Doctor Strange: A Separate Reality

This is the third volume in the Epic Collection series of Doctor Strange comics and it kicks off with a character who was still in flux. For one thing, he’s wearing a full black hood/mask and underneath his cloak he’s sporting conventional superhero tights that show off his generic superhero musculature. Thank goodness they realized that look wasn’t working and went back to letting him wear his usual duds. This guy gets his kicks above the neckline, sunshine. And when you have perhaps the most recognizable face in the Marvel pantheon, why pull a bag over it?

There are three main story arcs here. The first is the longest, with the good doctor taking on a series of Lovecraftian demons with names like Dagoth, Sligguth the Abominable, N’Gabthoth the Shambler from the Sea, Ebora the Dark Priestess of Evil, and Kathulos of the Eternal Lives. All of these baddies are defeated on the way to a showdown with Shuma-Gorath. That climactic issue has the title “Finally, Shuma-Gorath!” as though even the writers were getting tired of all the build-up.

This first story arc ends with the Ancient One dying, or more properly becoming one with the universe, leaving Doctor Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme. The next story has him fighting a sorcerer from the future named Sise-Neg, who is traveling through time absorbing all the magic in history so that he can recreate the Big Bang and become God. This is obviously very serious stuff, or as Dr. S. puts it “The power of Sise-Neg is the greatest threat our reality has ever known!” Which is weird because I thought Shuma-Gorath was the greatest threat our reality had ever known. After a while the inflated rhetoric runs out of places to go.

Finally, the third storyline has a villain named Silver Dagger hunting down the Doctor and killing him with his eponymous weapon. Except our hero saves himself by diving into the Orb of Agamotto and facing off with Death. Then he comes back to our world and rescues his girlfriend Clea and puts Silver Dagger in his place.

I went through this breakdown only because it illustrates a point that I think it worth drawing attention to. The thing is, both Shuma-Gorath and Sise-Neg are awesomely powerful multidimensional entities who threaten the existence of the entire universe, or at the very least “our reality” (which contains the universe). The way Doctor Strange engages them in cosmic battle is certainly dramatic and colourful, but neither is very interesting as a villain. Silver Dagger, on the other hand, is a buff old guy dressed in a silly midriff-baring halter top and with a crazy backstory that had him narrowly missing being elected Pope and then digging into the occult section of the Vatican’s library so as to learn how to become a demon hunter. He’s a fundamentalist Catholic and not at all a standard bad guy so much as someone with a monomaniacal thing for using magic to destroy magicians wherever he finds them. He’s a man with a mission, and it’s a mission that’s far more relatable than destroying the universe or becoming God. He’s humanized even to the point where Clea falls asleep listening to him tell his origin story, and he’s taken off stage at one point because he has to go to the bathroom: “Now excuse me. Nature calls.” I can’t think of another time I’ve seen a superhero excuse himself like that, and it made me laugh.

But even Doctor S has his human side here, with a different part of his nature calling when he realizes he’s “neglected” Clea “both as a man and your mentor in the mystic arts.” She can take a hint, and when he offers to instruct her in the way of the Vishanti she tells him she’ll be happy if he tells her about it later. “And with the soft, dancing flames lighting her smile, there is no doubt of her meaning . . .” When next we see Clea she’ll be on the floor “still warmed by the afterglow of love,” happily telling her pet rabbit how her lover is “so much a man . . . so much.” That was pretty risqué for a comic at the time.

Even in the Silver Dagger storyline however the emphasis is on what the back cover here calls “eldritch horrors and psychedelic threats!” Our hero is always getting sucked into different dimensions where he may meet floating skulls or man-eating plants or even a hookah-smoking caterpillar. The art of the dream dimension is “a kaleidoscopic cosmos filled with shifting shapes and colors – beyond even the imaginings of a Freud – a Dali – a Kandinsky!” Those lines come in a full-page spread by Gene Colan, who kicks things off really overloading the reader with large-format artwork. I think he averages four panels per page and has a lot of full-page and even the occasional double-page illustrations. By the end of the volume though we’re into the run of Frank Brunner and a more detailed look. But with either artist the language mirrors the visuals. We hear of how the “awesome eruption of cabalistic conjurations emblazoned the night.” Of how “dire perils” and “frightful abysses of forgotten fears and chasms of primordial horrors gape wide to destroy our world!” Of how “arcane bolts of bedevilment – flaring garishly against the surrounding pitch – leap from rigid fingers!” Nothing is too over the top for the Sorcerer Supreme!

It all makes for a fun series of adventures, with the dread Dormmamu put on hold so that the Doctor can fight new faces of evil with helpful allies (it’s always fun to have Namor pop by for a cameo) and old stand-bys like the Eye of Agamotto, the Vapors of Valtorr, the Shield of the Seraphim, and the Crimson Crystals of Cyttorak. All of these Epic Collections are substantial volumes, running around 450 pages, but I was entertained throughout this one. Even being weird and strange can become stale after a while, but by mixing up writers and artists and looking to grow the Doctor Strange universe with new characters they did a great job in these early days keeping things fresh and creative.

Graphicalex