Doctor Strange #3 (453)
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDoctor Strange (Vol. 8) #3 — legacy-numbered #453 — is the mid-arc pivot of Derek Landy and Ivan Fiorelli's 2026 ongoing series, the first sustained exploration of Doctor Strange as Sorcerer Supreme of Asgard rather than Earth. The issue deepens a genuinely novel creative premise: Strange stranded in the Nine Realms without access to his traditional tools — the Cloak of Levitation, the Eye of Agamotto — forced to forge Asgardian magical substitutes while partnered with Angela (Aldrif Odinsdottir) in what amounts to Marvel's first long-form Strange/Angela team-up book. As the issue that places both Heven and Alfheim simultaneously under threat from Vyrbodin and the corrupted Scythe-Rhialla, it marks the moment the series' central antagonist escalates from a contained coffin-mystery into a Nine Realms-spanning crisis, giving the arc its dramatic spine.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
This volume grew directly out of Landy's prior Doctor Strange of Asgard miniseries and the continuity established in Al Ewing and Pasqual Ferry's Thor run, in which Loki's murder of Thor severed the Bifrost connection between Midgard and the other realms, stranding Strange with no way home. Marvel announced the ongoing series in August 2025, launching December 3, 2025, with Landy and artist Ivan Fiorelli (previously on Fantastic Four) describing the new-character design work as a rare opportunity — in Fiorelli's own words — to create figures that would 'join the Marvel Universe forever.' Editor Alanna Smith and colorist Dono Sánchez-Almara round out the core creative team, with Alex Horley providing all main-series covers in a painterly fantasy register that sets the book visually apart from contemporary Marvel titles.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Released February 18, 2026; cover-dated April 2026; carries legacy issue number #453 in the Doctor Strange numbering continuum.
- Written by Derek Landy; pencils and inks by Ivan Fiorelli; colors by Dono Sánchez-Almara; letters by Cory Petit; edited by Alanna Smith; main cover by Alex Horley.
- This is Doctor Strange Vol. 8, the eighth solo ongoing Doctor Strange series at Marvel, launched December 2025 as a direct continuation of Landy's Doctor Strange of Asgard miniseries.
- The series' central premise — Strange as Sorcerer Supreme of Asgard, cut off from Earth after Loki murders Thor and severs the Bifrost — originates in Al Ewing and Pasqual Ferry's concurrent Thor run.
- Vyrbodin, the series' primary antagonist, is established as a Dark Elf mage of royal lineage who wields 'Scythe Magic,' drawing power from events that were on the verge of occurring but were denied — a new magical system invented for this run.
- Scythe-Rhialla is the corrupted dark counterpart of the angel Rhialla, created by Vyrbodin; both characters debut in Doctor Strange Vol. 8 #1 (December 2025) alongside Vyrbodin himself.
- Issue #3 shifts the action to Alfheim as a second front, with Strange and Angela (Aldrif Odinsdottir) defending that realm while Heven reels from Vyrbodin's prior attack — broadening the scope of the arc from a single-realm coffin mystery to a multi-realm siege.
- Variant covers for issue #3 include a 1:25 incentive by Adam Gorham, an Alessandro Cappuccio Black Panther variant, and a Baldemar Rivas variant.
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