Writer – Roger Stern
Artist – Tom Sutton
Inker – Ernie Chan
Colours – Petra Goldberg
Letters – Annette Kawecki

Roger Stern and Tom Sutton finally give the title a break from the surreal and crazy with this issue and provide an old-fashioned mystery instead. It begins simply enough with Strange and Clea relaxing at home, but as long-time readers will know, Doctor Strange rarely gets a moment to rest, almost as if everyone can sense when he has some down-time. It is in the small hours of the morning that he is visited by Kyle Richmond, better known as Nighthawk who has come for help. Something strange is going on at his company, something involving demons and as he has no idea what to do in this particular situation, who better to call upon than his fellow Defender. One of the longest running plotlines in the comic is picked up on by Stern at this point, which is the dissatisfaction felt by Clea towards Stephen. She is not only his girlfriend and lover, but his apprentice and it has been a very long time since she has felt like one. The Master of the Mystic Arts is oblivious to this and it only makes her a little angrier than she already was. There is some good action which takes place in the latter half of the book and Sutton kills it with his pencils, more so than last issue. The very first page alone is incredibly sumptuous, though you have to wonder why Clea wears so much jewellery when she is relaxing and/or headed to bed. Sutton has clearly lived up to his predecessors on the book and with only two issues, has cemented himself as one of the best artists to ever put pen to paper with the good Doctor. While the previous issues were good, never mind being a little drawn out with their imaginative landscapes and complex storylines, sometimes it is nice just to see a couple of good guys team up to fight your average bad guy. The villain of this little mystery is C-lister Death-Stalker and while you sort of hope for a bit more of a challenge, he is dispatched quite easily. Still, this was a nice break from what usually goes on in the book and it should be a lot of fun to see what happens next.

4 out of 5