Product Description: Stephen Strange is Doctor Strange. But he is no doctor, and least not the kind that would initially come to mind. He is the Master of the Mystic Arts, a sorcerer supreme, a white knight who wields black magic against blacker villains still. Strange is mankind's only hope against the dark otherworldly forces that conspire to destroy the conscious world - forces such as Baron Mordo, the Dread Dormammu, Nightmare, Aggamon, The House of Shadows, Loki, the Mindless Ones and more. Collected here in glorious black and white is the run of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's amazing run of Strange Tales #110, 111, & 114-168 - Strange's first and greatest adventures.
Something you have to have Lived through to understand! a different tack on an excellent TPB like this volume: those of us back in the late 60s who actually read these stories when they originally came out, those of us, who had to actually wait an entire month to read the next installment, can attest to just how exciting the enormously long continuous story plot was, where Dormammu was using Mordo as a tool to hunt down Dr. Strange. With everything stacked against him, Strange somehow managed to elude these forces again and again, and barely, until finally, he has a face to face showdown and throwdown with Dormammu himself.
For the people reading these now, where you can just go from one story to the next without the interminable wait, it is still great to read, but again, when we had to count down the days for not only this series but all of the many wonderful silver age Marvel series each month, it was downright torture!
So these TPBs are something to really be appreciated..
Don't be a Mindless One! Meditate on this tome! Plenty has been said about the good Doctor, and I only have a bit to add myself. He's a fun part of the Marvel 60's scene and his books are worth reading just for that reason alone. There was a freshness and sense of inovation to Marvel's yarns from that era that you just can't find anywhere else. These books are a little like taking a vacation to a different time. But Dr. Strange is also an interesting character. Some of my friends have compared him to the Green Arrow, saying that he solves his problems with a convenient spell rather than a wacky trick arrow. Sometimes that's true, and for much the same reason. Strange's early stories were not very long and sometimes a quick resolution was necessary. bu that's for the individual story,sometimes. If you read them together, even over time, you get a better picture of the stories. They are almost operatic in scale, definitley every issue is part of an unfolding epic. It was uncommon back then for story arcs to stretch out over many issues, bu that's what Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did with Dr. Strange. He is locked in deadly battle with arch-nemisis Baron Mordo(often the catspaw of the Dread Dormammu)for quite a few issues. He battles Dormammu's more lethal sister, Umar as the Earth trembles,and loses the love of his life, the fair Clea. Strange watches as power mad Dormammu later defies Eternity, the Embodiment of All Existence. Stepehn Strange even finds himself desperately spell-casting against the Living Tribunal. The stories all have a sweeping scope to them, and in some ways Dr. Strange seems like a more mystical version of the Silver Surfer. Philosophical, deep, brooding characters, one is wed to science and one to sorcery. But there are small moments too. We see Strange care for the ailing Ancient One, long for the lovely Clea , rejoice in simply walking down a New York street after absent from our dimesion for too long and barbecuing pork chops(for Doc),Soy Kabobs(Wong) and kitty hearts(Dormmamu) on the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum, in their bathrobes.(Just kidding on the last one. But seriously, what kind of flavor do you think the Flames of the Faltine would bring to chicken and ribs?) He was also more than just a simple spell slinger. Strange was forced to fight many a vastly more powerful foe in defending our Earth and he defeated them with skill and resourcefulness, or in other words, by thinking out of the box. You're not going to defeat The Living Tribunal by playinig HIS game, let alone Dormammu. Or as Eternity once told Strange "Power is not always the answer. Events have transpired to which wisdom is the key." This and Strange's unflagging spirit were a good lesson for kids. And his training with the Ancient One including Martial Arts training, something many people forget. It helped to tune up the ol' Mind-Spirit-Body connection. He surprises opponents with a swift kick in the butt more than once. This book covers all Dr. Stephen Strange's early adventures. The writing is florid and melodramatic, Stan Lee at full force. Ditko's art is fantastic and some peple feel that it is best enjoyed in black and white. While I can certainly appreciate the work of a genius like Ditko in B&W, I feel that the art looks best colored. The color just adds extra texture to the bizarre, alien and mystic landscapes. Ditko drew it for color and that's probably the best way to see it. But these Masterworks can be expensive and eager readers like myself want to dig in and see what the doc was cooking as soon as possible. So check this book out and if you like it later you can upgrade to Full Color.
Black & white reprints of classic four-color comics...? I honestly don't get the appeal of these books. Why bother making (or reading) black & white reprints of classic four-color comics...? I mean, yeah, the stories are still great and the original comics are hard to find, but a huge part of what made these comics great was the eye-popping artwork, including the bright primary colors: reading them in dull B&W is just plain wrong. Sure, the printing costs are lower, so you can get more pages for your money, but it's more pages of boring, not more pages of fun. It's really a travesty.
This is particularly true of the first Doctor Strange stories, which had utterly fabulous artwork: you *think* you're reading the stories in this format, but you're really not. Not by a longshot.
On the other hand, it recently occurred to me that these could be used as coloring books... Maybe you could buy a box of crayons to go along with all the artwork that the publishers ruined in this format. (Axton)
Average doctor strange The storys are a little bland and forgetable, but there is some entertainment to be had. The drawings of magic, espiecaly in the begining are linear and flat, but it picks up a little bit later and can be entertaing. It isnt great, but is still readable, and can be enjoyed.
Doesn't read as well when reprinted out of context Chances are, you already realize that there are sacrifices involved with reading Essential editions. Lack of color and the absence of letter columns and bullpen editorials are the kinds of things you're no doubt willing to trade for an inexpensive reprint volume. However, having read this entire run in its original form, I can tell you that something far bigger has been lost in this particular translation to the trade paperback format. In most cases with Marvel Essentials, it makes no difference where the original stories came from. However, when it comes to the early Doctor Strange stories, you absolutely cannot ignore their original context.
When Doctor Strange first began as a backup feature in Strange Tales, the title was utterly direction-less. The Human Torch, which had recently become the magazine's primary feature, had little to do with either the magazine's title or Doctor Strange. They were two seemingly unrelated features thrown together into one arbitrary magazine, and reading the two, back to back each month, was jarring. They had entirely unrelated moods, themes, concepts, and characterizations. Looking at Doctor Strange's first twenty four appearances, all paired with The Human Torch, the original context of the magazine seems entirely irrelevant and unimportant for this reprint edition.
However, a fundamental shift occurred with Strange Tales #135. Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. replaced the Human Torch as the magazine's primary feature. At first glance, this ongoing feature seemed just as jarring and unrelated to Doctor Strange as its predecessor, but there was a subtle genius at play with the pairing of these two features. To begin with, both features explored the opposite ends of the spectrum of "Strange Tales." Doctor Strange dealt with strange tales of the dark occult while S.H.I.E.L.D. dealt with the strange tales of bright science fiction adventure. The living embodiment of Eternity regulating the use of magic in the cosmos and a super secret department of psychics listening in on the world for signs of danger -- both concepts landed firmly in the realms of the "strange," but in entirely different ways, and both were mere samples of the strangeness contained within the worlds of Nick Fury and Stephen Strange.
More importantly, though, the two titles truly worked with and supported one another. Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a bright feature about unmitigated success. It was never a question of whether Fury and the crew would win the day, but more an issue of the level of excitement and flare they would bring to the fight. Fury always came out on top, aided with his indomitable will, his teammates' unwavering loyalty, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s unlimited imagination and resources.
Doctor Strange, in contrast, was a dark feature about persistent loss and humility. Strange was a mere mortal dabbling with cosmic entities he could barely comprehend while his aged and deteriorating mentor was often too weak to be anything more than a liability. At best, the good doctor could only hope to stave off an inter-dimensional warlord for a short time or trade one cosmic threat for another. There were few true victories, instead leaving our hero to struggle for the luck and will to endure, keeping the Earth safe for another day.
This was dark, bold material for comics of the late 1960s, and as fresh and dramatically rich as it was, it was difficult to stomach on its own, just as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s bright and shiny victories began to feel flat and simplistic when read by themselves. However, when read together, the two features balanced each other out immensely, offering relief from one another and also enhancing each other in contrast. Doctor Strange felt darker and more powerful in contrast to the simplicity of S.H.I.E.L.D., which felt more wondrous and generously optimistic in contrast to the downbeat humility of Doctor Strange. I don't believe this was an accident either. Stan Lee was writing and co-plotting both features at the time, and even had the first major story arc for both features run concurrently, both culminating in issue #141. Clearly, he was attempting to create a relationship between the two features on some level, and I think that relationship was a source of great strength for both features. To read the Doctor Strange issues alone, without the contrast that the S.H.I.E.L.D. installments offered, weakens the impact of the title and even goes so far as to make it feel tedious after a while.
So, when it comes to the middle early Doctor Strange stories contained in this volume, context plays an incredibly important role. Without that, you're losing more than you may have bargained for. I'll go on record as saying that I think the loss of color is particularly tragic for the stunningly complex landscapes Ditko paints in this volume as well. This is not a bad place to go for the first twenty or so Doctor Strange stories, which I consider largely dull and unimpressive anyway (with the exception of Dormammu's entrance), but the later Tales of Suspense stories, beginning amidst the amazing eleven-part Mordo/Dormammu epic, really need to be seen in their original context, and those vintage issues are still available CHEAP on ebay and at local comic conventions. If you're up for it, track down vintage copies of Strange Tales #135 to #168. It's well worth the $5 to $10 you'll pay per issue. Sadly, those early Lee/Kirby Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. stories have not been reprinted, so this is the only place to go for that original context.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
