Sorcerer Supreme #6 Is Grand in Scale, But Lacking in Floor (Review)

The title of Sorcerer Supreme has always been the highest honor a magic user could have in the Marvel Universe. The most famous Sorcerer Supreme is, of course, Doctor Strange, but the title has passed around plenty over the decades. Other famous title holders include Doctor Voodoo, Clea Strange, and the villainous Doctor Doom, who left the world in shambles. However, the most recent Sorcerer Supreme has them all beat. Scarlet Witch is Marvel’s current mistress of magic, and she’s set about using her new position to not just safeguard the world, but leave it a much better place than she left it.

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So far, not everyone has supported Wanda’s new title. She declared herself the Sorcerer Supreme, and the Vishanti have done everything in their power to replace her with their own candidate. Obviously, that hasn’t worked, but it has unleashed a great evil on the universe that even the Sorcerer Supreme is going to need help fighting. Sorcerer Supreme #6 continues the trend of Wanda facing bigger and badder threats with even bigger and badder magic, all while a secret threat threatens to destroy everything in the background.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

PROS	CONS
Grand scale and creativity that keeps the story fresh	Makes the scale feel large for the sake of being large
Top notch characterization for Wanda	Somewhat of-putting faces

Multiversal Scale that Delivers on Almost Everything, But Loses the Details

The greatest part of this comic is easily the scope. Wanda has taken the highest seat of magic possible, and she was already one of Marvel’s most powerful characters, meaning that she has the power and position to rewrite fundamental aspects of the universe. Steve Orlando has been writing Wanda for years now, and he’s mastered the art of showing Wanda as a person who can truly imagine and do practically anything. This series’s true strengths are its scale and its creativity. Wanda faces cosmic threats and encapsulations of reality that add to Marvel’s ever-expanding cosmos, and it’s absolutely awesome to watch her barter and fight them with magic that matches their scope and a characterization that never wavers.

However, the scope is also this issue’s biggest failure. The central plot is very fun, and the Extinction King’s looming threat is great, but the story gets so lost in the grand adventure that it makes itself seem less important on occasion. For example, at the beginning of the issue, Wanda casts a spell to give everyone on Earth good luck for the day. This is a very interesting idea that the comic spends time talking about, but instead of focusing on the consequences, it’s used to show that Wanda is a generous person by risking the In-Betweener’s ire.

This comic can get so big that it alienates Wanda’s grand actions from the human consequences that make them matter. This series is clearly aiming for Hickman or Morrison levels of scope, but their works are always balanced with lasting impact from every action. Still, this scope and story are both still really fun. It needs to be refined a little bit to nail what it’s aiming for, but it’s on the right path and is still one of Marvel’s best stories for consistent new ideas.

Terrifying and Beautiful Art With Uncanny People

This month, regular series artist Bernard Chang is joined by Von Randal on the pencils. Starting with the positives, the art packs a whole lot into every page without feeling overwhelming. This plot moves fast, and the art matches its pace perfectly without punching the reader in the face or becoming unintelligible. It’s dense, but more in a treat for the eyes sort of way. It has a slightly unnatural, uncanny look for all of its characters, which is perfect for the mind-based dream realm they fight in. The villain designs are fantastic, and the edge to Nightmare especially sells how he represents such a fundamentally terrifying part of humanity’s psyche.

That edge is also a major weakness, however, for the human characters. Some of the faces are a bit too uncanny, even in the waking world. Wanda is the biggest culprit here. Her face is just slightly different from her normal design in other works, to the point where it looks somewhat unnatural. This art is great for cosmic entities and metaphorical monsters, but people’s finer details tend to be a lot less clean. Similarly, while the designs are great, the backgrounds tend to be rather lackluster. Most of this issue is in the dream world, and yet the area is pure blank void and stone ground. It’s perfectly serviceable, but it’s very generic. The world begs for the same creativity that the story has in surplus.

Overall, this issue is very much more of the same with the series as a whole. If you’ve enjoyed Orlando’s work with Scarlet Witch, then you’re sure to love this issue, as it highlights a whole lot of his strengths. However, it also shows some of the run’s biggest weaknesses, with the lack of the grounding element that tethers Wanda to the world she works so hard to improve. Still, it covers a shocking amount of ground for a modern comic, and it definitely provides a fun story and some interesting new villains.

Sorcerer Supreme #6 is on sale now!

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