In this week’s Strange Academy #3 from Marvel Comics, writer Skottie Young brings a down-to-earth feel to the surreal artwork of Humberto Ramos and colorist Edgar Delgado, all while VC’s Clayton Cowles gives the characters unique voices through lettering.
Strange Academy #3 Gets Freaky
Unlike previous issues which focused on establishing the school, Strange Academy #3 focuses on character. Skottie Young is no stranger to absurdist comedy (i.e. I Hate Fairyland) and drama (i.e. Middlewest). In this issue, he has the quirky class show off their individual personalities. Granted not all of them get a moment to shine, just the ones who take plot precedence. Emily mainly serves as the audience’s viewpoint into the world of magic during the opening lesson where she witnesses the strangeness through the Eye of Agamotto. Yet it’s in the student’s R&R period in New Orleans where a concentration of characters take notice. Doyle Dormmamu is surprisingly lax in how his views magic. Considering his heritage, nothing about it really surprises him unlike Emily who has fun with it.
That is until he encounters fortune teller who shows him a future that actually terrifies him, especially since some of the people in his vision appear near the end of the issue. Fortunately before all of the doom and gloom sets in, these students go out of their way to have each other’s backs. Which, while relieving, also sets up some anticipation for some of that coming dread.
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How Art Is Magic
Humberto Ramos illustrates each character with designs that are as quirky as possible while using rotoscoped backgrounds. This makes the characters’ features highly expressive to react to the world around them. When Emily uses the Eye of Agamotto, colorist Edgar Delgado demonstrates Emily’s potential by looking at the other dimensional creatures in color while everything else save for the Ancient One is in grayscale. This ability to interact with a whole other world puts Emily in unfamiliar territory. One that’s she eager to find out about, but should be more careful given her interaction with one creature.
Clayton Cowles gives the cast of Strange Academy #3 unique voices. For example, the Asgardian twins Alvi and Iric sound like two different people despite having the same word balloons. Alvi tries to sound suave and haughty, yet Iric speaks more like a loud jock which is odd considering his height compared to Alvi. Doyle meanwhile has word balloons that look like diabolical smoke, but some of his interactions imply he’s just full of hot air. This all suggests why the dynamic between Alvi and Doyle is a little rocky: if Alvi already deals with one hot head, why deal with another one?
Have A Time With Strange Academy #3
Strange Academy #3 is one of those issues that are easy to get into without background knowledge. Like some of the more casual slice-of-life comics like the Peanuts or Garfield, sometimes just the outline is enough to get a good story. Maybe not a great one, but enough story that can cover different parts of the cast. Because beneath all of the humor and school hours is something ready to happen. And while magic open to interpretation is good, it’s going to require some decent attention to the details to get through it all.
