Warning! Spoilers for Reptil #2 ahead!
After an accident irreparably damaged his hands, Doctor Strange went on a long and dangerous journey to study magic in an effort to heal himself. His time studying with the Ancient One was fraught with danger and took months of dedicated practice. However, Marvel has casually brushed aside all his efforts as wasted time in one singular issue of Reptil.
Magic has been an integral part of the Marvel Comics for decades with characters like Doctor Stephen Strange at the center of it. After studying obsessively with the aforementioned Ancient One, he abandons his former life and eventually becomes the Sorcerer Supreme, a position of respect and power, when really all the man was looking for was some healing magic.
In Reptil #2, by Terry Blas, Enid Balam, Victor Olazaba, Carlos Lopez, it has been revealed that Humberto Lopez’s young cousin, Eva, has also begun to study magic as a way to defend herself. She uses the magic now only to protect her superhero cousin and nearby citizens, but is also able to open up a portal to another universe after very little practice. In contrast to Strange’s obsessive focus and study in the mountains of Tibet, Eva did what any kid her age would do—she Googled it. The fact that she was able to use the internet to learn magic shows not only her tech savviness, but also her natural talent in the magic arts. With the knowledge that magic is easily accessible without a personal pilgrimage to the mountains makes Dr. Strange’s backstory seem a little silly in retrospect.
Thanks to Marvel’s Strange Academy, there is now a place for young people, like Eva, to learn magic with the help of skilled educators like Dr. Strange and others in his staff. The eclectic group of students are shown to be all educated well with their magical education as the primary focus, but the school itself and the attention it draws from other magical beings are not particularly safe for the student body. Much like Strange’s epic journey, the school begins to seem equally redundant when a teenager can learn magic with relative ease in her L.A. bedroom. If Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme then Eva is definitely in a place to step into her own as a powerful sorceress.
The quiet little destruction of the validity of Strange’s hard work feels like an even bigger punch in the gut, considering that—thanks to the slippery nature of timelines in Marvel Comics—Strange’s efforts to learn magic are relatively recent. To put his actions into perspective, Stephen Strange is like a man who wanted to learn to cook, didn’t know his local library had cookbooks, and, instead, walked to the ends of the Earth to find the greatest chef in the world to teach him. Eva got a library card. Both learned how to make risotto.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Eva develops her magical skills in coming Reptil issues, just like it will be interesting to see if she will ever cross paths with Doctor Strange.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/3e10TFx
No comments: