Baby’s Day Out — Reviewing ‘Doctor Strange’ #11

It’s baby’s day out as the Stranges pull babysitting duty for Clea’s new little sister. Surely nothing could go wrong.

Prepare for some wild adventures in babysitting from Doctor Strange #11 by Jed MacKay, Danilo S. Beyruth, KJ Diaz, and Cory Petit.

After two big story arcs, a more stand-alone type of issue is a welcome breather. Perhaps not for the characters involved, but at least for the audience. While there are plenty of ties to what came before and what is still to come, we get a story that is mostly contained. These are the spots where there is even more room to do what MacKay does best, do some character exploration.

I love that we not only see a new incarnation of the Circus of Crime, but they have even more unique personalities and gimmicks. Look, this book is basically about magical baby versus circus villains and it’s freaking awesome. MacKay has this knack for not only finding forgotten or underused elements of the Marvel Universe, but for dusting them off, and doing fun things with them. It’s not even the first time within the books containing the Stranges he’s written.

Having comic book characters speaking to why they do or do not want children is a very important thing to see pop up. We saw a similar conversation over in the X-Line a year or two ago, and now it’s Clea and Stephen’s turn. Society often pushes the idea that kids are just a natural thing in marriage/love, but sometimes people have reasons, be it personal or just no desire, not to do so. It’s more than understanding why these two characters with their complicated and traumatic lives don’t really wish to bring a new life into their sphere.

Besides, little Donna is already a bit of a handful for them to deal with.

Since it’s a stand-alone issue we get another guest artist and the return of a colorist.

Beyruth has a very interesting style. It has a lot of elements that skew towards a more realistic portrayal, with accurate proportions and less exaggeration. At the same time, it has some baked-in rougher aspects and a powerful whimsical element that dips and dodges through it all. Backgrounds are often sparse, choosing stark colors at times, letting the foreground elements stand out and own the show even more. Panel choices bounce around from closer to further away, making sure we see every moment and exist alongside the characters.

We’ve seen Diaz on the series before with some of the previous guest artists. Here he employs a sort of toned-down natural palette, giving things a lighter feeling. There are plenty of heavier shadows or darker colors mixed in to play with the weight and depth of the art. Rather than making all the magic in play bigger vibrant tones, they remain at the same level as the others. In a way this normalizes the use of magic, which for these characters is normal, rather than it being the thing that stands apart.

Characters have a lot of loud or quiet or even baby talk sort of things to say here, with Petit giving it all the right energetic boost. Having Donna’s toddler talk be depicted as fully lower-case font compared to the adults all caps is beautiful. Just a simple choice that right away sets children and adult voices apart, as they should be. All of is surrounded by shifts of fonts and balloons that make sure the emotions and tone/volume are clear with every word.

Doctor Strange #5 is now available from Marvel Comics.