The most recent issue of Strange Academy saw a student fall victim to a fatal attack shortly after the resurrection of another student.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Strange Academy #11 by Skottie Young, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado, and VC’s Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Danger seems to lurk down every corridor within Strange Academy. When the students are not on treacherous field trips to space and Asgard, they are still facing monsters in their own halls. Though it has not been open long, the accidents are starting to pile up at Strange Academy. Now, the school has another death on its hands which further contributes to the school’s dangerous reputation.
The events within Strange Academy #11 started off uneventful but quickly turned more sinister. Toth had been studying all day for finals until he was the last one left in the library that night. This led one of the Mindless Ones to send Toth to his room after he fell asleep in the library. Unfortunately, Toth would not make it back to his room. The students awoke the next morning to find him shattered to pieces in a hallway.
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Luckily for Toth, he is from Weirdworld and part Crystalline which meant he could be pieced back together. After Doctor Voodoo, Catbeast, and Toth’s parents put him back together, they discovered that his heart shard had been stolen. This led them to believe Toth had been murdered and his heart shard was later revealed to be in Calvin’s pocket. As accusations flew his way, Calvin and his jacket were merged into a horrifying creature. Obtaining the shard just became more difficult, but Toth can still be resurrected if they can retrieve it. This is eerily similar to a close call that Strange Academy had just a few weeks prior.
During a game of Door Tag in Strange Academy #4, Calvin became lost before he was taken prisoner by the Hollow. His classmates searched for him on an unsupervised rescue mission but were not prepared for the power of the fanatical group. Doyle Dormammu saw this as the perfect opportunity to challenge the Hollow, which proved to be a fatal mistake. One of the zealots stabbed Doyle and drained his power, leaving him for dead. At the same time, Emily Bright was also approaching death’s door after siphoning Doyle’s power and unleashing a detrimental attack. Strange was only able to save Emily’s life by bargaining with a powerful mystic entity. Ultimately, Doyle’s death would not last long as he would be resurrected by a tear from Emily in the following issue.
Though they have found ways to resurrect their fallen students, Strange Academy seems to be throwing caution to the wind regarding safety. The majority of their students are untrained in powerful and dangerous magic. While the staff has been able to handle escalations fairly well, there are still plenty of occasions where magic goes unchecked or the staff seems to struggle with dilemmas. This makes Doctor Strange’s school much more dangerous than its Marvel counterparts.
Charles Xavier kept his initial class at the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters relatively small. It started with just an 11-year old Jean Grey before later expanding with Cyclops, Beast, Angel, and Iceman. While the early X-Men had their own struggles fighting against the Brotherhood of Mutants, they had some training beforehand. They had much more one-on-one training than the students of Strange Academy as well. Professor X personally oversaw all of their training and provided them with specialized attention as seen in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s X-Men #1.
Additionally, there was a much greater sense of both danger and responsibility for the X-Men as opposed to the students of Strange Academy. Strange Academy had a class on resurrections which made the students believe they were relatively invincible. In contrast, The X-Men went into their battles knowing there was no extra life after death. This of course changed with Krakoa, but the current generation of younger mutants are still equally risking their lives. The risk at Strange Academy only appears greater because it has been faced with multiple fatalities within a short amount of time.
While both of these schools have been dangerous in their own rights, they have both succeeded in giving their students an opportunity to explore their powers in an accepting environment. Many students between the two schools share similar powers or appearances. The students of Strange Academy are trained to be the sorcerers of tomorrow, but they still have a long way to go. Maybe Doctor Strange should copy from Professor Xavier’s playbook since his school is proving to be way more dangerous than it needs to be.
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