Master of the Mystic Arts: Doctor Strange Appreciation

[Tulku]

Strange skipping October, coming back with a new team November



Writer Donny Cates and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta with Jordie Bellaire and Mike Del Mundo with Covers

Is anybody else really really thrilled at the thought that the One True Cloak of Levitation is coming back??? Aaron did a lot of stupid things, but getting rid of the Cloak may have been the worst.

[Frontier]

I'm looking at the latest solicits "Dr. Strange de-powered for the umpteenth time" and the premise of the new arc "Strange replaced as Sorcerer Supreme yet again," and I just have to sigh

[Strangefan]

Agreed, Frontier. Isn't this comic titled "Doctor Strange?" Why don't they just make a Sorcerer Supreme comic? Because they want to ride off the lineage of Strange, that is why. No one wants to write him, they just want to kick him in the butt, and have someone else look good, and then hand it off again. I can see it because his power has been low forever thanks to previous writers of Not-Strange. What I don't get is people who don't practice interdimensional magic keep taking his place. It isn't just power, it is kind of power. You need to protect the dimension from outer-dimensional baddies. So freaking sick of this. Might have to start actually giving up on Strange, and stick with the movies, and that is something I have not said for 40 freaking years. Thanks Marvel, for finally destroying my hope that someone will write Strange as other than weak or arrogant. If I knew it was an arc to put Strange back in power, sure, but we've had the good Doctor wallowing in muck and mire for 2 years at the point he takes over, and you know they have to just scrub his face in disappointment for months after that. I think I've given Marvel enough of my money.

[Indian Ink]

Is anybody else really really thrilled at the thought that the One True Cloak of Levitation is coming back??? Aaron did a lot of stupid things, but getting rid of the Cloak may have been the worst.

We can hope!! But it's just a cover, and covers can lie.

[Indian Ink]

I'm looking at the latest solicits "Dr. Strange de-powered for the umpteenth time" and the premise of the new arc "Strange replaced as Sorcerer Supreme yet again," and I just have to sigh

Isn't Strange already part de-powered? As it is he's little more than a lower level hedge witch; it's a wonder he can be Sorcerer Supreme as it presently stands. It does seem as though he's become the new Daredevil though. They keep knocking him down as soon as he starts getting up. Can't they play a new record, it's gotten very tiresome.

[Techno_Knight]

Strange suffers from the same thing as Stark. Nobody cares about revitalizing B/C-Listers, because it's too much work. They can't be bothered to bring back Rintrah & Silver Dagger, or rework the Controller & Doctor Midas. They also can't be arsed to write compelling stories with high stakes, so all we get are the same plots over and over. Strange gets depowered, loses the title, regains it, and back at it again. Stark becomes a snarky dude, does snarky things, faces a technobabble villain, loses his company, defeats the villain, and goes back to being a snarky duded. And that's true for lots of other characters as well.

That aside, at least this is going to be more magic themed than Aaron's "I take jobs with mythological/magical characters and I spend my whole run lecturing why they're baaaaaaa" stories. Plus, it does answer an important question: If Sorcer Supreme is the title given to the best Sorcerer in the Universe, with the task being to protect the Universe, how come they were all mostly humans? Unless it's been scaled back to "Magical Protector of the Earth". But still, Loki as the Sorcerer Supreme does pique my interest.

[Frontier]

Strange suffers from the same thing as Stark. Nobody cares about revitalizing B/C-Listers, because it's too much work. They can't be bothered to bring back Rintrah & Silver Dagger, or rework the Controller & Doctor Midas. They also can't be arsed to write compelling stories with high stakes, so all we get are the same plots over and over. Strange gets depowered, loses the title, regains it, and back at it again. Stark becomes a snarky dude, does snarky things, faces a technobabble villain, loses his company, defeats the villain, and goes back to being a snarky duded. And that's true for lots of other characters as well.

That aside, at least this is going to be more magic themed than Aaron's "I take jobs with mythological/magical characters and I spend my whole run lecturing why they're baaaaaaa" stories. Plus, it does answer an important question: If Sorcer Supreme is the title given to the best Sorcerer in the Universe, with the task being to protect the Universe, how come they were all mostly humans? Unless it's been scaled back to "Magical Protector of the Earth". But still, Loki as the Sorcerer Supreme does pique my interest.

Strange had to compete with a bunch of other sorcerers to finally become Sorcerer Supreme (Roger Stern's Triump and Torment) now it just seems like the mantle passes to whatever able-bodied sorcerer is around at the time.

[Morsoth]

The good thing is the re-numbering of titles. I think it's nice to get a Doctor Strange #381!

Question: Have they confirmed if Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme ends with #12? I'm a little concerned because I only collects the HC or TPB, and volume one of Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme collects #1-5, while Volume 2 collects #6-10 (based on Amazon.com listing). Should it be wise for me to pick up individual issues of #11-12?

EDIT: Okay! Based on Newsarama, the volume 2 will be "Collecting DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE SORCERERS SUPREME #7-12".

==============================================

Some more explanation about Doctor Strange #381:

In the wake of Marvel Legacy, the company is pulling out all the stops in an effort to ensure that their titles are at the top of there game. To this end, the studio plans to introduce a new creative team to the Doctor Strange series in November.

The team will consist of Donny Cates (God Country) as writer, and Gabriel Hernandez Walta as artist with Jordie Bellaire as the colorist. Walta and Bellaire are known for providing the art for the highly recommended series, The Vision.

The journey the team is planning to take Doctor Strange on will have him facing off with Thor’s mischievous brother Loki. Loki has stolen the Doctor’s title of being Sorcerer Supreme and it will be up to Stephen to find a way to get it back. Cates has insisted the story will have twists and turns to it which even the most dedicated of fan will not see coming. Fans will have to wait until November to see if this claim rings true.

Source: http://www.monkeysfightingrobots.com...r-strange-381/

[Tulku]

I'm looking at the latest solicits "Dr. Strange de-powered for the umpteenth time" and the premise of the new arc "Strange replaced as Sorcerer Supreme yet again," and I just have to sigh

Dear God, yes. I don't curse normally in real life, but then I looked at the October solicits:

DOCTOR STRANGE #26
JOHN BARBER (W) • NIKO HENRICHON (A)
Cover by JAKUB REBELKA
Doctor Strange and Zelma make what may well be their last house-call!
• An evil unlike any you’ve seen puts Strange in his toughest spot yet, stripping him of his magic, leaving him only with his crippled fists to defend himself.

It set off a profanity-laced tirade that went something like this: " Oh, for [bleep]'s sake! Another [bleep]ing power loss story. While we are still recovering from the last [bleep]ing power loss story. Which re-launched a comic whose last title ended with a [bleep]ing power [bleep]ing loss story. For [bleep]'s sake, [bleep]ing Marvel, what is the [bleep]ing deal with the [bleep]ing REPEATED [bleep]ing power [bleep]ing loss concept? WE DON'T WANT [BLEEP]ING POWER LOSS STORIES!!!! We want Doctor Strange! Get with the [bleep]ing program you [bleep]ing morons!

[Morsoth]

Yeah, absolutely right! I'm currently reading the trade paperbacks/HC in chronological order, and I'm now into the new Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme Omnibus (1988-1992) a weird era for Strange, but at least, he was the sorcerer supreme. I wish the writters could write new stories dealing with dark creatures or unknown dimensions, like a Lovecraftian story arc or anything dealing with cosmic-horror entities instead of playing the "de-powering and out-of-shape" game. The success of the movie certainly gained more readers for Doctor Strange (I'm one of them) and I wish they could go back to the source material -- to what is really Doctor Strange. If Marvel keeps doing stories which puts Stephen Strange "out-of-character", newcomers wanting something similar to the movie (or the old Strange stories) will leaves the ship pretty quickly.

[Tulku]

I quite agree, Morsoth. Sometimes it seems that Marvel's writers absolutely refuse to follow-up on its movie success. The movie Thor is popular, so what do the writers do? Get rid of him and put Jane in the role. The movie Iron Man has quite a following. What do the writers do? Make him an AI and put a young woman in the suit. The movie Doctor Strange is popular, so naturally Marvel's writers absolutely refuse to write him anything like his movie characterization.

Marvel Comics wastes all the good will that Marvel Movies makes for them. They are idiots.

One of my favorite bits from the movie is when Strange is expressing remorse of having killed his assailant. Mordo explains "this is war" and death is needed. Doc, angrily, snarls "You lack imagination!" The same could be said for the current crop of Marvel writers. They lack imagination. Yeah, on the surface, I get the idea that a fully empowered Sorcerer Supreme seems unbeatable, so weaken him for drama. But that is just a lack of imagination. As you have outlined, there are lots of other avenues to follow that would allow Strange to be Sorcerer Supreme yet have dramatic struggle. Being the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth doesn't mean that you can't be beaten by somebody not of this Earth.

[matt levin]

See, this's what I call the 'Jean Gray syndrome'. I was around and reading X-men when the Phoenix first appeared. I'd been reading X-men a while, the Claremont/Byrne run was genuinely an exciting new series. And then, they blew her up. And for all the foo-fah-rah and ret-con noise, it read to me, and actually, still reads to me, like this:

they created a character so powerful, they didn't know what to do with her, (or perhaps didn't dare do what they could've) and so, they destroyed her. She died, in my opinion, because her real weakness lay in her writers. Thus, Stephen Strange.

To have Dr. Strange BE Sorcerer Supreme, his writers have to be able to deal with a being so powerful ordinary super-powers (y'know, just to coin an oxymoron) don't even blip his radar: his position is to defend against situations far beyond the ordinary. And, honestly, that is hard to write, month after month. So if it's not in the cards that Stephen blow himself up over-extending his mystic might, his writers de-power him, to bring him, as happens, back down to their level.

Past "Dr. Strange" series have demonstrated that the right writer, the writer who cares who Stephen Strange is, as man and Sorcerer Supreme, and who can think well-beyond 'the ordinary' can create awe-inspiring stories. So far this past decade or more, for me at least, the right writer has long been missing.

[Strangefan]

The amazing thing is that they keep depowering Strange, but never "repower" him. He makes do with dregs, so why does Loki, who is also part of this magic deprived universe get to have power? Because it is convenient. There was a long period of time that Strange was written with power, but there was still tension and drama. Is that really so hard to do anymore? Does everything have to be tentacles and barfing? Do they really think so little of readers? Also, why has this character, that has always been about his intelligence, who figured ways around his much more powerful enemies, become nothing more than the guy who wears the Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto, and without them he is nothing. I just wish the writers would be honest, and say, "I don't want to build on what has come before, or deal with fall out from other writers, I just want to tell my story, using my puppet Doctor Strange, but in reality I just want to give Loki something to do. In the end, the last issue before I leave I will give it back to Strange, but not give him anytime to enjoy his return to being Sorcerer Supreme, because it isn't about this character, it is about me pretending to write something new so I can get a paycheck. Bye." Rinse, repeat.

Someone call Squirrel Girl, have her beat the holy crap out of Loki and end this storyline before it begins, because it is the only one Marvel has given us for years. Time for something new, please.

[PaxHouse]

I hope the readers had a chance to enjoyed Dr. Strange unique moment during SECRET EMPIRE #8.

.......I know that it appears weird at first; but it's an interesting reminder that there's always a cost when it comes to magic/the mystical arts.

[Morsoth]

A new trailer has been released yesterday for Thor: Ragnarok, and it features the scene with Doctor Strange: