This week, the Marvel Rundown dives into the latest in Steve Orlando’s ongoing, unsung saga of the Scarlet Witch: Sorcerer Supreme #2. In the Rapid Rundown, the team looks at the Amazing Spider-Man Annual, Infernal Hulk, the end of the Cody Ziglar era of Miles Morales: Spider-Man, and the premiere issue of the latest volume of Iron Man from Joshua Williamson & Carmen Carnero.
Sorcerer Supreme #2
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colorist: Ruth Redmond
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
Cover Artist: Lesley “Leirix” LI
I’ve never cared about the Scarlet Witch. But Steve Orlando’s run (hard as it has been to follow thanks to constant relaunches and name changes) has done the impossible: made me genuinely care about Wanda Maximoff. And in this latest volume, Sorcerer Supreme, all the work Orlando and his collaborators have done to showcase Wanda at her most empathetic, selfless, and confident is paid off. The past volumes have seen Wanda create a new life for herself not defined by her many tragedies. She has faced her fair share of cosmic challenges but the stories focused on small, grounded character explorations. Now, with collaborator Bernard Chang on art duties, Orlando unleashes the newly self-actualized Wanda on the Marvel Universe in a role of cosmic proportion as the new Sorcerer Supreme.
Orlando and Chang’s Sorcerer Supreme smartly positions the forces of the Marvel universe against Wanda, a metatextual and existential war against the Scarlet Witch as she simply tries to do what she believes is right. Time and again throughout her history, she has been beset by tragedy, turned against her fellow heroes, villainized and rejected. The setup is this: Wanda rescued the tools of the Sorcerer Supreme from the brink of destruction following Dr. Doom’s sacrifice to save Valeria Richards in One World Under Doom. While the Scarlet Witch claims they reached out to her to be saved, the Vishanti, the overseers of the magical powers of the Marvel Universe who appoint the Sorcerer Supreme, did not approve of Wanda’s taking of the title. The Vishanti have named ancient witch Agatha Harkness, Wanda’s former mentor, as their Sorcerer Supreme and sent her against Wanda.
This issue is mostly a battle between the two, with a few interludes to pick up on threads left behind from previous volumes. The structure of these first two chapters of the series has been interesting, as the scripts throw us right into Sorcerer Supreme action before pausing to catch readers up on what was missed in the jump between volumes. Most of Wanda’s supporting cast and setting have been jettisoned as she takes on her new role and moves into a new abode at the Sanctum Sanctorum. It’s nice to give longtime readers an opportunity to see the connective tissue. Orlando’s script doesn’t dwell on any of that though, and this issue’s interlude features a bargain with the demon Chthon that once dwelled within Wanda’s soul. (She’s a complicated character).
One of Steve Orlando’s strengths as a writer is his ability to leverage continuity without being beholden to it or penalizing the reader for being unfamiliar. Instead, the way concepts and stories are woven into dialogue and action give his characters a sense of living history. It has given his Wanda a level of pathos that constant reinvention and reconfiguring has never afforded her. Though Wanda does not have her familiar cast with her here, I am enjoying seeing how she and Wong, Dr. Strange’s trusted aide, work through their tenuous alliance.
Bernard Chang’s mostly delivers on the big action and swirling magic spells, though there are occasions he gets lost in the detail and the effect or drama of a given moment doesn’t quite land. It’s more a product of his layouts trying to keep up with the big, operatic dialogue and overflow of high concept ideas called for in the script. There are some impressive images though, with Chthon’s dark island and the Vishanti appearing to Agatha standing out as particularly memorable. There is a strange mashup of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby influence at play, as the Kirby Scarlet Witch and Ditko Sorcerer Supreme design worlds collide. We see the lashing waves of magic and rigidly ordered chaos of Ditko’s psychedelic Strange stories collide with the bombastic fisticuffs and cosmic beings of Kirby’s Marvel. It’s a lot of fun. Ruth Redmond’s colors bolster Chang’s line work with vivid clarity and a warring palette of red and violet that visually echoes the battle between Wanda and Agatha. VC’s Joe Sabino is a hidden weapon, comfortably pulling the reader along through the wild threads of jagged paneling with nary a hiccup.
Sorcerer Supreme #2 sees Wanda forced to defend her worth against a woman who helped train her, and in so doing must remind herself what she is capable of, and quell her own (literal) inner-demons. While a departure from the much quieter and reflective Scarlet Witch titles Steve Orlando has delivered on so far, Sorcerer Supreme is shaping up to be another memorable chapter in his defining run on the character. Beset on all sides by doubters and haters, Wanda rises above the noise, assured of herself and her abilities.
Final Verdict: BUY
Rapid Rundown!
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