Originally Posted by
Sutekh
I very much agree with the concept that Dr. Strange should be using spells that he's well-known for using, like Bolts of Bedevilment/Balthak,, Flames of the Faltines, Shields of the Seraphim, Crimson Bands of Cytorrak, Winds of Watoomb, Images of Ikonn, etc. and not just waving his hands and doing random crap ex machina (and, inexplicably, *not* being able to do random crap ex machina in his very next appearance, because of crap writing).
And *other* spellcasting characters in the Marvel Universe should be following suit, and also not doing random crap. Additionally, characters who *aren't* the Sorcerer Supreme, IMO, shouldn't be tossing out the same spells at the same power level as Dr. Strange. As I have always understood it, to use these sorts of invocations, you have to contact and petition extradimensional entities, such as those named above, and while not *all* magic is invocations, the rest comes from 'personal power' and would absolutely murder a spellcaster who tried to do anything major with it (as in, he'd kill himself trying to draw enough 'personal power' from his own life-force to blow down a building or stop a car or whatever). Obviously spellcasters with a special source of personal power, like Hellstrom or Magik, would be exceptions, as she can draw on Limbo and he can call upon infernal hellfire to fuel himself.
The Sorcerer Supreme seems to have a special carte blanche from the Octessence, etc. (Cytorrak, Watoomb, and other non-Octessence entities like the Vishanti, Seraphim, Faltines, etc.) to draw on their power willy-nilly, but I don't feel like it makes as much narrative sense for those same figures to just be handing out power for free to any schmuck who invokes them. Some sort of agreement or quid-pro-quo seems more appropriate for someone *else* to be calling up the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak ('cause Cytorrak isn't in this for his health, you want to play, you gots to pay, and he's got specific things he might want you to do for him in the mortal world before he agrees to let you borrow some of his power from time to time...).
I feel like it would help highlight how special it is to be Sorcerer Supreme, and to get all these perks as part of the package of accepting responsibility for protecting the world from incursions from other realms, to show other magicians having to work harder to make agreements with Watoomb or whatever to earn the right to fly on his winds or blow people away with them.
And if those special pacts require characters to do questionable things for their extra-dimensional patrons with their centuries-long plots? There's your story, right there, built into the mechanics of the setting and it's magic.
Similarly, Dr. Strange generally taps into magic from the less nasty of the supernatural denizens of the Marvel Universe. I'd love for an evil magician to tap into some of the less pleasant powers, like D'Spayre, Mephisto, Nightmare, Dormammu, the Great Beasts (from Alpha Flight), Set, Chthon, Loki, etc. A spellcaster that *only* used spells based on Invoking the Great Beasts (Torches of Tolomaq to create fire, Corruption of Kariooq to rot matter or animate zombies, etc.) could be super-thematic, and tied neatly into the setting. Similarly, an evil magician who doesn't get freebie access to the Images of Ikonn, or feel like making a pact with Ikonn, because he's not a Sorcerer Supreme, might instead call upon a similar illusion-spell called 'The Lies of Loki,' which is great for mischief, but has it's own downside, in that it attracts the attention of that Trickster (who gladly let you call upon his power, but left the price unclear...).
Both standardizing magic, and also tying it into the wider Marvel Universe, IMO, would go a long way to making Dr. Strange cooler than ever (and seeing him written consistently, and not so much as the guy who can either do anything, or nothing, depending on the whims of the writer this week).