Strange #3

The third issue of Marvel's four-part 2010 limited series drops Strange into the deeply unsettling "Pageant of the Damned" — a beauty contest gone hellishly wrong, with a wide-eyed male figure serving as reluctant judge while contestants bearing sashes like "Miss Eternal Agony," "Miss Hellfire," and "Miss Eternal Realms" loom menacingly around him, including a grinning skull-faced entrant and a bouquet of ominous roses. Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman's cover perfectly captures the darkly comic absurdity, framing what promises to be a wonderfully weird supernatural competition. With Mark Waid writing and Emma Ríos on art, "Generation Hexed" looks to deliver equal parts dread and wit in this penultimate chapter.