Saturday, April 26, 2014

The Strange Case of Dr. Strange


Marvel’s Dr. Stephen Strange got a mention in the second Captain America movie, and will be starring in his own big screen feature soon.
I have always found Dr. Strange an intriguing concept, but he’s rarely had long runs in his own title. He suffers from two defects that have limited his appeal, I think. He really has no personality to speak of, and his magical powers are so imprecise and unclear to the reader that they are dramatically frustrating. He can always pull some deus ex machina spell out of his ass. Dr. Fate and the Spectre have the same problem.
That said, the early Steve Ditko/Stan Lee stories were a lot of fun, with a wonderful sense of freedom in their fever-dream art and situations that somehow managed to be suspenseful despite what I just said.

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