven’t noticed.
What I’m trying to saying is, the hatred I’m seeing towards Clea doesn’t make sense for a fan who reads Stephen as someone who is full of love and tried many many many times to be happy. It also comes from a fan who literally doesn’t mind if ships are canon or not. Stephen and Clea “paused” their relationship since the 90′s and that never prevented me from shipping Stephen with her, but also enjoy other ships even knowing they will never be canon (mostly bc, for starters, Marvel will never make him bi/pan, despite the implications that he’s not straight. Let’s be realistic here).
“NGHHH BUT COMICS AND MOVIES” – the movies are literally inspired by the comic books. Don’t even get me started.
EDIT: just a friendly reminder (and I cannot stress this enough) that Stephen’s feelings for Christine are not suddenly invalidated or cancelled. He’ll carry those feelings forever and IT IS OKAY. He didn’t met Clea and then moved on. He moved on and THEN met Clea. He grew by himself, he learned and moved on, which is super hard for someone like him that depends on other people to live. He’s a disaster alone, which means it was something really mature of him.
Can we please stop dragging Clea and Charlize now? Otherwise, I’ll just read these posts as people who are bitter because “MY SHIP >>>>”, which is stupid and childish as hell.
There are many things in Waldron’s writing that I dislike deeply, and I don’t want him involved anymore, also I don’t think he was the one who fought for the real Clea to happen. But when it comes to Stephen’s development in the movie, it’s perfect, it’s literally based on 616!Stephen. You can always disagree but hating on Clea invalidates pretty much every reasonable thing you could add to an argument because it just shows how little you understand his character.
The chapter begins as the preview hinted. The only difference that I see is the fact that the Rose is not leading The Blasphemy Cartel as I first assumed. The Rose tells Clea where she can find them but it turns out to be a trap.
They use the Sands of Nisanti, which is becoming an incredible popular spell. I don’t think Jed wrote this after the movie because chapters are written months prior to their release.
Also, it was featured before, as seen in The Oath and Doctor Strange v1, after all.
On a side note, I need to state that the recent news makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable with this story, with all the guns and such. I know, I know, it’s a cartel. But I come from a place where I’m not used to reading “realistic” things. I’m always reading the mystic side of Marvel, a bit of X-Men and that’s it. Stephen hardly deals with this kind of issue and the timing is not that great. Still, this is entirely personal so let’s move on.
The cartel thinks they’ve got Clea by preventing her from using her magic, right? EXCEPT
Love how Clea froze the bullets in midair. SLAY QUEEN
And then she turns them into stone.
This isn’t the same spell from Defenders v3, though. Dormammu turned Hulk into crystal there.
She then proceeds to investigate one of their bases and finds… computers?
Now I have no idea what the Blasphemy Cartel is up to. Also I have zero theories, sorry. So I’ll just go to the next page, I think this one is overall important in many regards.
Solicitations gave us a hint about this. And honestly, I’m a worried about the reason why Wong can’t remember it. What if Stephen did something bad? What if he erased Wong’s memories in order to protect him? WE KNOW STEPHEN IS THIS SHADY.
But also, maybe it’s something from a story in canon, from the many times he did it. Friendly reminder that he tampered with Wong and Sara’s memories back in Sorcerer Supreme with the intention of protecting them. Haha I’m just so fine and not anxious about this matter at all haha
Next, they’re interrupted by a messager. Umar is coming to dinner lmao
Lastly, we finally see the one leading the Blasphemy Cartel, Director None.
Do I know him? Do I know what they want? Do I have theories?
No, I have nothing.
But not gonna lie. This chapter yet again felt so short. It’s a book full of action, that’s for sure. But it’s not enough to keep me going through another whole month (sometimes more when they delay the issue). I don’t know if I’m biased or complaining too much but I really wish Strange was released biweekly :/
When the full volume comes around, I’m definitely going to reread it cause I feel like the pace is good, the writing is amazing, everything is awesome. Except that I’m not getting enough and this waiting is ruining me :’)
Please feel free to disagree with me, I’m doubting myself at this point, which could possibly affect the way I perceive the chapter. It could also be that Stephen is nowhere to be seen currently so I have nothing to look forward to (except MK: Black, White and Blood in two weeks amen)
Overall, the chapter was amazing. Clea is once more CLEAning and I feel that the plots are building up to a nice point. Still… We’ll only know next month :/
