#sara wolfe

We begin in Doc's fancy study under the Vishanti window. Here it's show to be perfectly vertical while most depictions show it at some sort of angle, but there's never really been a definitive portrayal of the Sanctum Sanctorum. I suppose that adds to the mystery of the place which apparently shifts around more than the interior of the Gryffindor residence. Gene gives Doc a fancy chair to sit in. It's not quite as wild as the ones Ditko conjured up, but it stands on paws and that's adorable. Doc's collar is tremendous! It must be magic or his chiropractor bills would be huge having to constantly adjust his back and shoulders.

Clea is up for some testing. Doc explains that her Rings of Raggadorr spell she conjured up during the Shadowqueen deal was kinda crappy and she needs to do better. She begins

Clea looks a bit like she shouldn't have eaten those mushrooms she found growing in basement. Especially after the whole Sa'arpool thing. But she perseveres and Doc attacks. First with the Vapors of Valtorr. Clea knocks that one out of the park, but she's confronted with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak next and that's just about beyond her.

Doc disperses the rings with a nice lightshow and Clea gets a bit whiney over the whole thing. Seems there's a bit of Claremont Clea left. Doc then comforts her.

I love the way Gene has Doc hug Clea from behind! Clea's reward for passing the test is a grimoire so she can start jotting down her own "I call upon the Vishanti" type stuff. It's quite adorable.

Doc then proceeds to his next challenge. His new business manager, Sara Wolfe is pressing Wong to get receipts for the stuff he buys. Wong is a bit dubious because the U. S. government doesn't need to know EVERYTHING Doc purchases.

I would love to see this conversation today in the age of tap-to-pay and Turbo Tax! Would Doc still conjure up gold coins to clean up his messes? Or does he leave a bunch of bitcoin tokens? Suddenly Doc feels something is off and runs to one of his studies, followed by Clea who got an inkling of the situation as well.

He calls this the Orb of Agamotto, but this is definitely not its usual enclosure. Maybe this is a special stand Doc uses to dry the Orb after he's Windexed it. The pair find there's a disturbance in the force (he he) around the Carolinas. But, as he tries to zero in, things go... wrong.

Doc does manage to sense the center of the disturbance being Norcross, North Carolina. And they make arrangements to fly there. (There is no Norcross in North Carolina in the real world, but there is one in Georgia.) Roger now takes us to Norcross University where everyone seems stuck in a pre-counterculture time.

A pair of students have been invited to view a something discovered while a portion of the campus is being reconstructed. Inside a chest belonging to the school's founder they find an old temple bell. And, of course, one of them has to ring it. We've all seen enough horror movies to know no good will come of this.

Up in the air, Doc feels the bell being run and goes ghost to investigate before they physically land.

Doc scouts the campus, but finds he can't enter the building with the ringing students! Uh Oh! Guess this will have to wait until they land. Roger gives us a joke about Clea not being able to wake Doc up since his ghost hasn't returned to his body yet.

After landing, Doc attempts to convince the university president that supernatural baddies are up to no good right under his nose. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

The president goes on to explain how wonderful everything is and with perfect dramatic timing, this happens.

Doc and Clea fly into the heart of the demonstration. Doc attempts to entrance the students, but this isn't an ordinary demonstration.

The ghosts are actually part of Ikonn, who finally shows himself. Doc leaves Clea to keep entrancing the students while he follows Ikonn to continue the battle. Doc appears to trap Ikonn and then uses the all-purpose amulet to probe the entity's mind. Ikonn gives Doc a little history lesson. The university found stumbled across a temple in Tibet and found a bunch of cult members worshipping a bell. The bell is an instrument to summon Ikonn. Dr. Norcross decided he needs the bell for himself and murders a bunch of the cultists to steal it.

Ikonn's hold on the world grows stronger the longer the bell wrings and at this point he's able to break the chains Doc bound him with and use them on Doc. Doc breaks free, but Ikonn's abilities have grown to the point he can warp reality and we get the cover image happening in the story! (Love when that happens!)

Doc realizes that he can't directly fight Ikonn. He finds Mary Elizabeth, the student ringing the bell and tries to get her to stop. Ikonn has taken steps to prevent this. But Doc has other plans.

Doc slows down time inside the bell shaped shield. Mary falls to the floor and the bell stops ringing.

Doc and Clea return to the president's office who has conveniently forgotten everything. Yup, Doc did another mind wipe without consent of all them people! C'mon Doc, we've talked about this! While things appear to have been "reset," a pair of students burst into the office demanding a bunch of changes including an end to that silly dress code. They're so tired of looking decades out of date and this small town doesn't have enough thrift stores to sustain it. As they depart, Doc explains to Clea.

This is one of those special to me issues. It was the first one I received when my subscription kicked in. We have an interesting story isn't incredibly original and has little long reaching consequence in the long run, but is well told.

Ikonn had been mentioned a few times reaching all the way back to Strange Tales #145. Introducing him as a character works well. He seems like he'd be a lot of fun to spar with and it's sad he only makes a few more appearances. He's one ugly sucker but that just adds to his charms. He's powerful, confident, and assured, and looks like something that can give an army of xenomorphs a run for their money.

The story is a great little yarn. We start with Clea's test and Roger gives evidence that Doc is capable of being teacher and lover, despite the fact this would probably get him fired at Norcross (snicker.) We have a couple of convergent mysteries for Doc to solve and a battle that isn't long and ridiculous. Roger shows us that Doc is smart enough to bow out and go for the better solution when he realizes that what he really needs to do is stop the bell. When he finds he can't physically intervene, he immediately comes up with another viable solution. Doc is smart and has reasonable detective skills. Rogers return is promising so far.