Issue(s): Doctor Strange #8, Doctor Strange #9
Cover Date: Jun-Aug 75
Title: "Rights of passage!" / "Consummation"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Tom Palmer / Frank Chiaramonte - Inker

Review/plot:
Dr. Strange has lost his spellcasting ability thanks to the G'uranthic Guardian, and he is facing off against Orini, Clea's dad. Clea has arrived to help, and although she's not as powerful as Strange, she's able to activate his Cloak of Levitation and bring him to one of the hiding places she used in her youth.

Clea makes another attempt to reach out to her father...

...and while it fails, Strange suggests taking some comfort in the fact that he allowed her to walk away. Strange, although bereft of his normal spells, reasons that he and Clea can still use pagan rituals to draw on the power of Mother Earth (who is still prisoner of Dormammu), so they engage in a ritual involving the G'uranthic Guardian

...that allows Clea to gain the knowledge that the Guardian took from Strange. She uses it to battle her father.

Clea does start to get a little out of control with all of Dr. Strange's power, and they transfer it back to him.

Meanwhile, Dormammu and Umar enter our dimension.

Umar actually betrays Dormammu and traps him. Strange and Clea defeat Umar by freeing Dormammu, and then freeing Gaea so that she can banish him. There's a cool sequence that shows a sequence of scenes and then shows a hand holding a comic book depicting those scenes as Gaea uses her magic.

Clea continues to try to reason with her father Orini, who we learn is slavishly loyal to Umar, to no avail.

We learn that Clea is Orini and Umar's daughter, although that information is not revealed to Clea.

A number of other mystics show up to offer help to Dr. Strange, as a result of Clea and Wong contacting Rama Kaliph in issue #7. In addition to Kaliph, there is Turhan Barim, Lord Phyffe, and Count Carezzi. Kaliph and Phyffe have a few more appearances (Phyffe is tagged as Azrael in my Characters Appearing section due to the events of later appearances).

There's an interesting scene where Gaea tries to appeal to Umar's womanhood, and both Umar and Dormammu scoff at the idea.

The junkie that was working for Umar is killed by her in issue #7 and in #8 he tries to appeal to Gaea but she is unable to help him.

Overall this was pretty good, even though in issue #9 Gene Colan's art sometimes looks a bit sketchy. As Mark notes in the comments, this was probably due to Chiaramonte's inks. Issue #7, inked by Palmer, is definitely nicer.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is a direct continuation of the story from issues #6-7. It also takes place soon after the Scarlet Witch's confrontation with Dormammu during the Celestial Madonna saga; therefore it's been pushed back in publication time.

References:

• Dormammu failed to gain revenge against the Scarlet Witch in Giant-Size Avengers #4.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The sketchiness is due to Frank Chiaramonte, who couldn't ink anybody well.

FOOM#6 announced P. Craig Russell as Brunner's successor on this title.

Clea is probably more effective in this arc than at any point before 1980.