Stephen Strange is a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon who only cares about wealth from his career. However, a car accident damages his hands, shattering the bones. The damage effectively ends his ability to conduct surgery, since his hands now tremble uncontrollably. Too proud to take on a teaching job, Strange desperately begins to search for a way to restore his hands, consulting various doctors, homeopathic treatments and traveling around the world to remote regions for exotic cures, all to no avail
After he exhausts his funds, he becomes homeless, forcing him to perform "back alley" medical procedures for cash. Depressed and still searching, Strange locates a hermit called the Ancient One (who is actually the Earth's Sorcerer Supreme) in the Himalayas. The Ancient One refuses to help Strange because of his selfishness, but senses a good side that he attempts to bring to the surface. He fails, but Strange's goodness appears when he discovers the Ancient One's disciple, Baron Mordo, attempting to kill the old man. After Strange thwarts Mordo's plans (and becomes Mordo's most enduring enemy)] the Ancient One teaches him the mystic arts. After completing his training, Strange returns to New York and takes up residence within the Sanctum Sanctorum, a townhouse located in Greenwich Village which is guarded by Strange's personal servant Wong.
As the Ancient One's disciple, Strange encounters the entity Nightmare,[and other mystical foes before meeting Dormammu, a warlord from an alternate dimension called the "Dark Dimension". Strange is aided by a nameless girl, later called Clea, who is eventually revealed to be Dormammu's niece.[48] When Strange helps a weakened Dormammu drive off the rampaging Mindless Ones and return them to their prison, he is allowed to leave unchallenged.
The lame villains of Dr, Strange
But this brought up crazy issues. Is a Super Sorcerer a Super Hero? Doesn't the use of magic make him inherently evil. I believe that Doc fell pray to bad public perception and some writing that was both simplistic and in a stranglehold due to the comics code.
The Silver age of comics was plagued by writers who believed in absolute good and absolute evil. Dr. Strange spent plenty of times fighting inter dimensional dictators, beings meant to be Satan, but not allowed to carry the name, dream demons, and the occasional Human who dabbled in the dark arts.
But most of the bad guys turned out lame, and it always ended in a basic super hero formula ending, fans turned away from the book, most screaming for either more intellectual content or super heroics. We were tired of the fence sitting.
Eventually the superheroes won. They even gave old Doc a mask to hide his secret identity,
This era did not last long. Doctor Strange turned to his magical world of mediocrity and as the fans grew up, they prayed for the day when he would be Marvel's version oh Hellblazer.
I was elated for thirty secondscwhen chic book bard, Roy Thomas, took over the series. He wrote some very cool stories, and then left the book.
I felt cheated and betrayed. I wanted a story that was as good a the potential of the character, and I was always left with disaster and disappointment.
It's not that there is sufficient legend or plot threads or backstory, it is the basic unwillingness of someone to take the character beyond the genre, to make him more man than Super. To make him a real Master of the Mystic Arts, a True Sorceror Supreme.
Marvel has always claimed that their comic book world was more real with more real consequences, stories, and characters. Know you need to leave room for the fantastic and the cosmic, but isn't some kid unwittingly creating an army of the undead more dangerous than some Demi-God trying to conquer a dimension that has little bearing on the one that real people live in? I dunno, you be the judge
Maybe someday, I'll get the Dr. Strange I want. The one who has decent villains, decent stories, and is still part arrogant neuro-surgeon Bacardi.
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