Doctor Strange goes Hogwarts in new “Strange Academy” comic

From Defender to Teacher! Doctor Strange opens his own “Strange Academy” this spring!

Imagine a school for wizards run by legendary figures and starring teenagers. They wear uniforms, at least one is a boy with black hair, and another is a girl with brown eyes. Does this sound familiar? It appears that a mere nine years since the last canonical Harry Potter film hit theaters, Marvel Comics is seeking to try their hand at a similar premise.

As reported by Comic Book Resources and ICv2, writer Skottie Young and artist Humberto Ramos will launch Strange Academy in March 2020. The premise is exactly as the title implies; Dr. Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme and founder of the Defenders, will headline his own school of budding wizards. To a degree, it represents an area of growth for him, as he himself once studied at the feet of the Ancient One, who had his own school for sorcerers once upon a time. Like any school, Stephen will have a staff of peers alongside him. Other Marvel magicians on hand will be Doctor Voodoo (another former Sorcerer Supreme), Scarlet Witch, Magik, and Hellstorm.

The cast of teenage students will apparently be new characters. They include Emily Bright, a magical prodigy since birth who may be the star of the series. Her fellow students will include other humans, Asgardians, and Doyle Dormammu, the illegitimate son of the “Lord of the Dark Dimension” who is one of Strange’s mortal enemies. It’s a shame that some other magical teenagers aren’t being used, like Jinx (a.k.a. William Hastings) from 1993’s Darkhold: Pages From The Book Of Sins No. 9. This actually would have been a natural place for Nico Minoru back when she was between volumes of Runaways.

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The choice of teachers is also fascinating. They are obvious figures within Marvel’s magical realms, but all of them are rather flawed individuals, to say the least. Scarlet Witch has had periods of madness, and Magik (Illyana Rasputin) has spent a great deal of time either demonically possessed, or soulless. Damien Hellstrom is the literal “son of Satan” who may be a fellow Defenders member but is also morally ambiguous, at best. Were Loki and Doctor Doom unavailable? It’s kind of a shame that Senior Magico from the last volume of Power Man And Iron Fist wasn’t mentioned.

This isn’t the first time Marvel Comics has tried to do a series in which Dr. Strange acts as a teacher to a teen prodigy. Mark Waid and Emma Rios launched a Strange miniseries in 2010, which featured the then retired wizard being forced to utilize the skills of a teenage apprentice, Casey Kinmont. She ended that series trapped in another dimension, but Waid brought her back eight years later for his Doctor Strange run as an antagonist.

The success of the Harry Potter franchise, produced into films by Disney’s rival Warner Brothers, have long been a source of inspiration. In film, works like Sky High tried to emulate it, while comics such as Avengers Academy and even Avengers Arena (to say nothing of many associated X-Men titles, which in fairness, debuted long before Potter) had similar themes. Even DC Comics, Warner’s appendage, tried their luck with Gotham Academy. Avengers Academy ran over three years, so it will remain to be seen if this more obvious take on the material will bear similar fruit.