Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee Prince of Prestidigitators!
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko Lord of Legerdemain!
Lettered by: Art Simek Nabob of Necromancy!
10 pages
| Previous | #261 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #126 | Reading order | Strange Tales #127 |
| Strange Tales #126 | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #127 |
The last few issues of Dr. Strange have essentially been filler. Forgettable stories, with Ditko not even supplying his own finishes on the art. I begged your indulgence, promising they had something good in the works. They did. This is it.
Lee and Ditko’s work on Dr. Strange is recognized as one of the best runs of comic books ever. For the next 20 issues, we’ll see why.
Generally speaking, Ditko does the heavy lifting on this series. But, assuming all the narration is attributable to Stan, he does his share here with some evocative prose.
There is a world half-hidden between the real and the imaginary!
A world in which the impossible is believable, and the incredible is commonplace…
Dr. Strange enters the Realm of Darkness, ruled by the Dread Dormammu. Dormmamu is a powerful sorcerer the Ancient One himself had once fought and been unable to defeat. Now, Dormammu plans to expand his domain and conquer Earth. Only Dr. Strange can stop him.
We’ve seen some impressive illustrations of strange realms, such as Nightmare’s realm, but Ditko pulls out all the stops here.
While coloring across reprints varies wildly, it seems to have the largest effect in Dr. Strange stories. That guardian was originally red, for example. The coloring of Dormammu above (from Doctor Strange #3, 1974) is the accepted standard. Purple garments, orange face-like thing, yellow glow. But the original had a blue face with blue glow. It’s not clear what the original intent was though, as by the next issue, Dormammu’s face was yellow. Here is the original:
Dr. Strange confronts a being who seems to be growing and realizes his own spells of attack are responsible.
A mysterious woman from the Dark Realm takes an interest in Dr. Strange. We don’t learn her name, but I think she’ll be important.
Dr. Strange enters a 2-dimensional space that exists within the Dark Domain to face the Dwellers in the Darkness.
If I have one criticism of these stories, it’s the way the amulet is a cure-all. It seems to solve every problem, and yet Dr. Strange is often slow to think of it and impressed with himself when he does.
In some sense, this is all 10 pages of build-up. The actual battle with Dormammu will occur next issue. But oh what build-up. What an ending.
Dormammu insists Dr. Strange is beneath his notice and attempts to dismiss him, telling him to send his Master. Strange stands firm. “It is with me you shall deal!”
This issue gives new weight to the invocations we’ve been listing. To this point, they’ve seemed largely like random syllables. We got the sense that some of the words were the names of ancient sorcerers or demons or other powers. Now we actually meet one.
The Dread Dormammu has been invoked several times by Dr. Strange, Ancient One, and Baron Mordo. They have called upon power from him to allow them to perform their spells. Now, we actually get to meet Dormammu.
(Of course, sometimes they invoked the Dread Mormammu, but the Marvel Masterworks I am reading has changed all references to Mormammu to refer to Dormammu.)
Who knows what other names below might take on more concrete meaning over time. The only thing we’ve seen in any physical form is the Eye of Agamotto, perhaps an object once belonging to Agamotto; it is an earthly scanner that shows where on a globe there is magical danger.
This raises all kinds of questions. If Dormammu is an evil sorcerer bent on conquering Earth, why does he regularly empower Dr. Strange when invoked? Does he choose to? Is he compelled to?
Invocations:
- Ancient One calls upon the Shades of the Seraphim and the All-Seeing Agamotto
- Seven Rings of Raggadorr
- Dormammu traps servants who question him with Crimson Bands of Cyttorak
- Dr. Strange praises the Omnipotent Oshtur
- By the Twelve Moons of Munnipor
- By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth
- Light of the Vishanti
- Vapors of Valtorr
- Stan refers to the Dread Dormammu
The Crimson Bands have been referred to previously. Ancient One was trapped in the Crimson Circle of Cyttorak last issue. They may be different ways of referring to the same thing.
Dr. Strange claims Oshtur warned him of those who feed on spells.There’s no evidence Dr. Strange has met Oshtur, so presumably Strange is referring to Oshtur’s writings. We saw him studying those long-lost writings just last issue.
That is the third spelling of Munnipor we have seen. Presumably all are accepted transliterations of the true word.
This is Dr. Strange’s first use of the Vapors of Valtorr. We have seen them used twice previously by Baron Mordo.
Obviously, we’re not just going to leave this there. We’ll go ahead and open Strange Tales #127 straight away.
Unfortunately, Strange Tales #127 begins with a Human Torch story…
Rating: ★★★★½, 89/100
Significance: ★★★★★
I scanned reprint pages from Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #17 (1968) and Doctor Strange #3 (1974). We also take a couple images from the original found online to compare and contrast. I label the source of each image in the caption.
Doctor Strange #3 reprints an abridged version of the stories from this issue and the next along with a new framing sequence. Interestingly, the framing sequence is illustrated by Frank Brunner, whose letter to Spider-Man from 10 years earlier we just read.
Particular panels are deleted for space in Doctor Strange #3. For example, the entire battle against the Dwellers in the Darkness is removed. By the next issue, the edits make all the pages offset from each other, so the reprint won’t usable for our purposes.
As we’ve seen before, the Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics reprint commits the bizarre sin of making Dr. Strange’s blue cloak red. This would prove particularly egregious in the next issue.
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Dr. Strange vol. 1. You can also find it in Dr. Strange Epic Collection vol. 1: Master of the Mystic Arts. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Dr. Strange
- Ancient One
- Dormammu
- Girl from Dark Realm
Story notes:
- Takes place the very same evening as the previous issue.
- Reference to last issue’s battle with Mordo.
- Ancient One casts a powerful spell to transport Dr. Strange to his lair in Tibet.
- Dr. Strange sees the spirit form of a messenger of the Dread Dormammu.
- Dormammu is the most powerful of the dwellers in the Realm of Darkness.
- Dormammu threatens to leave his Dark Realm and enter the world of man.
- Ancient One had failed to defeat Dormammu at the height of his power and now is too old.
- Dr. Strange confronts a powerless midget who starts to grow; Dr. Strange realizes his spells are making the midget grow.
- Woman had heard her father speak of the Ancient One who battled Dormammu long ago.
- Dr. Strange is drawn into a 2-dimensional object to face the Dwellers Below. Worlds within worlds exist in this Dark Domain.
- Dr. Strange’s amulet overcomes the Dwellers in the Darkness.
- Dormammu banishes servants who fail him to Limbo.
| Previous | #261 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #126 | Reading order | Strange Tales #127 |
| Strange Tales #126 | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #127 |
