Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: January 11, 1966 Cover: April 1966 12 cents Edited and rehashed by: Stan Lee Written and rewritten by: Roy Thomas Plotted and drawn by: Steve Ditko Lettered and blotted by: Artie Simek 10 pages
And just like that, Stan Lee is not writing this series any more. He’s been the credited writer since the beginning, and isn’t quite done as the regular writer. But he’s off for the next half dozen issues or so. Last issue was his final collaboration with Ditko on the character of Dr. Strange. Maybe for the best as they no longer get along by this point.
Roy Thomas is Marvel’s young writer that Lee will increasingly be leaning on to take the burden of scripting some of these titles. He’s now the regular scripter on Sgt. Fury, but is only on Dr. Strange for the next two issues.
Either way, this is really Ditko’s comic. Whoever is scripting is just there for finishing touches.
We’re kind of maybe still in the middle of the Eternity Saga. Mordo defeated. Dormammu humbled. That woman missing. The Ancient One off searching for her. Mordo’s minions causing trouble. Dr. Strange with his hands and face bound, and his amulet and cloak stolen.
In this issue, Strange defeats the disciples and recovers his amulet and cloak.
Notably, we still don’t get the name for either disciple. The man will eventually be named Kaecilius, and he’ll be the main villain in the first Dr. Strange film, played by Mads Mikkelsen.
The woman will be known as Adria. It will be 16 years before either shows up again.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: December 12, 1965 Cover: March 1966 12 cents Extravagantly edited and written by… Stan Lee! Painstakingly plotted and drawn by… Steve Ditko! Lovingly lettered and bordered by… Artie Simek! 10 pages
I was born to battle the forces of evil– and though death be my reward, I would have it no other way!
Ditko’s time on this title draws short, and Lee is starting to hand off more and more of his scripting duties. So this is the final Dr. Strange story to be written by the team of Lee and Ditko. (I use the word “team” a bit loosely, as Ditko is by this point utterly refusing to even speak to Stan Lee.)
Dr. Strange’s adventures had been characterized by stories that fit entirely within 10 pages. Then his first battle with Dormammu lasted twoissues and 20 pages, the size of a normal Spider-Man or Fantastic Four comic.
Then Strange Tales #130 ended with a cliffhanger. Dormammu and Mordo had teamed up; they’d seriously injured the Ancient One, and Dr. Strange was on the run. Without a break, Dr. Strange struggled against this duo of foes for a full 12 issues. Then finally it seemed as though Mordo and Dormammu were defeated, and Dr. Strange could rest.
But not quite! The woman from the Dark Dimension who befriended Strange remains a prisoner. Dormammu was humbled by Strange but remains a threat. And Mordo’s servants remain at large, and in fact have planted a bomb in Dr. Strange’s sanctum, and the last issue ended with the bomb about to go off.
We then paused and checked in with the many other Marvel titles. That was 8 months ago our time. Thank you for your patience in learning what’s up with that bomb. We won’t quite see the resolution of all the threads at present, but at least we’ll resolve this bomb question.
It’s actually a clever resolution. This cleverness is important as sometimes it seems Dr. Strange could maybe magic his way out of anything, so it’s good when we understand how. The villains left an ordinary bomb, because he would have sensed a mystical trap. And they erased traces of their presence, so he would not detect they had been there.
But… he sensed no trace of evil presences! And knew Mordo had been there recently, thus realizing someone had used a spell to eliminate traces of evil presences! See, clever. Anyways, this puts him on guard, and he finds the bomb. It was a close one, though.
And while he evades the bomb, he’s caught in the shockwave and captured by the baddies.
Mordo’s servants don’t know what’s happened in the Dark Dimension. They just know they can’t contact Mordo. They are unaware Dormammu had him banished for being a pathetic loser.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: November 11, 1965 Cover: February 1966 12 cents Dialogue and captions: Stan Lee Plot and artwork: Steve Ditko Lettering and more lettering: Artie Simek 10 pages
…I must destroy him! And destroy him I shall!! For I am truly– the Dread Dormammu!!
Chapter 12. Dr. Strange had defeated and humiliated Mordo, so Dormammu challenged Strange directly to a duel of honor for the fate of Earth. They fought using “pincers of power”. Dr. Strange was on the edge of victory when the treacherous Mordo intervened and struck a cowardly blow, leaving Dr. Strange defeated.
And so we continue the Eternity Saga.
Notice the plotting credit for Ditko. He’s plotted every Dr. Strange story.
Generally these stories have really been 9 pages, with the opening splash page serving as a sort of cover for the issue, since the actual issue covers always go to Nick Fury. However, this time Ditko seems to need all 10 pages, so a lot of plot is covered on the opening splash page.
Dormammu banishes Mordo for daring to presume he needed help. That’s the end of that partnership and Mordo’s last bow for this story.
Then Dormammu gallingly still tries to claim his prize despite clearly cheating.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: June 8, 1965 Cover: September 1965 12 cents Edited and written by mystical, magical Stan Lee Plotted and illustrated by weird, wondrous Steve Ditko Lettered and bordered by loveable, laughable Artie Simek 10 pages
Demons of Darkness, at my command transport me to the hidden land!
Dr. Strange is still searching for Eternity. Last issue was something of a misstep along the way. He sought answers from a once-loyal servant of the Ancient One only to find betrayal and a trap. This will have a similar flavor. He’ll seek out another wise mystic and again get led astray.
While these are in a sense interludes, I appreciate that it’s not easy to find Eternity. Dr. Strange is somewhat fumbling in his quest. He doesn’t know where to go and keeps taking wrong turns.
Mordo remains in pursuit this whole time, grown more desperate since Dr. Strange seeks Eternity. Mordo doesn’t understand the word. But Dormammu knows exactly what it means and fears Dr. Strange learning the secret. This increases the excitement for the search.
As he searches, our insight into this world grows. We meet a woman whose life he once saved. We meet another unnamed mystic. We see Rama Kaliph has been rendered comatose by Mordo, and only Mordo’s defeat will save him.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: May 4, 1965 Cover: August 1965 12 cents Written and edited by Marvel’s mystical madman: Stan Lee Plotted and illustrated by fandom’s favorite fiend: Steve Ditko Lettered and bordered by comicdom’s cuddlesome conjurer: Sam Rosen 10 pages
By the Seven Rings of Raggadorr… By Cyttorak’s Crimson Bands! I send thee through the unseen door… go thou where my spell commands!
This is a big issue for Strange Tales, as Nick Fury takes over the lead feature. This was the issue that introduced SHIELD and Hydra. But in the backup feature, Dr. Strange’s saga is still barreling along. Anybody picking up the title for the first time to check out the new Nick Fury stories will find themselves smack in the middle of a long Dr. Strange story.
Notice Ditko gets credited with the plotting. He’s plotted every Dr. Strange story, but now he’s getting credit. Proper credit is at the heart of his conflicts with Stan Lee.
We enter into a new status quo for the story. Mordo continues his pursuit of Strange, but Strange is no longer just on the run. He has a goal now, to find Eternity.
He seeks out a former disciple of the Ancient One, Sir Baskerville.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: January 12, 1965 Cover: April 1965 12 cents Written in a stygian swampland by: Stan Lee Drawn in a dismal dungeon by: Steve Ditko Lettered in a conjuror’s castle by: Artie Simek 10 pages
…it is almost like the calm before a terrible storm!
We read the first half of this issue in June 2021 and wrote the following.
I must emphasize that the Dr. Strange story is one of the single greatest Marvel stories of all time, yet the Bouncing Ball of Doom is what gets spotlighted on the cover.
The first page almost serves as a cover, as is common for Ditko stories. The story really begins on the next page, which picks up exactly where the previous issue went off. I’ve seen arguments online that how well this reads if you just chop off the splash page chapter breaks means this should just be read as a 153 page graphic novel, perhaps the first graphic novel ever.
We saw this same servant of Mordo’s last issue. Ditko is good about using distinctive faces and taking care to repeat characters. Lee is often unconcerned about naming these repeat characters. This random dude will eventually get a name, and then weirdly get chosen as the lead villain in the first Dr. Strange film.
I appreciate how Ditko illustrates the espionage thriller, where Dr. Strange is furtively trying to escape detection.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: December 10, 1964 Cover: March 1965 12 cents Written by the nabob of the netherworld: Stan Lee Illustrated by the sultan of the supernatural: Steve Ditko Lettered by the overlord of the occult: Artie Simek 10 pages
Man. Remember when Ben and Johnny met the Beatles? Seems like a lifetime ago.
I have a grammatically annoying habit in these posts to confuse time with my tenses. Sometimes I speak as though the present is 2022, and sometimes I speak as though the present is 1964. I’m going to double down on that confusing habit.
Strange Tales #130 was released December 1964, and we read the first story, in which Ben and Johnny meet the Beatles, back in May 2021. It’s now November 2022, a good 18 months later we are finally finishing the comic. Wow.
In our last post, we read Avengers #20, from July 1965, a good 7 months after the release of Strange Tales #130. We’re going back in time 7 months and 18 months.
18 months ago, I wrote the following:
Dr. Strange finally gets the cover almost to himself… but we won’t be reading his story. As we’ve discussed, the plan is to take a break from Dr. Strange, but keep reading the Human Torch/Thing stories. The Dr. Strange stories have mostly been happy to be single short episodes that fit in 10 pages. The only exception has been the 2-part battle against Dormammu. But even that epic was only 20 pages, the length of a normal Fantastic Four or Spider-Man story. Not one to make incremental change, Ditko decided he needs 170 pages and 17 months to tell the next story.
We’ve been waiting a long time for this story. Over the months, I’ve occasionally reminded you of it, asked for patience, and hinted at just how much I love it. Let’s see if it was worth the wait.
We’ve already read the first stories from Strange Tales #130-136, finishing up the Human Torch/Thing stories and beginning the Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD stories, including the first two parts of the “Hydra Saga”.
We’ll now catch up on the Dr. Strange stories of 130-136, and then read the entirety of Strange Tales #137-141, which will finish off the Hydra Saga and bring us to a climactic moment and decent enough pausing point for the Eternity Saga. (By “decent enough pausing point”, I mean the issue will end with a bomb about to explode in Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. But decent enough.) We’ll then need to spend a bit of time catching up with the rest of the Marvel Universe before coming back to finish off the Eternity Saga, which runs through issue 146.
I think of this 17-part saga as the “Eternity Saga” or the “Dormammu/Mordo War”, or some mixing and matching of those words. There’s no real official name. A quick browsing of the internet suggests “Eternity Saga” is the most common name, and that’s anyway my preferred name, so we’ll call it that.
This spins out of Dr. Strange’s 2-part battle with Dormammu in issues 126-127. If you look to the Best We’ve Read, you’ll see both parts of that saga are presently in our top ten, though that list is about to get shaken up. Much of this 17-part saga will find its way to that page presently, so check out the bottom couple rows of entries while you can. They’ll be getting pushed off.
Prior to that Dormammu arc, we’d heard a lot of invocations with strange words in them. Vishanti. Agamotto. Hoggoth. Dormammu. It wasn’t that clear what these words referred to. They almost seemed like magic words like Abracadabra. With issue 126, we understood that Dormammu is a demonic sorcerer who rules the Dark Dimension. And that when Dr. Strange or Baron Mordo would invoke his name, they were literally calling upon him to lend them power. That Dr. Strange’s power might come from an evil demon seems a bit of hypocrisy.
In an adventure in the Dark Dimension, Dr. Strange met a pretty girl and faced off with Dormammu, whose power dwarfed his own. He won the day only because of Dormammu’s strange sense of honor. While evil, Dormammu does defend his own realm from the Mindless Ones, and Dr. Strange aided Dormammu against the Mindless Ones. Dormammu then felt obligated to not kill Dr. Strange. Honor and all that. Because his sense of honor is really strange, he has now sworn revenge on Dr. Strange for being in debt. Dr. Strange did Dormammu a favor, and now Dormammu must destroy him. Honor and all that. And while Dormammu swore not to attack Dr. Strange, he didn’t promise not to lend his power to Dr. Strange’s greatest enemy Baron Mordo so that Mordo could kill the good Doctor.
OK, maybe some mild spoilers above. I see the opening of the story does obscure just who it is Mordo is talking to. But it will be revealed by page 5 and this is a 170 page saga.
Given how long this saga is, you’d expect a bit of prelude. But we get basically one panel of Strange and the Ancient One doing their thing, the calm before the storm. By panel 3, the attack begins.
By page 3, the Ancient One has fallen, Mordo controls his temple, and Dr. Strange is on the run.
