Many of the early Strange adventures were variations on the western gunslinger plot: Stephen Strange, a former haughty surgeon who has trained with a wizened wise man known only as the Ancient One, is regularly challenged by punks wanting to steal his mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. Chief of these is Baron Mordo, a former student of the Ancient One who chafes as Strange's favored status. He strikes at Strange, often by attacking the enfeebled Ancient One, leading to an inevitable showdown with the two antagonists casting spells against each other. Lots of wavery beams of unimaginable power get cast in these scenes: first mana-a-mano in standing dueling position, then through more enjoyably preposterous stances and settings as the series' fantasy world became more elaborate.
Our hero, unlike his adversaries, is sworn to avoid harming them at all costs, so a lot of his early battles, in particular, wind up being resolved through trickery: Strange sending out an army of doppelgangers, for instance, to confound an enemy who wastes his spells on the wrong Strange(s). As a character, Strange never quite got rid of his haughtiness, which made him a refreshing contrast to wisecracking urbanites like Peter Parker or Johnny Storm. Scripter Lee was fond of crafting solemn invocations during Strange's battles - heavy on the alliteration ("By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth!" "In the name of the dread Dormammu!" and so on) - and in one case, at least, that propensity worked against him. When it came time for our hero to venture into the realm of one of these all-powerful beings, Lee selected Dormammu, one of the most unfortunately named nemeses in all of comicdom. (Just try speaking it aloud in a menacing tone - I dare you.)
Despite his goofy moniker, though, the Big D. made a great villainous adversary: a flame-headed master of another dimension with a suitably fiery temper (he tends to cage unsuccessful underlings in the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak rather quickly) and a tyrannical hold over his people. Dormammu also is the only one strong enough to hold back the rampaging Mindless Ones, creatures whose sole purpose is to "fight. . .and destroy," who live on the fringes of his domain. Once our hero enters Dormammu's dimension, you can really see Ditko visually let go, playing with perspective and Dali-esque imagery, popping characters in and out of the picture through oddly placed dimensional doors, doing away with solid ground altogether. The results are wondrous.
It's with Strange's first trip to this proto-psychedelic landscape (a phrase that the conservative Ditko would probably loathe) that the series really begins to take hold. The conflicts grow more cosmic and the adventures more imaginative. Volume One's highlight is a twelve-part serial that comprises that last part of the book: in it, Dormammu, having sworn to not attack Strange at the end of their first encounter, gives his power to Baron Mordo to defeat Strange by proxy. Our hero is forced to desperately flee across the globe, seeking the key to defeating the Dormammu/Mordo alliance while servants of the dark duo pursue him around every corner. Ditko, who is at his best when his protagonists are harried and persecuted (think of all those panels of an unreasoning mob waving its fists at Spider-Man), has a field day messing with his isolated hero.
Article comments
1 - Bob Mozark
Great Review! I was lucky enough to get one of the first edition hardcovers (at a discounted price, even!) and enjoyed re-reading the earliest adventures of my all-time favorite superhero from my childhood.
2 - Jim Carruthers
Steve Ditko was one of my favourite artists when I was a kid. I always loved the wierd swoosh thing (obviously Nike should pay him something) he worked into all his drawings.
The Ditko character I really liked was "Shade The Changing Man". I guess this was the inspiration for Rorschach (or maybe Arnold Horshack) in Watchmen.
Didn't Ditko do some work for Charleton in the early 70s?
If I recall correctly, hasn't Ditko become some sort of loon?
3 - Bill Sherman
Ditko did a lot of comic work for Charlton, whose superheroes were the original source material for Alan Moore's Watchmen. The Question, a character he created for Charlton who was known to espouse some of Ditko's Randian Objectivism (a belief system that became increasingly prominent in his comics work), was more the source for Rorschach, though you can see elements of the character in Shade, too.
4 - Erik (drstrange.nl) Elzenaar
Very good and positive review.... Couldn't have said it better.
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