WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Strange Academy #4 by Skottie Young, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado, and VC’s Clayton Cowles.

Emily Bright, a student at Strange Academy, still has a lot to learn. Bright was introduced in the first issue of the series, where she used magic to save her dog Emma’s life after the animal was struck by a car. She’s been a magic user her entire life, but her knowledge doesn’t match her aptitude.

In the latest issue of Strange Academy, Bright and her classmates are playing door tag—which is the same as a regular game of tag but instead of someone’s backyard, the kids are running through interdimensional portals. During the course of the game, Emily ends up lost and stranded in the Wooly Woods of Weirdworld. While she’s trying to find her way home, she stumbles onto a cat-like creature. It’s got a feline body, with horns, wings and a horse-like tail.

The creature introduces itself as Catbeast and promises to help her get home under the caveat that the creature be allowed to accompany her. This presents an immediate red flag, which the young Emily is too inexperienced to notice. To her credit, Emily does ask why Catbeast doesn’t just leave on its own if it knows where the door is. Catbeast evades the question, and Bright follows it through a gateway.

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Catbeast's request is not the only red flag that occurs during this initial interaction. When Emily first meets the creature, it starts to say, “I’m actually a wiz--” before stopping itself and saying, “Well, we’ll discuss that at a later date.” That obfuscation raises a few questions, the most notable one being the creature's reasons for hiding its true identity, and hints at something sinister just below the surface.

Catbeast withholds other information as well. The creature stealthily says that it has been called "Catbeast" instead of revealing its true name, while it asks Emily for her name. In the world of magic, names are considered sources of power, and Catbeast knowing her real name while Emily has no idea of the creature's true identity puts the young magic user at a serious disadvantage.

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When they do go through the portal, Catbeast only gets shadier. It accidentally brings them to the Sanctum Sanctorum instead of Strange Academy. A simple mistake, but if it’s only a misunderstanding there’s no reason for Catbeast to hide from both Dr. Strange and his ghost dog Bats. While there is a natural rivalry between dogs and cats, Catbeast’s rush to leave Strange’s home implies that there is more at play here than simple animal dislike.

This also may not be Catbeast’s first appearance. The creature bears a striking resemblance to the Catbeast form of Ogeode, a wizard who first appeared in Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior by Mary Jo Duffy and Bret Blevins. In that series, Ogeode was a champion of Order, but when he was seemingly killed in Sam Humphries and Michael Del Mundo's Weirdworld #1, Catbeast came out of his body and retained his consciousness. In that series, he was determined to find a way to Earth, which makes it highly likely that this is the same creature.

If this is the same Catbeast, Emily Bright may have inadvertently exposed her classmates to a world of trouble. If the wizard is in search of a new body, he will now have access to the young magic users who attend the school, and may find a form even more powerful than his original body.

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