Dr. Strange - classic or dud

In fact I'm pretty sure the Ditko issues are good. People who know what a good comic is say that they are. But I haven't read them. I think quite quickly though he became nearly impossible to write: magic characters often are, because.

i) essentially, Marvel comics are about fites.

ii) fites are exciting because you have some idea about what at least one of the protagonists is capable of.

iii) fites get rubbish if the writers are able to invent new powers on a whim.

iv) magic without a 'magic system' is entirely about inventing new powers on a whim.

v) Dr Strange in no way has a 'magic system'

vi) --> he and his enemies BOTH can do pretty much anything the writer needs them to do

vii) --> rubbish fites

viii) --> duff comics.

That said, Doc Strange was pretty damn funny in Ennis's Thor: Zombie-Vikings!!! miniseries (okay, it was actually just called Thor: Vikings, but that's what the title should've been).

Most modern incarnations of the good Doctor have indeed been dodgy, however.

I always liked him as a guest-star too, hinting at his unimaginable power and the awareness that he must have seen and experienced things that would make most Marvel Heroes poo their pants.

The little pieces of his continuity that woud occasionally dribble out in Defenders or guest-spots in Spidey or Hulk always intrigued me, too. Never enough to actually buy an issue of Dr Strange, though, obviously.

Remember in the bad old Image days when he went all "dark" and had a stupid Dr Fate style hood for a while?

Still, something about him is just damn cool. He's called Doctor Strange, for gods sake...

[1] The New Universe's Justice sometimes seemed like a crazy remix of Dr Strange to me. Instead of a surgeon who's lost the use of his hands and turns to irrationalism, he's basically a cop who's lost the ability and desire to serve and protect and abandons the system (which defines cophood as much as rationality defines doctorhood) altogether; instead of having a thousand different ways of attacking and defending himself with those crazy Ditko visuals, he has magic fire coming from one hand and a magic shield coming from the other. Just the basics.

The Jackson Guice issues (from his last regular series) looked pretty good, though.

Who wants to talk about _Secret Defenders_!?!?!

- dr strange, meditating or having a psychic work-out, notices something weird
- flies over in spirit form to check it out
- fights something (or mordo) with spells or amulet
- goes home

and some of those hippies thought Ditko was down with hippie ethos. But then they saw that he NO LIKEY those damn dirty hippies (as per how Dove was portrayed as a pussy, and how they were portrayed in his other late '60s stuff). and then there was all the Ayn Rand stuff in the Question and Mr. A.

The Englehart issues in the ESSENTIALS v. 2 are pretty good, too. Even though it starts out as hamhanded Marvel comics tries to do Dr. Strange vs. Cthulhu (totally missing the point in the process.)

Doctor Strange, a "Marvel animated feature", popped into my netflx recommendation thing today:

Marvel Comics superhero and sorcerer supreme Dr. Stephen Strange protects the world from supernatural threats in this fast-paced animated actioner. Seeking to heal from a tragic past, Dr. Strange makes a life-altering journey to Tibet, where he meets and learns from the enigmatic Ancient One. As he begins to recover, he gains mystical powers and soon embarks on his mission of protecting humanity and saving the planet from destruction.

?

I remember some of the 80s Dr. Strange being pretty good maybe with Roger Stern writing the book. I think Mike Mignola got his start at Marvel on Dr. Strange and Cloak & Dagger.

I saw this dvd at the great satan (W*l M*rt) today...

I'm surprised the Peter B Gillis Strange wasn't mentioned, as that was probably the best the character was in the eighties - in fact there's a definite argument that the holy trinity of Dr Strange is Ditko, Englehart and Peter B Gillis. (Roger Stern turned in an excellent job as well.)

Yeah, I'd say the Stern/Dan Green run may be my favorite.