WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Strange Academy Presents: The Death of Doctor Strange #1, available now from Marvel.
The Strange Academy has always been something of a dangerous place for its student body, but two of its students have just learned how much worse things could get without it. With Doctor Strange's murder went his school, not to mention the protection which he offered the world as Sorcerer Supreme. Apart from staving off the various dark forces which would otherwise plague Earth, there were some more delicate matters which Doctor Strange had been tasked with overseeing. This included keeping the next generation of Asgardian heroes safe from forces far beyond their control. Now that he isn't around, they've finally been forced to confront the dark past they never knew about, and it's taken them all the way to Weirdworld for a devastating family reunion in Strange Academy Presents: The Death of Doctor Strange #1 by Skottie Young, Mike Del Mundo, Marco D'Alfonso, and VC's Clayton Cowles.
The ramifications of Doctor Strange's untimely demise are as unsettling as they are dire, and nowhere are they felt more than at his own Strange Academy. Before the students have even managed to clear out their dorms following the school's closure, one of them is snatched away to places unknown by a mysterious, mystical assailant. Unfortunately, the abduction of the Asgardian Iric wasn't entirely out of the blue, but rather the inevitable consequence of his own mother's previous dealings.
When Iric's brother Alvi confronts their mother, the Asgardian Enchantress, she is eerily calm about the entire situation. It turns out that Amora had traded her firstborn to the evil wizard Pulsari in exchange for a magic pendant. When the villain came to collect, Amora called on Doctor Strange for help, and now that he is gone the time for her to finally pay up has come. As shocking as all of this new information is, the most surprising revelation is that the Enchantress is actually willing to help rescue Iric, even though it means taking a trip to the strangest place in the Multiverse.
First introduced in 2015's Weirdworld #1 by Jason Aaron and Michael Del Mundo, the titular realm was one of the many domains of Battleworld, the reality formed by Doctor Doom following the final Incursion of other realities across the Multiverse. Presided over by the witch Morgan La Fey, Weirdworld was comprised of the remains of various mystical realms that were leftover by the Incursions. Inhabited by a myriad of mystical, mythical beings, Weirdworld was nothing if not deserving of its name. Existing in an ever-changing state, Weirdworld has been host to the likes of Black Knight, Spider-Man, and even the Champions over the years, yet no one has ever managed to really understand its nature.
Now, young Alvi is getting his chance to try and wrap his own head around Weirdworld, although that's far easier said than done. What he finds upon stepping through a portal alongside his mother is like something ripped out of a half-written children's story, with cartoonish figures and impossible structures. That assessment itself is proven to be more than hyperbole when Alvi meets the literal kids who act as Weirdworld's resident mapmakers.
Paying for maps drawn in crayon with popsicles seems ridiculous in its innocence, but that all belies the treacherous journey Alvi and Amora have ahead of them, and without a Sorcerer Supreme to step in should things get dicey there is no telling how the two Asgardians will fare. Weirdworld has always been an aptly weird realm, though not one without its own dangers lurking around nearly every candy-coated corner. Hopefully, it won't become a permanent stop for any of its Asgardian visitors, even without Doctor Strange to lend them a hand.