With San Diego Comic-Con ramping things up, we’re beginning to see new images, artistic and otherwise, coming out for Marvel’s next big property Doctor Strange. In the latest batch of photos, we see Benedict Cumberbatch’s lead character Stephen Strange in artsy form: as fiery-shield wielding painting, and as an action figure.
Doctor Strange features Cumberbatch as the titular character, a neurosurgeon who loses his career when a car accident limits the use of his hands, and goes in search of a miracle cure. What he finds, through the tutelage of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), is a world of magic that he can learn to command. There’s more to it than that, of course, as we’ll also be getting appearances by the likes of Mads Mikkelsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rachel McAdams.
The art on display is certainly nice to look at, and the recent images of the Doctor Strange action figures at Comic-Con appear to be pretty cool. In fact, the more we see of Doctor Strange, the cooler it looks. How (or if) Marvel will have grappled with the problematic source material is another question, though, and thus far we have not seen anything to quiet some of the more glaring concerns about the film.
Doctor Strange has come under some fire for its casting of a white actress in the role of a Tibetan monk, as well as the rather disturbing Orientalism of the original story. Marvel naturally hopes to either quiet or dismiss these concerns, but they still have a hard road ahead them. That road leads past Comic-Con, though, and perhaps Marvel’s displays will help us to forget the nagging issues of race in this newest origin story.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens between now and Doctor Strange‘s release on November 4, 2016. Until then, though, you can check out the newest promo art and action figure images above.