Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: April 9, 1963
Cover: July 1963
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
5 pages
The cover focuses on the epic battle between Human Torch and the team of Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete. It makes no mention of any backup stories, not the space adventure that follows it, nor this story shoved into the back.
It’s only 5 pages long. Just like the sci/fi tale that preceded it. A story of a bad man with a problem who encounters some mystical force and gets his comeuppance– recall for example the stories we’ve read with Odin, Merlin, or Medusa.
It seems like not really one of our superhero stories; it’s just like these weird tales that have populated these anthologies for years, and have continued to populate the end of these anthologies which all now begin with a superhero story.
Now, one of those weird tales did grow into something more in the superhero era. The Man in the Ant Hill used his shrinking formula again–now with a costume and a superhero name–to become Ant-Man.
There is one thing differentiates this story about a mystic from other weird tales. A small note at the end that tells us this character will return.
Seems fitting. After all, the comic is Strange Tales. What is so strange about Human Torch stories? Dr. Strange, Master of Black Magic, seems a much more natural fit to headline such a comic.
Some argue that Dr. Strange is not a superhero, that he comes from a different archetype, an older one. The wizard; or the mage. But Stan Lee describes him as a “super-hero” right there on page 1. So that’s good enough for me to call the character a superhero.
Dr. Strange is the creation of Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, but really probably almost entirely Steve Ditko. Let’s see what we’ve got in his inaugural appearance.
Cool gloves. Mustache. Amulet. A cool design on the door window. Astral projection. Some unfortunate Asian stereotypes. The evil Nightmare from the dimension of dreams.
The cool window design is likely inspired by Will Eisner, often recognized as the godfather of American comics. He used a similar design in the pages of the Spirit. You can see my friend Brian Cronin discuss the window here.
The recent Dr. Strange movie does justice to both the window and astral projection, but it makes no serious attempt to capture the madness that is those gloves.
Kurt Busiek recently wrote an argument that Steve Ditko intended Dr. Strange to be Asian in this story, and that the decision that he was a white man would come soon after, when they decided he could be a star. I won’t weigh in on the debate; I’ll just note the theory is out there.
Dr. Strange lives in Greenwich Village in New York. We just learned Ant-Man and Thor both live in New York, despite some prior evidence to the contrary. We’re about to learn that Iron Man’s main factory is in Long Island (though he’s something of a world traveler), so most of our heroes live pretty close together.
Since Steve Ditko is behind these Dr. Strange stories and his Spider-Man stories are the best stories of this era, it should be no surprise that these Dr. Strange stories will turn out to be the second-best stories of the era.
Rating: ★★★★☆, 76/100
Characters:
- Dr. Strange
- The Master
- Nightmare
- Dr. Strange’s servant
- Nightmare’s horse
Story notes:
- Dr. Strange lives in Greenwich Village in New York.
- Metaphysical spirit able to leave physical body.
- Master’s temple alongside a mountain in a remote part of Asia.
- Evil in man’s dreams mentions Mr. Crang, who he had robbed.
- Dr. Strange describes Nighmare as ancient foe.
- The Master described as ancient.
- The Master awakens the power of Dr. Strange’s amulet; its eye opens and unleashes a hypnotic ray.
#78 story in reading order
Next: Journey Into Mystery #94
Previous: Strange Tales #110
