Clea is the Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension. The Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. The Warlord of Manhattan. She is facing one of the most totally dangerous things in the entire multiverse. She is, of course, facing her mother in Strange #4. Writer Jed MacKay finds considerable power and poetry in his latest outing with a totally badass sorcerer as she defends her home from quite a lot that is conjured to page and panel by artist Marcelo Ferreira, inker Roberto Poggi, and colorist Java Tartaglia. The casual mother/daughter dinner becomes something very, very appealingly slick and magical in one of the best issues of the young series.

Clea is right at home with any warlord. She’s from the Dark Dimension, and she wields a tremendous amount of power. Not over her mother, though. Clea is perfectly fine to put on a pleasant face and tolerate her mother until things get ugly. There’s a rocket-mounted genie who gets shot through the Sanctum Sanctorum. The Blasphemy Cartel is attacking. They have no idea what they’re up against with two powerful sorcerers in the home at the time. Things are going to get ugly really, really quickly for everyone involved.

MacKay has been toying with some really sharp moments with Clea in the series thus far, but he’s never really unleashed her full potential until this issue. The first issue in the series established her as a much more sinister sorcerer than her late husband, Dr. Strange. This chapter provides some contrast between her and her own mother, who has not had the benefit of real love the way that she has. The contrast between the two becomes that much more intense when the battle magic is unleashed. It’s a finely-tuned and well-composed drama that explodes into action quite nicely by the end of the issue.

The art team captures the tension of the drama at the opening of the issue. Mother and daughter are quite distant from each other. There IS a sense of power beyond the social drama, though...and that drama asserts itself on the page quite well thanks to sharp framing by Ferreira that is anchored to the page with suitable depth by Poggi. The radiance of the magic explodes across the page with the colors of Tartaglia, which also bathe the action in a spectral nocturnal depth and resonance. It all looks quite beautiful.

Issues one and four have been the best in the series thus far. What MacKay had been tapping into in the first issue finally slams into the page in the fourth installment with an impressive impact. Once again, Clea feels much more impressive than Stephen ever was...which was something that MacKay had managed to level at the reader in the first issue but hadn’t really gotten around to delivering again until the fourth. If MacKay and company can hold onto this energy, Stephen can remain resting in the afterlife for quite some time. His job is covered quite well here.

Grade: A