Death of Dr Strange was so much better than I expected it to be. Finally - Dr Strange shown as POWERFUL, and the man who protects us from everything. I’m sick and tired of him losing his powers or his role etc, so it’s nice that this seems to be taking a different route.
Really good --but spoilery -- interview with Death of Doctor Strange writer Jed MacKay here: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclus...ckay-interview Also, artist Lee Garbett's tweet here has a spoilery character image: https://twitter.com/LeeGarbett/statu...8823791618?s=2
Do we still need to put spoiler tags around discussion of the first issue? Just in case:
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One thing from this interview that surprised me was this scenario (Strange dies and a younger version of himself from the Strange Tales era appears) was one of many possible death scenarios that Marvel has been kicking around for decades. MacKay mentions that this younger Strange harkens from around the mid-to-late 120s issue run of Strange Tales, when he was not yet Sorcerer Supreme, and just encountering Dormammu and Clea for the first time. The preview for issue #2 makes me very hopeful that the Death of Doctor Strange series is also going to resolve the state that Clea was last seen in, with her memories of Strange seemingly wiped out. Anything that MacKay does to resolve or retcon her last appearance is fine with me.
I'm just speculating for now, but this series could be a perfect way to reset comics Strange to align with the MCU version of Strange. They could also reset the relationship between Strange and Clea too, assuming that they do plan to introduce her in the MCU. They could portray her as a mature, experienced sorcerer already, and skip over the 'Clea as Strange's disciple' relationship that got to be so weirdly troublesome in the comics. If the intent of this series is truly to reset comics Strange to closely match MCU Strange, that's fine with me (so long as he keeps Bats).
However this DODS mini-series does play out, the first issue has already made me shed all my cynicism that this was going to be just another pointless, 'Marvel kills a hero to boost sales' sort of story. This is set up to have truly meaningful significance for the character.
Live Faust, Die Jung.
I really REALLY hope that Stephen doesn't revert back to using his "purple" prose like he did in the days of the old. The diction and syntax of Cumberbatch's and Wong's versions of their characters on screen is AWESOME!!!
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Is it a good idea to 'kill off' a character with decades of development and replace him with a younger counterpart from the past?
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But is that really the endgame for this story: Doctor Strange is dead. Long live Doctor Strange via this [apparently ensouled] shard of himself that he severed off and hid, only to be seen in the event of an emergency? If so, I actually wouldn't mind because it would be so unexpected and so different from way that Marvel kills and resurrects their heroes, restoring the character exactly as they'd been before. Permanently killing contemporary Strange but replacing him with himself gives this younger version of Strange the opportunity to forge all new relationships with the rest of the MU characters. Friendships would need to be formed anew. He may no longer be interested in working on superhero teams because ST-era Strange was solely focused on fighting mystical threats. This younger copy isn't bound to follow in exactly the same footsteps as contemporary Strange, so who knows what might happen? All the other MU characters would have to deal with him differently whenever he shows up, so it would rattle those characters and give them something new to deal with. Fun.
But that's only one possible outcome. Perhaps the story will conclude with ST-era Strange solving his own murder in such as way that he is able to retrieve contemporary Strange from whichever Marvel afterlife he's gone to and restore him to life. (He's have to do something about those chopped off hands, though. Yikes!) If that's the plan, then what becomes of this seemingly ensouled younger version of him? Does he merge with contemporary Strange in order to restore him to life? Does he go back into storage somewhere, never to appear again unless Strange dies again? OTOH, is this ST-era Strange even truly an ensouled copy of himself -- which we're led to assume based on the Koschei narrative -- or is he just a temporary, unsouled manifestation that Strange set up to be a transitional placeholder while the world chose a new Sorcerer Supreme? Marvel can't have two versions of the same Doctor Strange co-existing in the MU...or can they?
This doesn't appear to be a Multiverse variant situation (at least as of the first issue). If we take the Koschei hints at face value, then it means that contemporary Strange has been existing without some or all of his soul for all of this time. That would be an interesting idea for writers to explore. It would align with cryptic comments about the state of Strange's soul that have been peppered through various stories over the years. Do we want contemporary Strange brought back without some or all of his soul again? That would be creepy, but also interesting.
There's still the question of who murdered him and why, as well as the question of what's happening in the outer dimensions that needs to be solved. Are these two situations related or not? I was so cynical about this death story before because I was expecting it to be just a typical, cheap stunt event. But this one already has such a uniquely weird spin to it that I can't predict what's going to happen next, and I love that. It's been years since Marvel has done anything that's actually surprised me, so if they do go all in with this story and reboot Strange as a younger version of himself, I'm all in simply because it would such an expected thing for Marvel to do. Resolve the situation with Clea's memories, and keep Bats around however this story eventually ends, and I'll be quite content no matter what happens.
Editing this to add: Perhaps the young ST-era Strange is a Multiverse variant that 616 universe Strange tucked away on hold somehow. I just glanced at the story again and Strange indicates that he did something 'similar' to Koschei, which could mean that he didn't split off and hide all/some of his own soul. Instead he just kept a Multiverse variant on hold as a backup. That would be a fun avenue to explore.
Last edited by Clea; 09-26-2021 at 09:12 AM.
Live Faust, Die Jung.
spoilers:end of spoilers
The Teen Tony thing was also terrible and made fun of for years.
Love is for souls, not bodies.
I sorta think Cumberbatch's portrayal is making Strange more popular onscreen than he ever was in the comic books. I mean, it was a bit of an adjustment for me to see him exchanging quips with Stark and Parker as well, but I ended up really liking it. Infinity War even had Stark mocking Strange for saying "hitherto undreamt of".
Put it this way, in the early 90s I got into comics through characters like Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch), Daredevil and Silver Surfer. They were not clowns in the comic books. But when they join the MCU, I'm almost expecting that they'll quickly turn into quippy joke machines. I just hope Murdock doesn't go overboard with the Kingpin fat jokes. That's how the MCU operates. Feige seems to REALLY like humor. And I'm fairly certain a decent chunk of fans WANT to laugh at these movies. I imagine you're one of them as well. As Clea mentioned earlier in this thread, Marvel and DC went off a cliff in the early 2000s with their grimdark stories. I see the MCU as kind of like a backlash against that kind of storytelling.
spoilers:end of spoilers
'Classic' Strange was already a mature adult of who appeared to be ~40yrs when he debuted in STs. Considering how much Marvel compresses the passage of time, it's likely that contemporary Strange is only at most ~45 yrs old now. If Marvel did decide to reboot Strange and replace him with this ST-era version, he would still be a mature adult, not a teenager or even a generic 20/30-something young adult. He'd lose the memories and experiences of the contemporary character, but his age would be almost the same.
Last edited by Clea; 09-26-2021 at 05:59 PM.
Live Faust, Die Jung.
Clea, please continue to write about the Death of Dr. Strange. I was almost-angry resistant to this at its announcement, am still reluctant to acknowledge it, but you are polishing my resistance away. At least, as of a first issue... So please continue to write about the series. I really like the character, possibly my lifetime favorite, despite disliking most DS series of the past couple decades. I'd dislike to learn, a decade hence, that I'd turned my back on a good DS series out of stubbornness!
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I reckon I will post about every issue in the series. I love these characters and the Marvel magical universe overall. I got into Marvel comics via these characters. After reading several other Marvel titles over the years, I'm back to only reading Doctor Strange stories, so for the most part these are the only characters that I care about enough to want to chat about online. Like you, I have disliked a lot of how Strange has been written and portrayed over the last several years since Marvel took him out of the magical corner of the universe and turned him into an Avenger. I totally understand why they did it, but over the years, the more they homogenized him and turned him into magical Tony Stark, the more the role of Sorcerer Supreme devolved to mean nothing more than 'powerful magic dude who lives in a cool house filled with magic stuff.'
Only one issue of this series has been released so far, but I am super pleased with it. I appreciate the way MacKay honed in on what it means to be Sorcerer Supreme, and how that distinguishes Strange from the other magic users and the generic superhero crowd. That was refreshing. Overall, the writing is clever and insightful. The characterizations are on point. The artwork is lovely. There is much to love here in this first issue.
Live Faust, Die Jung.