Stephen Strange: Doctor Strange Appreciation 2021

[Clea]

Doc Strange related! I’m being cover quoted on next week’s Defenders issue! It’s my first!

How wonderful! Congratulations.

[Clea]

Mostly the art. I love Garbett, but he didn’t bring his A-game here during the more magical moments. I also expected the tone to be more dynamic, but it was just a humdrum day then bam! He’s dead.

I thought the 'humdrum day then bam! He's dead' framing was hilarious, especially as it was narrated by Strange himself. "Here I am, strolling through an average day, being my cool self - did I mention that I am cool? Because clearly you can see that I am - musing about how I secretly made myself immortal just in case I am ever murdered - when suddenly, I am murdered! Oh noes! I guess I am dead now!...[DUN, DUN, DUNNNN!] ...or am I?"

LOL. That entire setup put me in such a good mood about this story.

[Iron Maiden]

I write for comic-watch and we get the previews early.

Oh cool. I didn't know that. Congrats! I'm by no way a professional writer but a couple of times after reading some of my reviews here people have said I should do a blog but I'm too lazy In any case I only get inspired when writing about Doom

[lordozone]

Am I the only one who was a little disappointed with the first issue of the Death mini?

Loved this mini, and the ending really surprised me. That doesn't happen to me often with Marvel. It was an introductory issue, but I'm confident about the rest, Jed Mckay rarely disappoint me.

[Albert1981]

I know a lot of the leaks and rumors of late have talked about WANDA's role in Strange 2. That's very interesting, to be sure. But I was curious about something else. A couple of years ago, Feige mentioned in an interview that MoM WILL feature a character that Marvel Studios has always wanted to use, but for various reasons couldn't before this film. Obviously with the pandemic, plans have been changed. But I was just wondering, who do you think it will be? I figure it has to be somebody that was from another studio like UNIVERSAL, SONY and/or FOX. Or an individual who was from a Marvel Television production. For ME, I'm really hoping it's Ghost Rider. I got introduced to Marvel Comics through Danny Ketch in the 90s. He's absolutely a supernatural character and would fit into the "horror" theme of the Strange sequel. To be blunt, I didn't pay too much attention to the horror genre all that much. I've seen the Blair Witch Project and Scream in theaters, and my brother loves the Walking Dead. But I kinda want Marvel Studios to make a "horror" movie. Just like they're making a comedy crime procedural for She-Hulk. I think it's cool that the MCU is branching out into different genres. And I wouldn't mind seeing Strange leading a team consisting of Blade, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, and Werewolf by Night taking on zombies, vampires and werewolves. The only FOX character I wouldn't mind seeing in Strange's new movie is Doctor Doom. The rest of the FOX properties are largely NOT magical (except for Magik maybe)?

[Clea]

I've seen online speculation that Ghost Rider will be included in Multiverse of Madness. I suppose we'll find out eventually. The story already sounds crowded with so many other established MCU characters that I don't know how they could do any justice to Ghost Rider, but who knows. There will be more horror with Blade. There's been chatter about a horror-themed Midnight Sons project of some sort. I don't know how many of these future MCU projects would include Doctor Strange, though. I think Cumberbatch's contract expires with MoM. He has said he enjoys plying the character so perhaps he'll do more MCU projects if the timing is right and the story looks interesting to him.

[Albert1981]

I've seen online speculation that Ghost Rider will be included in Multiverse of Madness. I suppose we'll find out eventually. The story already sounds crowded with so many other established MCU characters that I don't know how they could do any justice to Ghost Rider, but who knows. There will be more horror with Blade. There's been chatter about a horror-themed Midnight Sons project of some sort. I don't know how many of these future MCU projects would include Doctor Strange, though. I think Cumberbatch's contract expires with MoM. He has said he enjoys plying the character so perhaps he'll do more MCU projects if the timing is right and the story looks interesting to him.

This movie DOES seem awfully crowded. I don't want Stephen to be crowded out of his own movie. That being said, he's probably gonna play a prominent role in Spider-Man 3, so I can't complain TOO much. Yeah, I don't want unnecessary characters piling into the MoM. I just know that Feige wanted to bring somebody into Strange 2 that Marvel Studios wasn't able to use before. So I'm hoping it's Ghost Rider (I'm no better than other fans wanting their favorite characters to show up in this picture). But a horror flick with Strange sounds SO exciting. I personally wouldn't even mind Stephen participating in an MCU "mystery" story, but I feel that's too small-time for Strange now. It WOULD be funny to see him acting like Columbo though. Stephen would be more like a "hard-boiled" detective. And Clea could show up as a "leggy dame" who would match wits with him. Oh well.

I hope Cumberbatch sticks around for at least another five years. Just like many other current MCU characters. I like his take on Strange a LOT! As I mentioned earlier, I don't think Marvel Comics does a good job with its magical corner. DC is much better in that regard in my opinion. But the movies and shows are showing folks like me that there is SO much potential in the fantasy elements of the Marvel Universe. I understand that Thor 2 TRIED to be a sort of Lord of the Rings/Game of Thrones fantasy film, but it just didn't work out too well. I think Feige and company might have given up on doing something similar again. Maybe that's why there wasn't much magic in the Loki show (I thought that show would be FULL of it). I have great confidence in Raimi. He mentioned in a Collider interview recently that Strange was always ONE of his favorite Marvel characters. So I think he'll be portrayed quite favorably. I must admit to getting a bit annoyed that pretty much all the leaks and rumors regarding Strange 2 are largely about Wanda (who I really REALLY like). I thought this was a Strange movie. Wanda and Loki ALREADY got plenty of screen time recently. If they are BOTH in MoM, I hope Strange doesn't get overshadowed. But again, I'm pleased that Strange will have a prominent role in Spider-Man 3 (another film that sounds somewhat overcrowded), so I'm acting a little bit like a hypocrite here.

[Frontier]

I think a lot of MoM will be cameos.

[GenericUsername]

I think a lot of the rumors are likely untrue. They were about WandaVision. I think fandom just gets carried away too far. Theory sites included. Now everyone has a scoop. Now if you click the bell, like and subscribe you can find out more on those scoops, lol.

[John Venus]

Then the trailer comes out and it's just Strange, Wanda, Wong and America Chavez fighting Mordo and Shuma Gorath while traveling the Multiverse. No X-Men, no Ghost Rider, no Prof Xavier or Wolverine.

Then the theorists throw a fit before claiming that Marvel realized that they were onto them so they changed the movie to prove them wrong. lol

[Clea]

I think a lot of the rumors are likely untrue. They were about WandaVision. I think fandom just gets carried away too far. Theory sites included. Now everyone has a scoop. Now if you click the bell, like and subscribe you can find out more on those scoops, lol.

Then the trailer comes out and it's just Strange, Wanda, Wong and America Chavez fighting Mordo and Shuma Gorath while traveling the Multiverse. No X-Men, no Ghost Rider, no Prof Xavier or Wolverine.

Then the theorists throw a fit before claiming that Marvel realized that they were onto them so they changed the movie to prove them wrong. lol

LOL! This is why I refer to online speculation as chatter. 99.9% of it is just fans floating their own theories or online bloggers trying to generate follows and clicks on their blogs and videos, where they also indulge their own speculation because they don't know anything concrete. The actual MCU marketing folks periodically drop tiny, ambiguous hints to keep the fanbase hyped, but mainly, IMO, all that online speculation is a waste of time. I'm content to wait for actual trailers and interviews. Ultimately, no matter how many other MCU characters appear in the story, I just hope it's a good Doctor Strange-focused story, not a Multiverse event(!) featuring Strange. I hope Clea is in it because I think if she's in the film she stands a better chance of remaining as even a semi-regular presence in the comics going forward. However the story ultimately turns out, I expect that it will be visually fun to watch because of all the interesting magic effects, dimension hopping, and Sam Raimi's own quirky directorial style.

[Albert1981]

I also don't believe the overwhelming majority of rumors. They just seem like "wish fulfillment" disguised as legitimate speculation. And some of those leaks sound so obviously fake it's ridiculous. I think John Venus is onto something here. A lot of folks didn't like WandaVision SOLELY because it didn't introduce mutants and multiverses. I reckon if it had, those SAME people would think it was the greatest thing on television since ROOTS. So I'm really cynical about the MCU fanbase a lot of the time. That being said, I DO think it's possible that a "mystery character" will be introduced in MoM because Feige mentioned something to the effect a couple of years ago. A character that Marvel Studios had not been able to use for reasons undisclosed. I doubt that person would be America Chavez. So that's why I'm thinking it could be individuals from other studios like Namor (Universal) and/or Ghost Rider (Marvel Television) and/or Doctor Doom (FOX). Things definitely could have changed as a result of the pandemic, however. So Disney's original plans for Strange 2 might have been significantly altered. All I ask is that it doesn't have too many characters and too much exposition.

I haven't seen much of Raimi's work. I know he's a horror guy, but I don't want a lot of horror shows/movies. I remember his Spider-Man movies. I actually thought his last one in that trilogy was REALLY funny. Didn't make it a good picture, but I thought the humor in it was great. So I think it was unfairly criticized. Hopefully in the last fifteen years he's adapted to new technology (I'm sure he has).

I've sort of resigned myself to this movie to being a multiverse event. The name of the movie is the Multiverse of Madness. I'm expecting the magic to be downplayed in favor of multiverse shenanigans. I just hope Marvel/Disney doesn't bog this film down with more exposition like it did in Loki. I thought Loki was well-made and did a fine job of explaining the MCU's version of the multiverse...However, I was frustrated by it because I wanted Loki to be a bit more in touch with his mythology, and his show basically totally divorced him from that. He didn't even feel like he was particularly smart, tricksy, or even mischievous in the back half of the show and him being a God of Norse mythology had little to do with anything going on aside from the backstory stuff. Really, Loki just became a kind of fluff ball character who just wants to take care of his friends and outright scoffs at the idea of being ambitious or deceptive or clever, and that's not really what I was there for. I want Strange to act like he did in his first movie and Infinity War. I hope his personality doesn't change as drastically as Loki's did. After watching that Spider-Man 3 trailer, I was reassured. Stephen's STILL acting like a reckless, irresponsible and arrogant dude. That's great!

[Albert1981]

People often forget this scene from Strange 1:



Could Disney/Marvel be introducing the concept of magic use having a "price" in the future? If so, I wanna see this explored in the MoM!

[Stormy]

How powerful is Clea?

[DigiCom]

How powerful is Clea?

At times (I'm not sure of her current status) she's been the Sorceress Supreme and bearer of the Flames of Regency for the entire Dark Dimension.

So, at the very least, we're talking Magik level, probably higher (she has more experience).