My podcast pal Merlin (whom I address that way due to having never met him in person) asked me how to get into Doctor Strange. That's a longer conversation than just a pithy post can cover (expect an upcoming Comic Shack to cover this). What I can do is recommend Marvel's recent Matt Fraction-written The Defenders series, which is all now available in trade paperback: Volume 1 runs about $15, and Volume 2 goes for $18. They total 12 issues worth of self-contained story, and it's a hum-dinger.
Why do I recommend this as the way into Doctor Strange at the moment? Issue 4 is one of the best one-and-done Strange stories I've read in a long time, for starters.
More importantly, it's become apparent that there are a lot of timey-wimey things going on in the Marvel Multiverse right now (Age of Ultron, All-New X-Men, the upcoming Battle of the Atom crossover, the arrival of Spider-Man 2099 in the present day's Superior Spider-Man this fall, maybe even the upcoming Infinity event...the list might keep going on and on forever. From Comic Book Resources' Q&A with Superior Spider-Man writer Dan Slott at C2E2 last weekend:
Can you talk at all about Miguel's state of mind or motives when he arrives in the present day? And at what point in the classic "Spider-Man 2099" run does his time travel trip take place?
Slott: If you're paying close attention to the Marvel Universe, there are a lot of time anomalies and time travel stories that all seem to be happening during Marvel NOW!. We have the younger selves of the original five X-Men now in the present, the "Age of Ultron," plus, there are a couple of other surprises on the horizon. And now there's this. Something seems to be happening to Time in the Marvel U., which makes it the perfect time for someone from the future to come to the present.
If a brand-new comics reader, you may initially get lost wondering where this Red She-Hulk came from, or why this Atlantean dude Namor is such an egotistical jerkface, or who the hell "Iron Fist" is, but in the space of 12 issues, you actually get a nice little introduction to who everyone is as a person, in a general sense. Silver Surfer, Black Cat, Ant Man, and Nick Fury bits all gel nicely as well.
The story spins out of a crossover called Fear Itself, which is absolutely not required reading, since we find out rather quickly what's going on. That is to say that this group of heroes get together to try to prevent reality from breaking apart when a machine that can change existence itself goes haywire.
I have a feeling that this series was planned to run exactly these 12 issues and no more, as sorry as I am to see it gone.
In a more just world, there would be a Defenders movie franchise, too.