Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange, Vol. 1

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Summary: Introducing Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts
Review: When I first started reading Doctor Strange the Master of the Mystic Arts had his own comic book and had stopped sharing "Strange Tales" with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., at which point he was being drawn by Gene Colan one of my favorite artists. By that point in the history of the Marvel Universe the original Doctor Strange artist, Steve Ditko, was working for Charlton Comics, which was below even Archie Comics on the comic book scale as far as my friends and I were concerned. Having already formed a negative opinion of Ditko's artwork it was rather strange, for lack of a better word, to see Ditko was the original artist on Spider-Man when I went back to the pre-John Romita (Sr.) days. But for years I continued to totally dismiss Ditko's art and writer Stan Lee's bombastic prose on "Doctor Strange." But now I am rethinking my position.

When Marvel put out its "Essential" volumes of the first several years of "The Amazing Spider-Man," reproducing the comics in black & white, I noticed that Steve Ditko was a master of composition. When Jim Steranko was doing the art for the "Nick Fury" half of "Strange Tales" he was the hottest comic artist on the planet, but his exotic artwork did not show the complete command of composition exhibited by Ditko. His best work was "Spider-Man," but with "Doctor Strange" there was an added dimension to his drawings as he had to create visual representations for the spells that Strange and his enemies were hurling back and forth at each other.

Volume 1 of "Doctor Strange" in the Marvel Masterworks series collects the Master of the Mystic Art's half of issues #110, #111, and #114-142 of "Strange Tales." In fact, when Dr. Strange was first introduced by Lee and Ditko he was a "Master of Black Magic." In his first adventure (#110) he enters a man's dream and combats his ancient foe Nightmare. His next pair of battles are both against the magic of Baron Mordo and it is not until his fourth appearance (#115) that we finally get to "The Origin of Dr. Strange." Once upon a time Dr. Stephen Strange was a brilliant surgeon who suffered nerve damage to his hands after an auto accident. Told he would never be able to perform an operation again, the desperate Strange travels to a remote mountain top in India in search of the legendary Ancient One. Convinced that there are more important things to do in this world than make money off of surgery, Strange becomes a disciple of the Ancient One and begins to learn the long-dead mystic arts.

In the beginning Dr. Strange was sharing "Strange Tales" with the Human Torch, and it was not until issue #121 that he finally got the bottom third of the cover. The rest of the Marvel Universe rarely intruded on Dr. Strange's world, although there was a fight against Loki (#123) from "The Mighty Thor." Baron Mordo and Nightmare were recurring villains, and while the Dread Dormammu was usually invoked by Mordo at just about every opportunity, Strange did not have his first fight with his greatest foe until issue #126. Dormammu was one of the coolest Marvel villains, dressed up in his funky costume while his face is basically living flame. Once he appears he starts popping up a lot, along with Clea, a young woman of Dormammu's alien dimension who risks here life to help the noble strange who dares to challenge the powerful being.

Strange uses his amulet to help Dormammu defend his dimension from the Mindless Ones, which puts the dread one (temporarily) in Strange's debt (#127). As a result Strange gets a new cape and a more wondrous amulet from the Ancient One, which makes the comic seem a bit like a computer game where you get neat new powers as you ascend levels. With the almost constant battles between Dr. Strange and either Dormammu or Mordo (or both) things get a bit repetitious and redundant, but sometimes someone new shows up, such as Eternity (#138). Still, it is clear that Doctor Strange was a second-class citizen in the Marvel Universe, even though he had a great house in Greenwich Village and his faithful servant, Wong. It could be that Lee was laying on the weird names in the mystic spells a bit much or that Ditko's drawing of magic was a tad hokey. Or it could be that he was just so insulated from the rest of the Marvel superheroes during this period. Whatever the reason, what we have here is good, but not great. However, the character does get there for a while down the mystic road, around what should be Volume 3 in this series.