It all starts when Doctor Strange opens a door to a place called Fandazar Foo.
Suddenly, Strange finds himself in his astral form and under attack by Een'gawori Slugs. They are the Eaters of Magic referred to in the title. Apparently they have also eaten all of Doctor Strange's clothing.
Any chance of Clea subbing for Stephen in this scene? Apparently not.
In keeping with a recent trend. Instead of firing off a spell, Stephen finds a medieval weapon.
The Axe of Angarruumus. I like the detail were Stephen mentions he found it in a witch's crypt in the center of the Moon - just fires up the imagination.
Even after he's beaten off the initial attack, Strange starts to realize that our dimension - the dimension he's responsible for protecting as Sorcerer Supreme - is suffering an infestation of these magic eating slugs. An infestation that is negatively affecting the balance of the magical ecosystem
What an interesting panel . . .
There are two Doctors here. One is fully clothed on the floor. The other is naked near the bannister. Floor Strange is Stephen's physical form. Bannister Strange is Stephen's astral form. The Een'gawor are all over the Sanctum, they eat magic so this house would seem the proverbial witch's house in 'Hansel and Gretel' to them. Wong is fighting them off with double blades (a part of me is secretly relieved that not one of them is a meat cleaver from the kitchen - enough of that manservant nonesense). So how does this all end? Strange fires off what is in effect a 'magic bomb' and the slugs overdose on so much magic they are rendered comatose.
Stephen and Wong go back to where it all started - that door to Fandazar Foo; and this is what they see.
This is what it used to look like.
According to the Doctor Fandazar Foo was a world steeped in magic, brimming with it.
The pair make an even more grisly discovery.
Sorerers Supreme, lots of them. Dead. This is worrisome. We know who is doing this even if Stephen doesn't - the Empirikul. The obvious question: If they can kill so many Sorcerers Supreme what chance does one Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange, have against them?
I'm about to use the word 'grisly' again. Before we leave this issue we are shown another grisly, if badly drawn, pair of panels showing the Empirikul's torture chambers.
Taking a page from actual history they refer to their cause as a 'Holy Inquisition'. I can't wait for Doctor Strange to take these bastards apart.
