Tradd Moore continues to impress with the acid trip mind-boggling ride that is Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise #2. From start to finish, Moore continues a spell-binding tale of Strange in a strange land, and the trials and challenges he must face in order to complete an assigned task and return home.
While the premise is simple in the broad sense, Moore is nonetheless able to enthrall me from the literal first page, despite being only text/exposition. Even if none of the elements introduced in this intro reappear later, I love being able to chew on bits of information like those presented here. The intro gives way to two interludes, both of which provide some context that was missing from the equally engaging first chapter, though the first interlude remains slightly more disconnected from the narrative than the second.
Moving on to the actual chapter itself, each page is densely packed with lovingly detailed art, expository text, or a combination of the two. Moore evokes a variety of feelings as he takes us from large scenes of looming giants and sweeping cityscapes, to the more intimate scenes showing the confinement of Strange and his newfound companions, Yalda and Still Mona. No matter the size of the panel, the amount of details to visually chew on is staggering – between individual plates of armor and folds of clothing, the organically hellish architecture of the city, and deep dives into expanses of maddening chaos, Moore doesn’t miss on the illustrations in this book.
The only sort of complaint that I have about this book is that, given how dense and visually active the pages are (particularly the splash pages), some readers may find themselves a bit overwhelmed by how much is going on at one time. In the book’s big splash page (if you’ve read, you know the one), there are a large number of intersecting and curving lines criss-crossing with Strange’s personage on the panel, in addition to multiple instances of Strange at one time. It can be easy to gloss over the finer details of these big panoramic scenes, and it can take more than a few viewings to find Moore’s “flow” on the page to figure out where to direct your attention.
If I really wanted to nitpick, I would say that, compared to the previous issue that was lighter on dialogue, this issue definitely increases the spoken words where I thought these four issues would be largely “silent”. Even still, the words do little to distract from the art on display, in fact helping to accentuate it in some cases by being relegated to caption-esque text boxes or newspaper-style blocks of text to one side of the page. A big shout-out to Moore and letterist Clayton Cowles for making this such a visual delight.
Those issues notwithstanding, given how the final full page splash sets up the next issue, I will definitely be poring over the pages for every brand new minute detail when Fall Sunrise #3 is released. Definitely recommended for fans of Doctor Strange and excellent art.
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