Strange Academy #8 - Marvel Comics

STRANGE ACADEMY No. 8, April 2021

Featuring a marvellous guest appearance by Rocket Racoon and Groot, as well as a rib-tickling cameo by the God of Thunder, Skottie Young’s script for Issue Eight of “Strange Academy” must have delighted those readers familiar with the antics of young Harry Potter and his Hogwarts friends in J.K. Rowling’s highly popular wizarding world. Indeed, certain elements of this twenty-page periodical, such as Agatha Harkness teaching her pupils “how to perform the Illusions of Ikonn” with various degrees of success, could mistakenly be seen as having been ‘lifted’ straight out from one of the successful British author’s fantasy novels; “Yes! I did it. I have produced three copies of this… Whatever this beast is called.”

Fortunately however, this comic’s narrative doesn’t exclusively concern itself with just giving an appreciative nod to “the best-selling book series in history”, but also adds plenty more mystery as to the identity of Doctor Stephen Strange’s unseen prisoner located deep within the basement of the Sanctum Sanctorum. Emily Bright’s temptation to open the inmate’s heavily barred door is arguably palpable in this well-penned scene, especially once the young mystic arts apprentice learns the detainee has spent the past two years locked away in the dungeon’s darkness and seems to be on the verge of actually agreeing with their argument to release them.

Debatably this book’s most engaging sequence though is the college’s off-world excursion to Templo Offdom - “a planet a tragillion miles from Earth.” Just as soon as it’s revealed that the students’ field-trip will be ‘aided’ by Rocket and Groot, every reader knows their quest to find the “scribbit” responsible for eating some long-lost mystical gems is going to end very badly, and Young’s subsequent tongue-in-cheek tomfooleries simply don’t disappoint. Frantically-paced and predominantly consisting of the adolescent magic users running for their very lives from a nest of giant-sized budgerigars, this ‘laugh out loud’ pursuit is finally brought to a close thanks to Zelma Stanton teleporting the entire class from out of danger and back to the Academy’s library at the last minute.

Adding enormously to both this book’s jolly tone and more sinister shenanigans are Humberto Ramos’ excellent illustrations. The Mexican penciller’s superb sketches of the multi-beaked baby scribbits and the various supernaturally replicated animals are dreadfully cute, whilst his collaboration with colorist Edgar Delgado to portray a truly grim gaol for Strange’s captive imbues Bright’s naïve exploration of Stephen’s foreboding basement with a disconcertingly dark ambiance.

The regular cover art of "STRANGE ACADEMY" #8 by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado