Stephen Strange: Doctor Strange Appreciation 2021

[DigiCom]

Lol, fair enough.

Btw, was this whole "magic comes with a price" in classic Strange stories as well or is this only something from recent years.

Pretty much invented out of whole cloth by Jason Aaron back in 2015.

[Clea]

So my friend (who only watches MCU and rarely reads comics) asked me if Strange is able to multiply his money and thus technically he could be richer than Black Panther?

Based on from what I've read I'd say no, but I haven't read any Classic Strange stories yet, which I know those are where he's OP.
.

Anyone?

There were a couple of stories way WAY back in Strange Tales that showed Doctor Strange conjuring massive piles of cash so that Wong could pay bills because Strange was constantly so distracted by magical matters that he kept allowing his bank account to get overdrawn. If I recall correctly, he even gave Wong a stash of priceless gems to hock for cash to pay his bills, too. LOL

Lol, fair enough.

Btw, was this whole "magic comes with a price" in classic Strange stories as well or is this only something from recent years.

Pretty much invented out of whole cloth by Jason Aaron back in 2015.

I thought Aaron's run on the Strange comic was an utter mess, including this new rule he made up, but lots of people liked it. The Bachalo artwork was lovely, though.

[DigiCom]

I thought Aaron's run on the Strange comic was an utter mess, including this new rule he made up, but lots of people liked it. The Bachalo artwork was lovely, though.

That is my opinion as well.

[Clea]

That is my opinion as well.

I would love to see Bachelo paired up with a competent writer on a Doctor Strange story.

[Daedra]

So my friend (who only watches MCU and rarely reads comics) asked me if Strange is able to multiply his money and thus technically he could be richer than Black Panther?

Based on from what I've read I'd say no, but I haven't read any Classic Strange stories yet, which I know those are where he's OP.


Anyone?

I wanna help you answer this questions because I'm a Doctor Strange nerd, have a look at these:

[Daedra]

And regarding the "magic has a cost" garbage, the case is closed.....

[Clea]

I wanna help you answer this questions because I'm a Doctor Strange nerd, have a look at these:

LOL. I totally forgot about the bars of gold in the safe. Hilarious. Wong probably made him do that so that he wouldn't have to chase Strange down every time the bank account got overdrawn. But still...I'm trying to picture poor Wong taking a bar of solid gold to the corner bank to deposit it in Strange's bank account so that they can pay the Sanctum's water bill. Poor Wong.

[Daedra]

LOL. I totally forgot about the bars of gold in the safe. Hilarious. Wong probably made him do that so that he wouldn't have to chase Strange down every time the bank account got overdrawn. But still...I'm trying to picture poor Wong taking a bar of solid gold to the corner bank to deposit it in Strange's bank account so that they can pay the Sanctum's water bill. Poor Wong.

Fun fact, Stephen was just about to recruit Sara in order to give Wong a helping hand

[Clea]

Fun fact, Stephen was just about to recruit Sara in order to give Wong a helping hand

I really liked Sara Wolfe as a recurring character in the Strange comics. She was smart, level-headed, and resourceful.

[Daedra]

I really liked Sara Wolfe as a recurring character in the Strange comics. She was smart, level-headed, and resourceful.

Claremont really knew how to write a supporting cast in compelling ways, it all went along quite well with the stylish art, I have fond memories of that run.

[Albert1981]

I like to imagine that 'magic' would require an even reciprocation. So for example if you bring someone back from the dead, someone else would have to die. If you heal someone of an illness, someone else would get that illness. If you conjure up some amount of money, someone would have to lose that much money. Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain something, something of equal value must be lost. I think magic could work within those rules.

[Strangefan]

In November there is going to be a Marvel book published "Doctor Strange Book of the Vishanti." It is already available for preorder on Amazon for 29.99.

Regarding the changes Doctor strange has experienced over the decades, I did appreciate when he developed more of a sense of humor. I work in healthcare, and in the most stressful situations we come up with the weirdest jokes as a way of decreasing the pressure in our life. So Doctor Strange showing more humor made sense to me. I really objected to the eating of crap that was the price he had to pay and his more recent runs. If anything his biology should only allow him to eat very simplistic things like plain rice or broth. Having him eat things with eyeballs just did not work for me.

I do believe there should be a cost for power, but I also feel that all the positive things that Doctor Strange does to protect the world should incur kind of credit process. The universe rewards his maintaining a balance by granting him power so to speak. I personally like the idea of the altruistic being its own reward, as long as he uses his power to protect others, he has power. If he were using it selfishly, it shouldn't work as well. Because the gods that support from beneficial Acts would support him. Just like other characters that might to do more destructive things get their support from the gods that draw power from Evil Acts.

[MRP]

For those looking for an analysis of how magic worked and the magical milieu of Doc's world, I cant recommend cat yronwode's Lesser Book of the Vishanti enough. http://www.luckymojo.com/vishanti.html

cat was a frequent contributor to Doc's letter pages in the 60s and 70s and became an excellent and prolific comic editor (primarily at Eclipse) in the 80s. She was also somewhat of an expert in real world occultism and witchcraft folklore, and did a deep dive analysis of Doc's magical world in fanzine's and comic feature magazines over the years all of which is compiled on the site linked (it's been in recommended links post by the OP for the past few iterations of the appreciation thread sine I brought it up several incantations of this thread ago. It's a bit out of date, as it only covers material form the 60s through the early 80s, but that is the foundational stuff upon which Doc's world is built. Later retcons of that stuff is not included. But what makes it interesting is that she parallels it with some of the real world occult systems to give it some context and logic in how it might work as a system, not just random whims of characters or writers. It looks at the spells, artifacts, cosmic and magical entities and the rules/guidelines that bind them and shape their existence and use.

It was used as a reference by a couple of Marvel editors for a bit, but later writers and editors chose to ignore it and make changes that for me, have mostly been missteps and led to the belief that Doc's magic was simple deus ex machina and unwritable, which in turn led to decisions like magic must have a price, etc.

-M

[Daedra]

I like to imagine that 'magic' would require an even reciprocation. So for example if you bring someone back from the dead, someone else would have to die. If you heal someone of an illness, someone else would get that illness. If you conjure up some amount of money, someone would have to lose that much money. Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain something, something of equal value must be lost. I think magic could work within those rules.

That would be “equivalence magic” and it’s just one of many types of magic, it would make sense for spell performed within the boundaries of our entropic driven universe but keep in mind that the heavy price paid by one can easily be diluted into the minute price paid by many. Extra-dimensional magic would for obvious reasons break any equivalent rule but require a greater degree of knowledge and discipline imo.

[DigiCom]

I'm not fond of the "equivalence principle" in comics, because it breaks down under close scrutiny.

Say you don't want to raise the dead. You just want to make a door close dramatically. What's the "cost" of closing a door? Will somewhere out in the vast multiverse a door open by itself? Or will you later have to eat a worm? (Which was Aaron's approach... the cost of magic is a weird diet. *rolls eyes*)

I'm reminded of a rule someone came up with that "Magic cannot duplicate what science has created". Which means that Strange couldn't cast the equivalent of a simple Lumos spell to light up a room, because flashlights exist....