DOCTOR STRANGE IS DEAD! Long live Doctor Strange!52 years ago, Dr. Strange bit the dust for the very first time! He got better, of course, but the specifics as to HOW comprise one of the best openings to an ongoing I've ever read. That opening is also my favorite Dr. Strange story arc, as well as one of my favorite comics of all time, and I am more than delighted to be sharing it with you all today. I am so delighted, in fact, that I'm actually jumping the gun by posting this now. I have to put a great big asterisk on that first paragraph's first sentence: this is NOT the anniversary of this story's first issue, as it has been with all of my previous storytimes-- it's the anniversary of its FIFTH issue, and this arc's *conclusion*. Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts #5 was released 52 years ago today, so this "anniversary" is more a celebration of the story's end than its beginning. I will undoubtedly be busy around the time of the first issue's 53rd anniversary, and wasn't even considering doing this around the time of its 52nd, so I compromised and decided to post this storytime today.All this explanation serves mostly as distraction-- distraction from the horrors that lie ahead! So steel yourself, anons, and prepare to witness a most gruesome tale... Through an Orb Darkly!
Yes, that really is the name of this story. It is extremely unlikely that it's in reference to either the book or movie, A Scanner Darkly, given that this issue predates the novel by four years and the movie by almost exactly 30. (Although, funnily enough, Phillip K. Dick would have been busy experiencing paranormal hallucinations thanks to a strange neckpiece during the exact month that this issue was published.) It is, instead, almost certainly a reference to the biblical phrase ("Through a glass, darkly"), and it's just an interesting coincidence that it's more likely to be interpreted as a pop culture reference nowadays.Title-tutting aside, LOOK AT THAT ART! I cannot stress enough how beautiful this page looks. The lettering is perfect, drawing your eyes from the raining heavens to a burning pot of fire without any effort at all. The coloring is good, too-- huge emphasis on shades of red and yellow, with the only exceptions being Strange's robes near the center of the page and a splash of darker blue for his hair. The shading is appropriately dramatic-- harsh shadows to contrast the pastels, bright highlights near both fires, great illustration of fabric textures across Strange's entire outfit. And it's all framed through his upper-floor window-- the Seal of the Vishanti!Or, well, what would eventually *become* the Seal of the Vishanti. The pattern was never very set-in-stone until much later, though the name was already established by this point and this window does have noted importance. It just looks very different from what it eventually became (and once was, under Ditko's pen). (You can see the full pattern more clearly in panel 2, in case the lettering and emphasis on Stephen in panel 3 is distracting.)I wish I could say more about the dialogue, but I'm running out of space. Englehart good. Very, very good. That is all.
Enter: Clea! She's demonstrating a playfulness here that's since been mostly lost. Part of it is just her earlier personality-- she lost a lot of her naivete and mischief after taking control of the Dark Dimension around a decade after this issue takes place-- another part of it just has to do with how comic writing has changed over the years. There are fewer intimate moments of merrymaking like this, as perhaps best noted by Avengers fans, and a lot less levity in newer comics overall. To my eternal thanks, Clea and Strange specifically have managed to weather this shift in tone just enough to still have smaller moments in newer stories... even though they're very far and few in between.If you're curious as to what Strange is referring to in panel 3, I've storytimed it in full here: https://desuarchive.org/co/thread/155124298/#155124298Although I would *heavily* recommend just reading it standalone. (Or with the commentary on one screen and the pages, in proper order, on another.) I'll be providing a link to the full story once this storytime is over; please just use that instead.
If you take a shot every time master and apprentice make sweet music together in this ongoing (and other in-continuity appearances), you should be very heavily drunk by issue #49. This is the first instance of many. All of the dialogue in the bottom four panels is a clever way of cluing new readers in on Dr. Strange's job (a necessary thing, since this story isn't using the standard origin recap at the top of the first page). Tying it into Clea's love for the man tells us both about her character (what she loves, why she loves it; what she does, who is teaching her) and the setting she finds herself in (The Sanctum, who owns it; why nothing particularly magical and evil is happening at the moment, despite Clea describing otherwise), and it contrasts nicely with the setup for this issue's story.Panel 4 does the same for Wong, but... well, it's about Wong. There isn't much of him to describe-- he is a faithful servant who assists Strange when able. One panel is enough to illustrate that. (He hasn't yet been established as Strange's martial arts tutor, too-- that comes later, with Roger Stern and the 80s.) The aforementioned oddness of the window is a bit more visible in the last panel here... as is the main villain of this story!
Immediately, the villain is established! Another evil sorcerer? You bet! He's got a little more than that to him, but more will be said about that later.Clea blames herself for sorcery gone awry-- a trait that was understandably lost with her quick mastery of magic-- but, importantly, isn't shaken any further.
Well, not until her rabbit breaks through the damned window, anyways. That second panel speaks to another lost aspect of old Strange-- the idea that his sorcery is meant to be hidden, not flouted about as a superpower. I've talked a lot about this in my other storytimes-- for those who haven't read them, I'm repeating it here because it is absolutely essential to understanding Strange's old character. He is(/was) meant to operate in the shadows, without being well-known, and would adhere to that very strictly. This particular story doesn't place too much emphasis on it, primarily because Strange's upcoming adventure is very self-contained this time around, but this is essential knowledge for the future and it's good that Englehart is expositing it here in issue #1.The penultimate panel introduces our villain for the evening: Silver Dagger! I'll have a lot more to say about him later on. For now, just know that he is an incredible antagonist and perfectly well-tailored to this specific story.
Wong jobs! At least his martial arts skilled are established... even if in text, only. The Eye of Agamotto is also properly established, though this mystic bolt of warning never reappears again. It's likely that future authors willfully ignored it to raise the stakes, but it's just as likely that they simply didn't know it would exist. It's frustrating to see absent either way, both as implication of the author's hand... and the following insinuation that said author simply didn't consider that a master sorcerer might guard his most precious tool... at all.On a more positive note: take a good look at that grim visage in panel 8! Giordano's inks really shine there.
A name for a spell that originates in Ditko's days-- the Fangs of Farallah weren't named until now, but I'm confident I've seen them in one or two backgrounds of Ditko's. Correct me if I'm wrong. I really like the way Silver Dagger's shadow stretches across all of panel 3. It's a good way of preventing dead space between panels and helps add plenty of tension. It also blatantly illustrates the darker trail of SD's thoughts here-- elaborated on further in panel 4-- and makes for a good transition between the lighter first panel and the darker ones to follow.SD's namesake gets spotlight in panel 5, but if you blink you might miss it. The silver is mostly in the hilt, after all, and an ornate quillon isn't usually something out of the ordinary.
Silver Dagger's origins are hinted at-- his motives made clear! Dr. Strange is a conjurer of demons, so SD believes that it's with demons he should lie! If that doesn't seem crazy enough to you, he also talks to his weapon like it's his wife. That's how you know he's extra dangerous.
With Clea abducted and Wong awake, we learn what has happened... I want to say too late, but Strange has been bleeding out for over an hour by this point. The fact that he's still alive is a miracle. He can probably live an hour or two more and make it to the hospital or something.
...what's that? There'd be no story if he did that? Oh, okay. Orb of Agamotto it is.I jest. The knife was enchanted-- normal doctors might not know what to do with the wound, assuming that dagger stabbed straight into his soul. It's suitably morbid that Strange *does* know what to do about this, and it's really no big deal... but the two things he needs to fix himself, which are typically at his disposal 24/7, are now absent. Silver Dagger's planning was either very thorough, or he got very lucky.More drooling to be done over the art here. The background being distorted and dotty when Strange is struggling to speak, Wong being lit like a descending angel when he's returning with the Orb and cape, the entire color palette bursting into a strong chorus of red and yellow as Strange starts incanting... it's very, very good.
Panel 1! Strange stops his bleeding by *putting the damned wound into stasis!* Panel 3! Silver Dagger's intentions grow more and more apparent, and Clea's location is made clear!Panel 5! Strange is noticed, and the Orb grows hostile!Watch the colors here-- they're playing with palettes again. Strange is draped in harsh reds and yellows while Clea and Silver Dagger are kept in soft pinks and greys. Very pale tones, if you will.
The cover: reenacted! Beautifully so, might I add.For those unaware: the Orb of Agamotto being "powered through the dead" is not a retcon, nor a random comment. The orb being necromantic has been mentioned multiple times before, but almost exclusively as flavor text. I don't think it's brought up much again after this, either, but it makes a little bit of sense if you think about it-- astral forms are essentially ghosts, often used by sorcerers as a means of displacing themselves to scout things out, and the orb can explicitly be sensed as a similar sort of "spying" (just look at the last page). If you interpret the orb as an artifact that essentially has its own astral form-- one that is much harder to detect than is standard (this story is the only time I know of in which its spying is noticed) and much better at trawling various magical dimensions-- then it kind of makes sense. It's maybe safe to assume that the necromancy in question was just dervied from the original creation ritual, or something, and that Strange isn't robbing graves to fuel it.All of the harsh colors disappear into a pale void as the Supreme Sorcerer is swallowed by his own scrying orb...
...and goes to confront his own fate!!This is where things start to get very interesting, very quickly.
A very interesting definition of necromancy from Strange in panel 2, there-- explains Englehart's overuse of the term during his tenure, I guess-- but not a common one. It's the fourth or sixth definition in most dictionaries, and not what most people think of when they hear the phrase nowadays. Note, also, the harsh contrasts in panel 3. The same pale tones from Clea and the Silver Dagger on Strange's person, silhouetted against the vibrant reds and yellows he was once covered in.Finally, in panel six... an unnamed caterpillar! Yes, unnamed. This is the Orb of Agamotto, but Agamotto himself is never explicitly named in this story. Roy Thomas was the first to dub this caterpillar as Agamotto, in Sorcerer Supreme #7, and subsequently declared the Orb a door to Agamotto's own dimension (and the caterpillar a more familiar form, derived from Alice in Wonderland, percieved by Strange's own mind).Unlike much of Thomas's later work, I don't particularly hate that explanation-- it makes a decent amount of sense, it lines up with Agamotto's previous appearance as being specifically bug-eyed, and it's a creative way of explaining why this thing would ever care for Doc. I do miss the intrigue this part of the story had before that was explained, though, so I've spoilered all this to prevent that dampening the experience of any fresh readers. That is indeed a hookah, btw. Not sure how that slipped through the CCA. Were they really more prejudiced against broken windows than smoking devices?
Faced with the possibility of defeat and imprisonment, Dr. Strange says thee nay! The pallid colors from before are still mostly prominent here, but the further into the page you go the more prominent the red and yellow get. The caterpillar's covered in it by the end (and most of the next page). What did Glynis Wein/Steve Englehart mean by this?
Drowning in demotivation, Doctor Strange remains steadfast! No mere silk threads can entrap he: Sorcerer Supreme!
These first three panels are near and dear to my heart for reasons I cannot and will not divulge, but they're very well done even outside of my personal feelings on the matter.The pallid pinks being beaten back by Strange in the first panel (most concentrated around his head, very vaguely like a halo), the looming threat of the caterpillar in the second (as it takes up most of the panel, diminishing Strange to a mere fraction of its size), and the triumphant defeat in the third all flow together very smoothly. There's a nice arc from Strange's face in panel 1, to the caterpillar's eyes in panel 2, to the threads it's spewing in that same panel, to the caterpillar getting its face blasted in on panel 3. If you look to see where the beam's coming from, you're greeted with Strange-- who is immediately repositioned in panel 4, and given prominent focus in panel 5!The only real flaw I can find in this entire page is the lettering in panel 6-- it's a bit wonky. I have a bad habit of reading the "--or is it I?" before the "Yep-- it's ME, all right!" It clashes a bit with how the entire rest of the page is structured.
With ominous words coming forth from the caterpillar's mouth and eerie images spewing out of its hookah, issue #1 ends! Strange refuses to accept the circumstances into which he's been thrown, and sets out to do something about it!
>>155408099>>155408101I wasn't sure if I had read this before until these pages. Good shit, Strangeanon this is a killer story
What a cover! Strange almost seems like the bad guy here-- and you'll see why in a few pages-- with the appropriate clenched fist and scarlet gurning as fulfilled prerequisite! It's a rather curious thing to have as cover for your ongoing's second issue-- this entire story is quite heavily based on Strange and his past, so I've got to wonder what this reads like to someone completely unfamiliar with his character (or even someone who only knows him from the previous issue)! They won't know of the Defenders, that much is for sure. You might not, either-- this issue was published when the Defenders had starred in fewer than 25 issues of their own ongoing and, if I've got my calculations right, fewer than 40 comics overall. I also thought that little tagline near the bottom was meant to be a nod to long-time Defenders writer Steve Gerber, who used the phrase for his Howard the Duck series, but this issue was published several months before anything Gerber ever wrote for the team (and over a year before the Duck's own ongoing would hit the shelves)! Maybe it was just a popular phrase from the time?
What an opening!!That pale pink remains at the fore in the first two panels-- sat next to the most infamous title of this arc! A Separate Reality, in the shape of an orb, positioned in a dark and indeterminate void above Silver Dagger's loud statement of triumph-- that's good stuff! The moment Strange's head is lopped off, there goes the pink-- in come the bright yellows, the bright reds! The only remainder of any light tones are on the Silver Dagger himself!I also forgot to mention-- Englehart can't take sole credit for this tale! (Not that he'd want to, judging from his personal website, but it should still be mentioned!) Frank Brunner is actually co-scripting this entire thing, but I only now remembered to mention it. Praise both writer and artist-- they've done a fantastic job so far! I wish they'd been able to do more than just this arc together, but Brunner didn't stick around after this arc's finale...>>155408138Putting it lightly! Glad to have you onboard. :)>"killer" storyI see you. lol
Silver Dagger's shadow looms across the entire upper row of panels here! An especially nice touch to have his dagger positioned above Strange's decapitated head. (Why such a detailed mannequin of Strange exists in the first place is best left unquestioned, methinks.) If you haven't cottoned on by this point, Silver Dagger spells his motivations out nice and clearly for those in the back. Black magic bad, Silver Dagger good....wait, what? Wasn't he shown using spells in the intro? Is this a plot hole? Is Silver Dagger a hypocrite? Not exactly, but you'll know soon enough. :)More blabbing about colors: Clea's covered in vibrant purples and greens. Silver Dagger is draped in drab blues and dull purples. There's a black void separating them both!
Even more on Silver Dagger! The highlight of this page is his train of thought: that holy savior attitude, his made-up backstory for Clea. So wrapped up in his own righteousness that he twists reality to his ends and plays hero. SD's sympathy for this false, scared, penniless version of Clea highlights his great contrast to Strange's journey in this issue: one man commits heinous and tangible acts, justified through obsession with his own false reality, to make his delusions real; another escapes unreality, imposed upon him, to right a wrong and bring good to the real world. The Eye of Agamotto's own scrying abilities are weaker than that of the Orb's, but they do exist and they've been depicted before. A villain making use of the Eye this easily, though? That's a lot rarer...
That transition, up there in the top right, will become a staple of this ongoing's art from here on out! Similarly "animated" panels exist in various stories from this series, most notably in the Alone Against Eternity saga (where Gene Colan makes great use of the tactic), but I still think this sequence is one of the best. The image of Strange becoming more and more clear as the amulet opens further and gets closer to the "screen" is excellent, the way Silver Dagger is positioned in the prior panel makes it feasible that he could be looking at any one of the four amulets (and looks plain great), Strange still being drenched in those pale pinks and blues while SD and the background remain bright yellow and red (pink) respectively-- aaaagh, it's gorgeous. I have to stop myself or this entire post will just be about that top half.The panels below are just as pretty, if not as breathtaking. The backgrounds are ahead of their time-- the penultimate panel especially looks like something you'd find in corporate art from a decade or two later (I mean this affectionately, I promise), and it contrasts amazingly with the unnaturally curvy waterfall to its right. The colors are great, as always, with some brighter colors splashed here and there to emphasize how unnatural this place is.Strange wishing for better things and actively needing to guard against it is a very interesting element of this story that is almost never replicated elsewhere. His own thoughts being his enemy, in general, is a surprisingly underutilized storytelling element; I'll have to right that wrong eventually.
More of a downer page-- not much to say here, save for the Marvel Method maybe hampering that last panel a little bit. Still, the art is as beautiful as always.I do love the design of that soul-sucking dragon-thing. The gaping maw with a tubular mouth in the middle, reminiscent of an eye pattern, is cool enough on its own, but sticking it onto the body of a pudgy flying reptile (amphibian? evolved fish? it does sort of look like a cross between an anglerfish, a lamprey, and a dragon) is the exact kind of weird character design that gets my noggin jogging.
Defender numero uno names the enemy! Using Silver Surfer to ease readers into the Defenders is a clever move by Englehart. Surfer's easily the oddest member of the team; he has very few classic appearances alongside the other big three (Hulk, Strange, Namor), even though modern series seem to treat him as an essential, core member. I think he might have more modern appearances alongside the Defenders than he ever did classic. Anyways, my point is that he's not someone you'd suspect to herald the rest of the Defenders-- but someone you absolutely would expect to see fighting unholy abominations in nebulous and unfamiliar worlds. It would make for good plausible deniability of the others tagging along... had the cover not confirmed that the other Defenders were going to appear in this issue regardless.
When blasting his prison's walls inevitably fails, Strange turns to an old and reliable trick of his: infiltrating a target's brain directly. Strange's first-ever story used this, plenty of Ditko stories afterwards continued to use it, and Englehart himself made very good use of the tactic in Marvel Premiere. I understand why the strategy was deemphasized later on, given that it is quite literally an instant-win button in 99% of cases (and a little morally dubious when fighting any human opponent), but I sort of miss it. It's a good way to keep Stephen's beginnings as a neurosurgeon still somewhat relevant, and a really good excuse to do trippy mind-palace stuff or visit the Dream Dimension from time to time.
Total disruption of the CNS is enough to take down freaky soul-sucking aliens, it turns out, and all the souls it's eaten are freed! But-- what's this? A tweest!
The skull-castle is as pale as ever, as is the sky surrounding it! Lots of good art on this page, but my reasoning as to why would just end up being repetitive. Thematic coloring, interesting panel layouts, very good inking-- just assume this applies to every page of this arc, lol. Very interesting developments in the story. The slow descent into chaos continues, and sanity starts slipping away...
What a spread! Not all of these guys are Defenders-- only Namor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Surfer here qualify-- and one of them isn't even a Marvel character. That's Captain Midnight over on the far left of the table, I think; a Fawcett character (whose copyright, I'm assuming, had expired by 1974). I'm not sure why he's here, what he's doing, or if Marvel had anything to do with him. Could be that Brunner just needed another guest at the table, liked the character, and threw him in for shits and giggles, but I unfortunately can't be certain of anything. Anyways, that's not tea. You know that's not tea, I know that's not tea, Black Panther knows that's not tea, and whichever married Captain is currently struggling to stand up *definitely* knows that's not tea. Lord knows why the CCA had no issues with hookah smoking in the first issue but strongly objected to the mere idea of drinks in a castle hall.
The Queen! The Queen! Good Queen Valkyrie! Another Defender-- maybe less well-known than the rest. I think she might hold the record for longest unbroken membership, but don't quote me on that because I haven't done the math. Nevertheless, the White Queen is quite important to the Defenders.She's also quite thematically important to this story, for rather obvious reasons, if you understand her name and position...
The promise of a good time with friends tempts the sorcerer, but he refuses to give in! Hulk takes that about as well as you'd expect.
PRETTY COLORS. VERY PRETTY ART. Just look at it!!
Strange is starting to get the hang of being stuck in cloud cuckoo land! He also remembers to look cool while doing it. That final panel almost feels like cheating, it's such an easy use of the environment to enhance the aesthetics. This fight is in a dark and dingy castle. Strange's whole thing is blasting super-tough opponents to pieces with strobe lights and fireworks. What does that equal? Lots of silhouettes! Lots and lots of them! And they all look so damn cool!!
Hah, this page would probably drive some power-scalers mad. I love it all the more for it.Look at the way the hero's corpses are positioned near the bottom of this page. Strange approaches them as if he's seeing them directly across from him, but they're clearly positioned in such a way that they're aimed at the audience first. This is further emphasized as the bottom half of the page moves further and further right-- the last two panels are scaled very differently to the corpses, and Strange isn't looking at them in either one, but we can still see every defeated hero just as clearly as we did before. Super super cool stuff.Is the Soul-Eater's return a product of Strange's subconsciousness? Did he immediately make the connection between remembering that death isn't real here and his last opponent? Or did the Soul-Eater revive earlier, and only just manage to track down its escaped prey? Who knows! We certainly won't, ever, and the story is better off for it.
What can I even say about this page...? I don't want to say much, I don't want to spoil it. It's VERY good. Every single part of it. The art is superb-- panels three and five are the obvious standouts, by a country mile, and panel 5 especially is just... I can't put my love of it into words without tying my tongue into knots and drooling like a dog. The writing is also good-- Strange is slowly losing his temper, but he finally realizes exactly why and how to stop it. The true foe of this whole ordeal-- this plot within a plot-- is revealed, in dramatic fashion, but how to stop the culprit is still left very unclear. Strange's friends being soulless copies explains all the weirdness from before, helps shed light on how this insane place works...Agh, god, just open the spoiler, if you haven't already! I can't do this page justice with mere words!
Although not as standout as the page immediately preceding it, I have to say that I really love this page too. The smokey transition in the bottom half, the way Aragorn bursts out of the paneling and into the sky, the way the color palette once more shifts to pale and dreary tones the moment that the focus is taken away from Strange... man, it's good. Strange grows distant, as do his words-- Silver Dagger grows nearer, as does his speech. We end this issue with a focus on Clea... and a promise of confrontation to come!
Confrontation that, unfortunately, does not happen!
Don't be fooled by that new cover and this (admittedly beautiful) new page-- this is a reprint issue. The story following #2 ended up being delayed from its initial publishing date, so a hasty reprint of Dr. Strange's first triumph over Dormammu was pushed out to get something on the shelves. That's also the story that introduced Clea, if only the second part of it, and the same story that granted Strange his cape and amulet. It's rather important, but not particularly relevant to the story (beyond introducing Clea), so I'm going to be skipping over it to better suit the pacing.This page isn't particularly relevant to the story, either, but I suppose they had to slot in an explanation for this reprint somewhere. "Feeling wistful while flying across unreality" is as good a reason as any.
If you're curious about the Ditko-era story being reprinted here, I storytimed it in full a month ago: https://desuarchive.org/co/thread/154991326/#154991326I couldn't skip over the entire reprint, unfortunately, as there are some story-relevant panels inserted near the end of it. Some very pretty ones, too, but you already knew that. If the last issue didn't make it clear enough for you, this one spells out Strange's current goal in no uncertain terms: to fight Death herself and win.
WHAT A COVER! Glowing eyes in a giant skull, open wide, with an endangered Strange falling into what looks like an endless green void. Purple in the back for contrast (and, likely, to invoke a certain abstract's hood), the outlines of stars and planets scattered about to communicate a sense of scale-- if this cover isn't Brunner's best, it's certainly up there. I think it might be my favorite, but I'd have to check all of the others to make sure!If #1's cover hadn't managed to be just as iconic as this one, I'm sure #4's would have defined this entire arc.
Woo, splash page! No dialogue here, no plot: just good Brunner art. Aragorn almost seems as determined as Strange is here.
Recap! No dialogue here, either, but plenty of narration to remind the audience of what has happened. It's been four months since this arc started, so such repetition serves to attract new readers as much as it serves to remind the old.
Doc continues his mental battle against encroaching apathy! More gorgeous artwork in the bottom panel, there. Just the right balance of inks and colors...
In case the approaching trio's identities were unclear, the first of them to make contact remedies that gap in knowledge with abandon!
>>155408311This is this' stories collected edition cover for sure. Amazing shading and live work on that skull
No, I didn't just skip a page, I've checked. I believe Strange is implied to have said "I can't" or "I won't" off-screen, judging from the dying man's dialogue in the first panel here, but that's never clarified.All of these denizens of the dead are refreshingly grotesque. Suitably aggressive and deformed, just the right mix of gross to be almost sympathetic-- but still disgusting.
Painful first panel up there. Englehart does a good job of conveying just how desperate their situation is. Interesting that he focuses on the three horsemen-- are they suffering similarly to their victims? If so, why? Note the color grading in the penultimate panel here. The further down the cliff goes, the paler things get. From harsh white and black contrast to lighter purples, light blues. As Strange falls in the panel immediately following it, he and Aragorn are highlighted in paler tones while color drains away from the panel itself. Even the boundary between white and dark starts getting erased!
This is... spectacular. I don't want to say much for sake of spoiling it. I'll simply point out that this page begins with Strange being sucked through a very pale vortex... into a funnel made up of different shades of red and yellow.>>155408362As it deserves to be! And yes-- Brunner's work is absolutely incredible. He deserves so much more credit than he gets.
Behold: SPACE! Complete and utter awe at its immensity: then, back to reality! If Strange's thoughts consume him, he might end up like poor old Aragorn here!
The stakes are immediately established, and shown to be suitably dire! One touch is all it takes... and Death shows its face!
Death is so overwhelming that Strange can't even speak against it! No matter how fiercely he rebels, he's met only with laughter and interruption! But does that stop him? No! Why would it? He's Dr. Strange! He's here for one thing, and one thing only-- his very life-- and won't rest until he's got it!It's a little funny that Strange is still trying to be polite when facing Death itself. He doesn't *want* to fight, and makes as much clear, but when faced with a storm of meteors... well, he doesn't have much choice.
The reality of Strange's current situation is revealed to him, and his wound's stasis slows! Still more celestial bodies are thrown his way, not unlike a certain other confrontation, documented in an old Strange Tales story...
...and, similarly reminiscent of that old story, Strange finds a way to come out of it alive!
"He--" yes, Marvel's Death didn't start out as a woman. I've half a mind to think it was only changed to keep Thanos from being gay. More commentary would be pointless-- the art is beautiful as always, but the events of this page serve mostly to taunt Strange and catch him up with the audience. Death's persistent dispiriting of the sorcerer is only fitting, given its nature!
>>155408010Oh no, it's the Rabbit of Caerbannog!
Only through surrender is Strange's goal... finally achieved!
And one of many trials is complete! The rest of them were left somewhat unfinished-- Englehart was kicked off the book before they could all be clarified, though I think it's been assumed over time that Strange did eventually clear them all. The consequences of this battle have largely been forgotten. The ankh went missing sometime during Roger Stern's run (though a brief reappearance was made in Peter Gillis's, if I'm remembering correctly; regardless, it appears incredibly rarely and is mostly irrelevant nowadays), Strange's immunity to aging and disease have been forgotten in almost every possible future scenario (and its remembrance is an entertainingly easy way to tell which writers care about Strange and which don't), and all of the interesting story potential that these additions gave Strange have been passed over for the thousandth retelling of him losing his magic. Only Roger Stern ever touched on the consequences of these newer powers, and he mostly did so through fluffy dialogue for comedic purposes. It is a tragic waste of potential that I ought to correct someday.My own sorrow aside, this marks the end of this arc's penultimate issue. Dr. Strange returns to life, his quest almost complete...
...with but one goal remaining!!God, this cover is so good. I've been saying that for every cover so far, I know, but it's true! It's got everything-- danger, its immediate cause, a righteous hero appearing to save the day and thwart the obvious villain. It's colorful, dramatic, and very memorable. This scan is unfortunately a bit deep-fried, but it seems to be the most widely-available one that isn't digitally colored so it'll have to do. I hope to one day see the original cover in person.
From a great cover to another great opener! Strange as the pupil of the Eye of Agamotto is such a good choice for a focal point, especially when paired with the title hanging above it. Clea is clearly near her breaking point, Silver Dagger nearing his peak-- do I even need to comment on the colors by this point? This is all very, very good! (Especially considering that every single issue of this arc has had a different colorist!)
I have to admit that I think I might like Mantlo's coloring the least of anyone else's-- he's a bit too technicolor for this specific story-- but he doesn't do a bad job (see: panels 2 and 4).
Finally, the Silver Dagger's full backstory is revealed! I wonder if he was in any way inspired by the legendary Reverend Billingsley? (For those not in the know: the story immediately preceding this one dealt with the creation of the universe, which editorial felt was going too far and would offend certain religious types. To prevent the story from being shelved, Englehart and Brunner cooked up a fictional reverend and sent in a letter to Marvel's offices that had him explicitly approving of the book. The plot worked, and the Sise-Neg saga was printed unaltered! ...I should have brought this up during my storytime of it, but I think I'd forgotten thanks to my sickness.)Whether he had anything to do with the apocryphal reverend or not, pitting Strange against a disgraced priest is a great idea and serves as excellent contrast to Strange's own ascendance.
Silver Dagger's story somewhat mirrors Baron Mordo's, as becomes less obvious here. He, too, studied under an ancient man in service of deitie(s) great and old; he, too, had his surefire promotion taken from him by another student who was deemed less erratic; he, too, turned to darker methods to achieve his revenge. But Baron Mordo became fanatically obsessed with his rival, and only his rival-- he wanted nothing more than Doctor Strange's death and title, so devoted himself to that end.
Silver Dagger, meanwhile, turned his fanaticism outward. He didn't swear himself to assassinating the new pope-- he dedicated himself to proving the world wrong, and fell further and further into his delusion instead of abandoning it for a singular grudge. He remained sharp enough to succeed several times, all while never being caught, and-- at least, for now-- has actually accomplished exactly what he set out to do (and proven himself a serious threat in ways that Mordo hasn't been able to since Strange Tales in the process).Part of me wishes Silver Dagger had more stories to his name, but I'm overall content with him barely appearing outside of this story. It keeps his menace intact and his thematic relevance succinct as opposed to watered down and shallow. Lord knows he and Mordo have shared a very different fate-- the latter soul is never going to be allowed to rest, while Silver Dagger has at least found peace in obscurity.
Doctor Strange is reborn! Unfortunately, he hasn't been granted the luxury of a body to inhabit...
...and so he searches Silver Dagger's underground lair for a substitute!The second panel here is one of my favorite POV shots of any comic. That's not a tough sell-- there are very *very* few that I'm even aware of-- but far too many of them keep things depressingly mundane. Brunner here plays delightful havoc with perspective and proportion, shrinking a cabinet and stretching a doorway and drawing from what seems to be a sort of reverse fish-eyed perspective. The too-vivid colors I criticized earlier do plenty to enhance how surreal the shot is, and the skewed narration boxes help even more. I truly wish this specific kind of artistic experimentation was more common.I should also give praise to the narration; it's indulging in a visceral habit that J. M. DeMatteis does great justice in Into Shamballa: the description of magic as sensation, as power, as something that demands your imagination. Englehart's descriptions in panels 2-4 are evocative of more than just the art-- they truly help add to that point-of-view perspective, really trying to communicate that otherworldly sickness with which Strange is grappling. I can't praise it enough.
Despite the humorous nature of this mix-up, the narration plays it completely straight-- a luxury which we all took for granted prior to the 21st century. To see it here is refreshing and entertaining both.
Why didn't Stephen shatter Clea's chains *before* Silver Dagger returned, despite supposedly having the power to do so? Panel 3 might have something to do with it, but I believe it'd be improper to speculate upon preferences of that nature. Instead, I'll just draw your attention to the nice composition of that final panel. The broken chains emphasizing Silver Dagger's shadow is a neat touch.
I really love that first sentence. Silver Dagger has to stop himself-- even with all his practicing of the dark arts, he clearly hasn't gone far enough to make any sense of this without reverting to his papal training. For the first time in this entire arc, he's caught off-guard without any possible answer to his problem.More pretty composition with the panels here. Panel 2 does a lot to guide the eye away from Silver Dagger, along Clea, and towards the light of the street. The disorientation of the situation is communicated well through the swirling purple background of panel 4-- the gravity of Silver Dagger's response is highlighted with another dark shot of his face in panel 5. All of the lively pedestrians are drawn in shades of red and yellow.
Panel 2 plays with negative space in a very curious way! The panel itself literally bends to Clea's whim, flinging open the doors to a new location exactly like two panels might transition from one place to another. It's funny that the black man here calls Clea "white-on-white" given Mantlo's coloring. Clea's hair is bluish-grey throughout this entire issue! That is, funnily enough, much more representative of her actual age... but still inaccurate to the character, which makes the jive-speaker's remark particularly ironic. (For those wondering about Clea's age: the only definitive answer we have on the topic is that she was definitely an adult by the year 1944... when Strange would have been 14 years old. At absolute minimum, if Clea was 18 back then, she'd have been 48 in this issue!)
The Crypts of Kaa-u are part of a forgotten city, taken from Robert E. Howard's mythos, that holds the corpses of all previous Sorcerer Supremes. It has never been brought up or mentioned outside of four issues Englehart himself wrote.
The narration switches to second-person to taunt Silver Dagger specifically! Hah, cheeky. I like it. The final confrontation begins! Wong is shuffled away to safety-- his martial arts skills have clearly failed before, so it's best to keep him safe rather than risk another failure. He's also got no sorcerous skills whatsoever, despite what the MCU and newer comics might have you believe, so he hasn't got much in the way of self-defense here.
The Eye of Agamotto isn't used offensively very often, but when it is... well, you get this! Cannonball-sized projectiles breaking the Shield of the Seraphim, blinding lights, and a barrage of mystical might that even Dr. Strange has difficulties defending against!
The pale man in purple is struck down by rays of red and gold!
And so the story ends... outside of the very same window it began in! Thank you all for reading along with me! I had so much to say on this arc-- I don't think there's more than one or two posts in here that let you get a word in without my commentary, lol. Sorry about that. I just can't express my love for this story enough. I was already enjoying Dr. Strange before I read this for the first time, but this story is what really caused me to fall in love and I've cherished it ever since. Though many, *many* great stories follow this one, A Separate Reality will forever be my favorite. Whether or not you can say the same for yourself, I hope you've at least enjoyed my infatuated ramblings on the subject.If you'd like to read some more Dr. Strange after this storytime, or just want to own this story for yourself (digitally, within the realm of unreality), you can grab the lion's share of important Dr. Strange stories here:http://www.mediafire.com/download/araspaddej639ae/Doctor+Strange+Introductory+Package.zipthrough this link to a comprehensive .zip that contains .cbz's of several of Dr. Strange's best outings (including this one). Give thanks to another, long-gone Strange Anon from 12 years ago, for he bestowed unto us this delightful gift!
If you're still in need of more Dr. Strange after that, I would recommend reading absolutely everything on this list (some of which is already contained in the aforementioned .zip; Strange Tales is not, and I would heavily recommend it as a starting point),as well as the entirety of Doctor Strange's second ongoing (Dr. Strange vol 2/1974/Master of the Mystic Arts), which this arc begins. If you're in need of an alternate starting point, just continue onto issue #6 and beyond.There are a bunch of other, much nicher stories that I also want to shout out:>New Avengers (2013) Annual,>Strange Tales v3,>Marvel Fanfare #5, #6, #20, #21, #41, and #49,and Amazing Spider-Man Annuals #2 and #14 come to mind most quickly,while a substantial swathe of the first Defenders ongoing (primarily everything written by Englehart, Gerber, Wein, Kraft, and DeMatteis), including Marvel Feature #1-3 and every Giant-Size Defenders issue, are also great. Anything that Busiek wrote for them isn't bad either, but not as good as Gerber/Englehart/Kraft/DeMatteis were (and a fair amount of it won't make sense if you don't read Gerber first).None of this nicher stuff is required reading, but if you're in dire need of some good Strange I'd recommend all of it.There is a *lot* of good Dr. Strange out there. Almost everything from 1985 and before that includes him as a character is some level of good. Even some stories after the new millennium with him in it aren't terrible. I'm biased, of course-- he's my favorite cape by far-- but even by objective metrics, plenty of his ongoing issues have a fair amount of artistic merit. I'd heavily recommend them to any aspiring comic artist who wants to experiment with paneling or play with the format's strengths and limitations in general. With all that said... thank you for very much for reading! May the Vishanti smile upon you, and may Agamotto guide your path!
What a strange bot thread
>>155408527Dat Clea ass!
>>155407999Bump for interest
>>155408665Thanks.
I WILL bump this thread. It was a pretty fun read.
>>155408691More like a Strange anon thread. Top-notch storytiming
Thank you for the storytime, anon. I almost skipped over it, but I'm glad I didn't.
>>155408444>>155408453Haven't read this in 10+ years yet this ancient one appearance lives rent free in my head as an all time strange moment. Thanks for the storytime, strangeanon
Thank you all for bumping! I'm very glad you're enjoying this story (and flattered by all the praise lol). I'm delighted to share it with you all. :)>>155410093It's a good one, isn't it? Englehart made very good use of the Ancient One even after his death. I'm stopping myself from going on about the art again, but the fact that Brunner was the one illustrating his appearance helped lots too. It's far too easy to make ghosts and death seem humdrum and mundane in comics, but those two did a very good job at avoiding that.
>>155409519Based Hulkbro
>>155408010Cute.
>>155407999Oh shit Ive just been reading through the fucking care package you dropped off on the 1602 story time a little ways back. Funny to see this again so soon.
Buzzamp
>>155408215Val doesn't have a life outside of the Defenders and latched on to it as a group despite Namor's protests it wasn't one, so that tracks. If I remember correctly, the only times she was not there were a team-up with The Thing that explored her host body's past, and when she was recalled to Asgard for a bit which resulted in bringing back Moondragon.
>>155413409I didn’t even know Valkyrie was a Defender, I just thought she was some background extra for Thor’s comic
>>155414694She rarely shows up in Thor stories. I don't remember the exact one, but some review I read pointed out just how detached she was from everything going on there so her Asgardian status was rather arbitrary.
>>155415320Huh, I see. I don’t read Thor, so I just assumed based off of the Asgard thing
>>155407999Imma bump this cause it’s cool OP we don’t have enough cool threads on the board
>>155415857Thank you! I'm flattered!>>155411808I'm glad you've been making use of the older anon's starter pack. I hope you've been enjoying it! It's funny that you mention "seeing this again so soon..." :)>>155413409Hah, yeah. She's half the reason the Defenders kept existing past the original Yandroth story and their own title's first few issues. Her desire for answers after her creation kept the Hulk and Strange around as staple members, and the three of them running into various other odd castaways (and having similar reactions) kept the team alive. It's honestly quite sweet, and it's why the roster becomes very very strange after the first five additions. (Val isn't exactly on the same level of power as the original four, but she's a decent heavyweight and a nice middle-ground between the original 4 all being completely busted and the later members being various tiers of street-level weirdos.)Namor stayed pissed about the whole thing for *ages.* I think he did warm up to Valkyrie eventually, but he's still not fond of the team and didn't stick around much as consequence. If this issue were written a few years later, it probably wouldn't have included him on the roster.It's funny to see someone think of her as a Thor character first. It makes sense; she's just so heavily associated with the non-team in my mind that it's interesting.
bump
thanks op
I shall bump mightily as well. However I have yet to read these tomes so I must abstain from discussion. I shall consult the archives and catch up another time brethren and /co/mrades.
>>155408405>>155408261>>155408099A couple of my favorite pages out of all of this. Genuinely a very fascinating little arc here. While I never strongly cared for Stranges character, I always found him a little flat in the style of old Pulp heroes like Doc Savage where he's just a MIGHTY MAN doing MIGHTY THINGS, I love the scenarios of wizardly bullshit he finds himself in.Thank you for the story time here. And for providing very interesting color commentary, you've explained why I would like these things much more eloquently than I could have myself!
>>155408168>>155408272Interesting sort of mirror here, Silver Dagger gazing up at the top of the page as Doc fades in and then his attention facing downards as SD fades in himself at the finale here. Not the same issue so I wonder if it was an intentional callback or just an interesting happenstance but I enjoy it enough to say something
