Doctor Strange’s Villains Get New Designs

Last week’s Doctor Strange #12, written Jason Aaron and illustrated by Chris Bachalo, kicked off a brand new storyline, “Blood in the Aether,” for Marvel NOW!

SPOILERS for Doctor Strange #12 follow.

After barely fending off invasion and extermination by the Empirikul, the Marvel mystics community is reeling. Magic still exists, but it is weak. Doctor Strange is now left relying more on magical artifacts and less on his own skills and spellcasting abilities.

As the story arc title suggests, Doctor Strange’s enemies have smelled his weakness and they are coming for him. The first of them is Baron Mordo, who comes after Doctor Strange and is seemingly unfazed by the recent magical calamities around the Marvel Universe. He faces down Doctor Strange with his full magical strength.

Part of Mordo’s strength seems to come from the Dread Dormammu. Mordo I once again I the lord of the Dark Dimension’s service and working with borrowed power. We see an interaction between Dormammu and Mordo, in which Dormammu’s patience is wearing thin. Dormammu is the first of Strange’s enemies to receive a new character design from Bachalo, who makes Dormammu look like pure arcane energy with a face hovering in front of him rather than truly being a part of him.

Mordo seems to have Doctor Strange right where he wants him, but before Mordo can finish Strange off, Doctor Strange disappears, seemingly pulled into the Earth.

Strange hasn’t been rescued, though. This is the work of another one of his enemies, the dream lord Nightmare, who also gets a new, ragged design from Bachalo.

You can see Bachalo’s new designs in the pages below. Doctor Strange #12 is on sale now.