I’ve been reading about how Cumberbatch is filming a movie about a comic book character: Dr. Strange. I know nothing about comic book heroes. What’s Dr. Strange’s deal? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? What’s up with the electrical bolts thing?
He’s a sorcerer and for most of the character’s existence he has been Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme-which means he’s the main line of defense against magical and other-dimensional threats.
He has spells and magical artifacts (the most famous is the Eye of Agamotto which is a kind of extra sensory device that allows him to see through lies, disguises, some clairvoyance as well as teleportation and other supery stuff )
His origin is that he was an arrogant gifted surgeon who was in a car accident and lost his ability to perform delicate surgery-desperate to find a cure he started exploring mysticism eventually found a teacher called The Ancient One who would go on to teach him MAGICK!
As above, the title “Sorceror Supreme” means that he is the most powerful wizard on Earth and is charged with defending the world (and the universe) against magical threats. Basically, if Gandalf or Harry Potter was a super-hero. Said threats commonly take the form of extradimensional monsters and Lovecraftian entities.
How, exactly, this mission plays out varies according to the era and the interpretation of any particular writer. I think a lot of his best comics were written in the late 80’s (like '88-'90), when they experimented with really bizarre and imaginative concepts. I anticipate it will be the like the “Matrix” of the comic book movies, in that it will show off some really mind-bending special effects. Like if “Inception” was a superhero movie.
I, for one, look forward to seeing scenes like this: http://dcl.slis.indiana.edu/cbml/images/eg_caption_01.png
and this:
He’s actually the Sorceror Supreme of the Earth Dimension, so he protects the whole universe. There was a What If? comic in which the Ultimate Nullifier was triggered, and the whole shebang was returned to an empty void. Dr. Strange and some others did things to shift a lot of stuff into another dimension to save them. The last panel is of Dr. Strange levitating in the void; he figured that he still had to protect it, even though there was no longer anything in our dimension but him and the now-useless Nullifier. (Hope I remembered all that correctly.)
Another artifact he’s pretty much never seen without is the Cloak of Levitation. The Eye of Agamatto is the brooch that clasps the Cloak.
His dialogue is notable by all the mystic things he swears by. “By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth!” is perhaps the most common.
By the Occluded Orifice of Oroboros! The first page of this blog is the original comics origin of Doctor Strange, and how he stopped being a wealthy arrogant dickhead and became a proper selfless mystical hero. Terrific stuff, and it’s amazing just how much sheer story Ditko and Lee pack into those few pages.
A weird element of the character has often been – well, look, magic, it takes a lot out of you, is the thing. So if he can save the day by conjuring up a scary monster, that’s great; but if he can save the day with the image of something scary, he’ll stick to mere illusions and stay closer to full strength just in case…
…and since he owns a cape that moves at his mental command, and the amulet that shines the hypnotic light of truth, well, shucks: if he’s in a situation where he can get the job done by just flying around and mesmerizing a lone suspect, then he’ll do that, since it doesn’t tire him out at all. Or he’ll toss his cloak at the bad guy and have it do grabby stuff. Or whatever.
So he’s got phenomenal cosmic power in his back pocket – if you’re in his way, he can go the energy-blasts-and-force-fields route, just like he can teleport you to another continent – but who knows what else is on his plate for the day? So he’ll mundanely distract you while the cloak he hung up on your coatrack sneaks around behind you to carry off the item he came here to get.
So if he’s in a story where a sleuth with a hypno-coin and a flying carpet would do okay, that’s all he does. But if he’s in a story where he needs to wish himself across interstellar distances and make a planet explode – yeah, he’s got that on tap; he’ll just be pretty exhausted afterwards.
The current series from Marvel is pretty good: great art, and darn good writing. They’re introducing a little (okay, a lot of) whimsy into the storytelling, which is a nice change from the usual superhero angst/dourness.
I’ve definitely been enjoying the new series, as well. It also contains an element that The Other Waldo Pepper mentioned – using magic, and dealing with all those things, puts a tremendous physical and psychic toll on Strange. He can’t eat normal food anymore, and he has no rights still being sane. And, yet, he approaches it all with a level of humor and nobility.
For what it’s worth, he’s showing up in the newspaper Spider-Man strips now, for the past couple of weeks.
The best part about Dr. Strange (from the old days) is that he doesn’t do stupid slugfests. He does magical slugfests. Which had to be more inventive to get them across on the page.
That’s why artists like Steve Ditko and Jim Steranko had to be assigned to the books. A ham-fisted literalist like Jack Kirby could be right for most superheroes but Strange is technically not a superhero. He’s slippery where they are rigid. The mentality needs to bend and swerve. I like superheroes but Strange is all that and more.
The upcoming Dr. Strange movie will also be a small step forward for the Marvel universe, since it’s the first 100% no-question-about-it magic onscreen. Making that work with the established film universe will be crucial.
Eh, I think that the Thor stuff is close enough. Yeah, you can handwave away Mjolnir as sufficiently-advanced technology, but the stuff Loki does is just plain magic, since he doesn’t even need any tools for it.
Well, you know what they say: any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology.
BTW–he is the only character in the Marvel Universe to make Galactus The World Eater…scream.
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/5/59328/1895915-strangevsgalactus1.jpg
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/5/59328/1895918-strangevsgalactus2.jpg
Another point: When Strange casts his spells he often recites alliterative names such as this. The names he invokes are the various deities whose magic he wields, such as Cyttorak, Seraphim, and Faltine. The most important of these are the Vishanti: Oshtur, Agamotto, and of course Hoggoth. These godlike creatures sponsor the Sorceror Supreme of each generation by letting him call upon their power. Whether they will actually play a role in the film is still unknown.
So did Squirrel Girl. Off-panel.
You beat me to the punch there, Penfeather. I was going to say that RDJ would have made a perfect Dr. Strange had this movie been made back then instead of Iron Man.
I would pay extra to see this as a scene in a future Marvel film. 