Marvel may've continued to treat him so, but by this time Dr. Strange was no mere second-stringer. Unfortunately for growing fans of the character, the Lee & Ditko collaboration would only last one more issue past the last story in this volume: Lee left after one more story, while Ditko stayed on to work with Roy Thomas and Dennis O'Neil for just four more stories. Without Ditko's whacked-out visuals and plot sense, the strip began to flounder. It wasn't until the early seventies, when young Marvelites Steve Englehart & Frank Brunner took hold of the character, that he once more lived up to the title of Sorcerer Supreme.
But good as these later Strange Excursions were, for many fans (including me) the Lee & Ditko Doc Strange remains unparalleled. Over the past few months, Marvel has been re-releasing quite a few of these Masterworks hardbacks. As a document of one character's four-year evolution - and as entertaining old-fashioned Marvel Age hero comics - this book is one of the best.
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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