Yeah, it needs someone with a few miles on the clock. I’d say Timothy Dalton about 30 years ago would have been perfect.
That, or one or the other of them uttering the line, “No shit, Sherlock.” (Give Jonny Lee Miller a part in the MCU and it’d be complete. Martin Freeman’s already got a role in CA: Civil War…)
Actually, Tony’s and Stephen’s stories are rather similar. A gifted and wealthy but arrogant man (dark-haired and facial-haired) suffers a serious injury and a blow to his mortality that shatters his arrogance and shakes up his worldview. Because of this, he ends up taking instruction from an older foreigner*, who teaches him to use his talents for the betterment of humankind.
*In the very earliest Iron Man stories, when Tony was injured in Vietnam, Yin Sen was Asian. The later comics and movie retconned the country and Yinsen to the Middle Eastern/Afghanistan area.
The big difference is that Strange gave up the arrogance when he had his revelation, while Stark went from being an arrogant asshole of a villain to an arrogant asshole of a hero.
Thor’s origin was also similar, strutting high, wide and handsome up in Asgard until to teach him a lesson in humility Odin cast him down to Earth and into the body of a weak and crippled medical student. They did drop the Donald Blake identity fairly soon, though.
Well… No.
(I’ll agree that he got a lot better with it, but the man is still a poster child for the sin of Pride.)
While I’m plugging good Strange stories, any of ya’s familiar with “Doctor Strange/Doctor Doom,” the graphic novel, with Mike Mignola’s art backing up Roger Stern’s story? A really classy offering, and it resolves a (very minor) lifelong plot complication in Doctor Doom’s backstory. Elegant!
“Sorry, pal! That’s YOUR job! I’m THRU being pushed around – by anyone! From now on, I just look out for Number One – that means, ME!”
- Peter Parker, who totally coulda tripped that thief, it woulda taken just a moment. “I ought to run you in”, says the cop.
To me, this indicates one of the problems with the character, though. He can be like the 1960s Superman, pulling a new power out of his cape with every story.
Tom Tildrum: Agreed. That’s a typical problem with magicians as super-heros. Zatanna can say just about anything (sdrawkcab) and it comes true. It can get into “I Dream of Jeannie” or “Bewitched” levels of absurdity.
“The Books of Magic” and “John Constantine: Hellblazer” dealt with this problem in a fairly interesting way: magic works “mythically.” Magic is subject to strict rules of drama.
(An odd parallel is in Roger Rabbit, who can do all sorts of amazing things…but only if they’re funny.)
The better writers work with implicit limitations to magical powers.
(I’m a frustrated fantasy writer…and when I write magical characters, I actually design them, and their powers, fully, using a role-playing-gaming system – not GURPS, but very GURPS-like – so I go into my stories knowing what the mage can and cannot do.)
That was great, thank you for sharing it.
This is my favorite Dr. Strange run. Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner put together some truly mind-blowing stuff that nobody this side of Munnipor can match.
I have a few things to add that nobody has mentioned about Dr. Strange yet:
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“Dr. Strange” is not a super-hero code name. His actual name is Stephen Strange, and he is a licensed doctor/surgeon, though with his crippled hands he can’t perform surgery anymore.
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One of his chief gimmicks is that he is able to project his ‘astral form’ (essentially an out-of-body experience as a super-power). His astral self is intangible (he can walk through walls, fly, etc.) and invisible to normal people (though other magically-inclined beings can ‘see’ or at least sense him.) He can cast spells while in astral form.
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His home and base of operations is a gothic-looking townhouse called the “Sanctum Sanctorum.” Originally, it was said to be located in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood - you have to bare in mind that the Dr. Strange series began in the early 1960s, when Greenwich Village was a bohemian enclave filled with nutty characters. I have a hunch, the movie will use the Sanctum Sanctorum, but move it’s location to somewhere less gentrified and sterile as the modern-day GV.
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Apart from “the Ancient One” (the original Sorceror Supreme who trained Strange in the mystic arts), he’s had two long-time supporting characters - his ‘manservant’ Wong, who has often appeared as a stereotypical “Asian servant”, but every so often is allowed to show off some advanced fighting skills. The other character is his love interest Clea, a novice enchantress who hails from the 'Dark Dimension of the Dreaded Dormammu."
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Strange’s long-time rival is the evil sorcerer Baron Mordo. But his most memorable foe is perhaps the above-mentioned “Dreaded” Dormammu - a demonic being with smoldering fire for a head. Other noteworthy foes who may or may not appear are the demon Nightmare, the Living Tribunal, Silver Dagger, and Eternity (who’s not really a bad guy, more like the living personification of the entire universe.)
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Dr. Strange was the central unifying character in the long-running series “the Defenders.” The Defenders was a super-hero team who were decidedly wackier, weirder, and just plain oddball than the Avengers. The Hulk was a member of that team too. (My secret hope is that a Dr. Strange film will be used as a springboard for a “Defenders” film with the classic line-up: Strange, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, and/or Valkyrie.)
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Dr. Strange was never meant to an ongoing series. He was originally only meant for a one-off appearance in a back-up story to fill up the extra pages of “Strange Tales” (where the ‘star’ characters were the Human Torch and Nick Fury & the agents of SHIELD.) But the character got some fan mail, and so writer Stan Lee/artist Steve Ditko started cranking out more stories, until Strange eventually took over the book. Despite being a long-time fixture of the Marvel Universe, Strange has always been more of a cult character or background player though.
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As I said above, the series initially ran during their early-mid 1960s, and the way-out pop-artwork attracted an enthusiastic audience of beatniks and hippies. One of the earliest San Francisco hippie “happenings” was called a “Tribute to Dr. Strange Dance” that featured the Jefferson Airplane and the Warlocks (later known as the Grateful Dead) among the musical acts. In fact, there is a legendary incident in which a bunch of hippie acid-heads descended upon the offices of Marvel Comics demanding to meet the "groovy, with-it hepcat who was creating all the psychedelic artwork in the series. Those hippies were a little stunned when they actually met Steve Ditko – a short, balding, bespectacled, tie-wearing nerd who was a dedicated follower of Ayn Rand’s “Objectivist” philosophy.
How many other superheroes spend their free time meditating cross-legged in the desert for days before journeying back to the creation of the universe to meet God?
Yeah, okay, there’s Robin; I’ll give you Robin. Other than Robin, is what I’m saying.
My pleasure. It’s awesome to see Ditko just drawing the shit out of arrogant Strange and then hobo Strange.
And as such, he was name-checked in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When Agent Sitwell is confessing who the Hydra targets are he specifically mentions Stephen Strange. I love that they worked that in so far in advance of this movie!
This thread has been helpful to me, who hadn’t even heard of the character until a few days ago, when pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch as Strange started appearing. The background is interesting to me. Thanks to everyone.
What do people think of Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo? It looks like Mads Mikkelsen and Rachel McAdams is in it too, but no character name is listed for either. I think the cast list is fantastic, but I’m an outsider.
(I hope someone does a similar thread for Warcraft. A “Warcraft For Newbies/Dummies” for people like me who know zip about any of that. The trailer is beyond confusing and frankly, it looks like something I would shun like the plague. BUT, it’s directed by Duncan Jones, which means I’ll be there on opening day. It would be nice to go in with some background and clues to what’s going on.)
I’m going to have to disappoint you, I’m afraid. The Defenders is going to be a Netflix series featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Even if Marvel were to be planning a film (possibly with a different name), they wouldn’t be able to use the Silver Surfer, who’s still part of the Fantastic Four package that Fox have the movie rights to.
I don’t think that’s quite right… Strange was always intended as an on-going series. Here’s the introductory blurb from the first panel of his first story in Strange Tales #110:
(bolding mine).
Er… what? I don’t suppose you’d care to explain that?
I’m not really familiar with the Doctor Strange character, but I’ve been told that Doctor Orpheus from the Venture Bros. is meant to be a pretty close homage/parody. Is that true and if so how similar are they?
… which is one of those places that are bigger in the inside…
Of course, that does beg the question of how Strange would be considered a threat–if he’s just a gifted neurosurgeon at that point, that is. I doubt the algorithm could predict the accident, or his meeting with the Ancient One.
Therefore, that means one of two things:
-The events of Winter Soldier take place concurrently with, or slightly after, the events of the Dr. Strange movie,
-Or (my preferred tack), Stephen always had some sort of magic potential. I’m rather hoping they’ll pull an Elsa in that regard–that Stephen always felt he had to suppress his budding powers for fear of being labeled a freak or worse. He became so obsessed with succeeding at a “normal” life and career that he started to believe his own publicity, leading to his arrogance and self-centeredness–but always, deep down, there was that fear. And then comes the accident, and the trip to the Ancient One, who makes him admit to his potential–and tells him that she can cure the nerve damage and send him back to his old life, with all the fear and concealment that entails.
Or he can embrace his power and start on a new path. No less scary, in some ways. But which kind of fear would he prefer?
“The choice is yours, Stephen Strange.”
Stephen walks out of the temple into the snowy Tibetan night, lost in thought.
Cue piano chords.