Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: August 10, 1965
Cover: November 1965
12 cents
Written and edited by incredible: Stan Lee
Plotted and illustrated by invincible: Steve Ditko
Lettered and bordered by indelible: Sam Rosen
10 pages
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I am Eternity!
This is part 9 of a 17-part saga. We’re halfway there. This midpoint issue is also the turning point issue. Dr. Strange has spent most of the saga on the run, and then on the run while also searching for Eternity.
The reason this saga is one of my favorite Marvel stories largely comes down to this being one of my favorite Marvel comics. And that mostly comes down to two great pages. Let’s give them some attention.
Start with page 2.
Ditko’s been doing things like this for a while, creating these crazy and impossible dimensions. There’s a lot going on. I don’t have the words for it. It’s meant to depict the indescribable. We’ve had these crazy realms being drawn going back to the first Dr. Strange story. Whose to say what the best such image is?
Well, it’s this one.
You don’t have to take my word. Vulture named it one of the 100 most influential pages in comic book history. They point to the influence these psychedelic landscapes had on the counterculture of the era.
That’s one great page. It’s the type of thing this series has been doing all along and what it’s most famous for, but probably the best example of it, and definitely a fine exemplar for the concept.
Take a bit to appreciate whatever the heck is going on. Then we’ll turn to page 4.
On Page 4, we meet Eternity.
Eternity is a universe in the form of a man. Ponder that.
The secret of Eternity was as cool as I could imagine, but the relevance to the plot is unclear. Strange came to him seeking the means to defeat Dormammu, and he gave Strange nothing but cryptic words about the importance of wisdom, and then claimed he had more pressing matters to attend to. is that anticlimactic? Maybe we’ll just have to see where this all leads.
“There are world-shaking matters I must attend to!” says Eternity. Some cosmic struggle much bigger than even the threat of Dormammu about which we will learn no more.
But while his visit seemed fruitless, the fact that Strange has visited Eternity is enough to put Dormammu on edge. Mordo now holds the Ancient One prisoner. Dormammu has captured Strange’s unnamed lady-friend. The climactic battle is upon us.
Who is Eternity?
Who do we think Eternity is? I have a bias influenced by later comics in which he appears and later artists’ interpretations. Later interpretations seem to suggest he is the living embodiment of the entire universe. He certainly looks the part. By this interpretation, Dr. Strange has entered a dimension beyond his universe from which he can interact with the universe itself.
None of that is really obvious from this comic, though, and may well not be what Ditko intended. Eterntiy is a universe, but he may be another universe entirely, as opposed to the universe Dr. Strange normally dwells in.
Dr. Strange describes it thus: “It is an actual universe… in microcosm! A world within a world!”
Whatever is meant, the idea of a being made of stars and planets and galaxies is pretty awesome, and one of my favorite things in Marvel Comics.
The problem with never-ending stories
There’s a fundamental problem with the Marvel comics to come across the decades. Things become less special when repeated. Eternity is enigmatic. Plainly ancient. To note only two mortals have ever been in his presence is ominous. The decade of Marvel time that has passed since this are but the blink of an eye to someone like Eternity. It’s been an eventful blink. He existed from the dawn of time to now and only spoke to two mortals. In the decade since, he’s met dozens. Most from Earth. Enigmatic concepts get killed by overuse that doesn’t appreciate the timescale at which the universe operates.
I like to imagine he will give the same spiel in every comic he appears in henceforth. “You are only the 17th mortal to stand in front of me. Most since breakfast.”
Where I came in
I’ve mentioned before that a formative comic in my youth was the The Infinity Gauntlet, which I read at the age of 10. This is where I first met and became fascinated with Eternity. When Adam Warlock asks Eternity for his help against Thanos, he refuses, claiming to be above the power squabbles of mortals.
Note that Warlock, Quasar, and Silver Surfer are yet 3 more mortals to stand in front of Eternity, and that he’s apparently relaxed the “None may speak in my presence” rule in the eye-blink since meeting his second mortal.
I absolutely loved that picture as a child. I’d been fascinated by superheroes, but these beings were literally next level and all became my favorite characters. I am excited to meet them as we work our way through the Marvel Universe. We’ve already met The Watcher and The Stranger. And now Eternity. I wonder who we’ll meet next? (Hint: Two more are coming pretty soon!)
Ultimately, Eternity changes his mind and confronts Thanos in a scene that blew my young mind, when Thanos uses his newfound power to confront the universe itself. And win. And become the universe.
Mind. Blown.
I loved the Infinity War movie, but there was just nothing anything like that onscreen.
My love for The Infinity Gauntlet made me excited when I finally read this original Eternity story in the Masterworks a decade later. This comic did not disappoint.
Eternity recently made his big-screen debut in Thor: Love and Thunder. That did disappoint.
Rating: ★★★★★, 96/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Dr. Strange vol. 1.
Fantastic Four #33 falls off the Best We’ve Read.
Invocations:
- By the Vapors of Valtorr…
- …I swear by the Shades of the Seraphim…
Characters:
- Dr. Strange
- Eternity
- Ancient One’s servant
- Baron Mordo
- Dormammu
- Girl from Dark Dimension
Story notes:
- Dr. Strange enters the Dimension of Eternity.
- Dr. Strange follows a light, then a doorway shaped like his Amulet, then his instincts.
- None may speak in the presents of Eternity; Dr. Strange is second mortal to stand in front of him. Ancient One was first. Eternity gave Ancient One the Amulet that Strange uses.
- Note the Amulet is from Eternity, not Agamotto.
- Eternity bathes Strange in the glow of revealment to determine if he is worthy.
- Eternity must depart for world-shaking matters.
- Eternity denies Dr. Strange his power, saying only that wisdom is the key.
- Mordo has captured the Ancient One.
- Ancient One is bait to make Strange reveal to Dormammu what he learned from Eternity.
- Mordo places Ancient One in a time trap with a spell of Dr. Strange.
- Girl from Dark Dimension is Dormammu’s prisoner.
- Ends with Dr. Strange confronting Mordo.
| Previous | #422 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #138 | Reading order | Strange Tales #139 |
| Strange Tales #138 | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #139 |
