I’m a fan of Doctor Strange, the Master of the Mystic Arts, but I didn’t have THAT many of his comics when I was younger. I primarily read his adventures in the pages of The Defenders comics, mostly written in the 1970s by folks like Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, and Steve Gerber---but I read those issues over and over again. Little did I know that by the time Steve Gerber got his hands on the good Doctor, he’d already been around for ten years, and the TONE of his adventures had shifted significantly, as The Defenders, while dark, also had a humorous underbelly, which I really enjoyed. Doctor Strange, in the hands of his creators, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, made Strange Tales a VERY different book!
[This is a photograph that I took of the actual digital comic that I read. The image is included for review purposes only!]
Steve Ditko and Stan Lee – Doctor Strange – Marvel Masterworks Volume 1 (2016)
This huge book, with more than three HUNDRED pages of comics in it, collects the origin and earliest appearances of Doctor Strange, which primarily occurred in the pages of Strange Tales. The comics collected here were originally published between 1963 and 1966, and they were all drawn by Steve Ditko (including the one Spider-Man crossover, which is the only piece included that isn’t from Strange Tales.) The words are credited to Stan Lee, but Ditko receives a “plotting” credit, starting with issue #135.
Doctor Strange actually started as a “B” feature in the comic, first appearing in a five page backup tale, after the big story about Johnny Storm---the Human Torch from Fantastic Four. And when Strange is introduced, he is describes as the “Master of Black Magic!” The tone, throughout these issues, is very serious, very somber, and filled with mysticism and dread. Ditko and Lee borrow from Madame Blavatsky’s THEOSOPHICAL ideas. For instance, Strange learns his skills from a “hidden master” who lives in a remote temple in Tibet, just as Blavatsky claimed she did. Strange wins his battles against the powers of darkness through the strength of his WILL, and by calling on the names of various deities and magical entities, such as Agamotto and Hoggoth and even the Dread Dormammu, although this being (demon?) would later become one of Doctor Strange’s most powerful enemies!
As I mentioned above, the tone is serious, with almost zero joking or wisecracking (except in the Spider-Man story, which is the final tale included in this book.) Ditko was telling morality plays with these stories, and Lee tailored the words to the mood.
The ART for this book is excellent. Ditko’s explorations of other dimensions and magical and spiritual energy come across as almost psychedelic at times (as you can see in the cover image for this collection.) And, because the stories are abbreviated in length, he frequently used a nine panel per page format (three rows of three boxes) to cram as much action and drama into a single page as he could. In the first few issues, the tales are self-contained, but starting with issue #130, Ditko began a seventeen part epic adventure, a cat and mouse game in which Strange’s most dangerous foes, Baron Mordo and Dormammu, join forces, causing Doctor Strange to go on the run, looking for the secret of Eternity, so that he can gain enough power to defeat the deadly menace. It’s part spy-thriller, part dark fantasy, and part interdimensional sci-fi drama, and this multi-part tale helped to define Doctor Strange---his powers, his villains, his universe (which, let’s face it, is a world away from Spider-Man and Daredevil's New York escapades, even though the doctor supposedly lives in Greenwich Village!)
I read this collection through twice, and between the spooky tone and the mind-bending artwork, I can see why the character caught on, although, according to the intro in this collection, it was never a very big “hit,” like Spider-Man was. I wonder if some of that is because of the tone. This isn’t a funny book, not even unintentionally, like some of Kirby’s early Marvel tales were, which is a major contrast to Spider-Man's or the Thing’s stories, which have a smart-alec, jokester quality to them. Ditko wasn’t joking here. He seemed to be trying to seriously depict the life of a magic user---although I have no idea if he actually believed in magic or Theosophy. It is clear, though, that he took inspiration from the Theosophical / New Age / New Thought movements that were swirling around in the culture at the time.
With that said, I’m not sure that this is my favorite representation of Doctor Strange. I definitely prefer the tongue-in-cheek tone of The Defenders to Ditko’s deadpan, serious, spook stories, possibly because I have a hard time taking MAGIC seriously. (It’s fun for storytelling purposes, but I don’t actually believe in “hidden masters” or “evil demons” or any of that hokum.) I like my comics to be FUN, and while I think the storytelling is solid in these issues (solid for comic rules, not scientifically realistic), I like my magic to be a bit more madcap, like in The Defenders, where Steve Gerber, for no apparent reason, has a couple open their front door only to be shot down by “an elf with a gun!” What? Why? We’ll never know… It’s just absurd and weird and funny, though somewhat dark---and Doctor Strange never figured out why this happened, even though he was the leader of The Defenders when it occurred! Ditko and Lee, at least in these issues, where pushing a dark, mysterious, scary take on magic, and I respect that. As far as origins go, the character appears almost completely formed, too, as this version of Strange wouldn’t seem out of place in the ‘70s or ‘80s or today. He is a powerful magician with unique artifacts at hand which he uses, along with the strength of his will, to defend people from the powers of evil. And that’s damn good stuff! For the money (I think I paid ten or fifteen bucks for the digital version) you get a HUGE volume of comics with some of the coolest, moodiest, STRANGEst are ever published...
Okay… Now go read a damn book!
---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)
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