Strange Academy #12 - Marvel Comics

STRANGE ACADEMY No. 12, October 2021

As publication-long pulse pounding punch-ups go, Skottie Young’s script for Issue Twelve of “Strange Academy” certainly still manages to squeeze in a ton of exposition involving the evil machinations of Mister Misery, as well as just how Calvin Morse seemingly acquired his magical powers in the first place. In fact the American author also does a pretty good job of using the cataclysmic kerfuffle with Stephen Strange’s deadly creation to show just how united all the Academy’s enigmatic individuals have become now the ongoing series “second story arc” is finally brought “to a rip-roaring climax!!!”

Admittedly, most of the explanations occur via a somewhat lengthy flashback sequence at the start of the fight in which it’s revealed that having previously been eaten by the Master of the Mystic Arts, the “Thing in the Cellar” was still able to somehow escape and take the form of a leather jacket for the hapless Calvin to wear. But once this particular writing technique has done its ‘scene-setting’ the rest of the students’ development takes place during the actual frenzied fighting, as Mister Misery effectively tackles each character on a one-by-one basis; “You cannot simply take me off like the coat I pretended to be. If you could, you might have earned your place here and not be just the Trickster God’s joke!”

Perhaps the most noteworthy of these spotlights happens to the daughter of the famous demon S'ym, Dessy, who arguably demonstrates during her confrontation with the multi-eyed monster of pain that she is already a formidably powerful sorceress. Cleverly deducing that her opponent “feeds on the suffering of others”, the young Limbo imp produces a startlingly scary attack containing “all the suffering in existence” which ultimately overpowers Mister Misery and once again sees the defeated, black-hearted manifestation being eaten alive.

Just as impressive as this comic’s penmanship are Humberto Ramos’ layouts, which much have taken an absolute eternity to pencil considering just how many hundreds of eyes he had to sketch just for the ‘villain of the piece’ alone. Indeed, perhaps this twenty-page periodical’s sole disappointment only comes from the Mexican artist not being given much opportunity to depict Howard the Duck’s presence throughout the sense-shattering ‘set to’.

The regular cover art of "STRANGE ACADEMY" #12 by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado