“DEATH AND THE MAIDENS“ THE STRANGE DAYS OF DOCTOR STRANGE, PART 2

“We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier ”“ the frontier of the 1960s, the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats”¦ Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space.”“ These were the words directed at the American Nation by their new President in his inaugural speech on January 20, 1961. On September 12, 1962, in front of a crowd of 40,000 people at the Rice University football stadium, President John F. Kennedy revisited the subject of space exploration in another address: “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we“re unwilling to postpone”¦”“ And sure enough, he even included a joke about an ongoing rivalry between two college football teams, the Rice Owls and the Texas Longhorns. What he was talking about, was the space race between America and the communist Soviet Union. This was a race in which the people behind the Iron Curtain had a leg up. It had happened under Dwight D. Eisenhower“s watch, Kennedy“s predecessor. One man, chief Soviet rocket scientist Sergei Korolev had proposed the idea for an artificial satellite to be launched into the lower orbit of The Earth in 1954. Once they had developed a sphere-shaped craft, it even got a most ominous name: “Object D”“. Had this been known to the wider American public at that time, some men in their thirties and forties would surely have been reminded of the science fiction pulp magazines they had read in their younger years. Cheap, thin books that came with fully painted covers by highly talented artists like Earle Bergey and Allen Anderson which depicted ruggedly handsome men who held their ray gun in one hand, while they had the other arm slung around the small waist of a scantily dressed, impossibly beautiful woman with glamorous make-up and perfect hair, destined to be in her gorgeous twenties forever. However, this tiny metallic sphere, and the rocket to lift it into the skies and beyond the gravity pull of our world, were not being developed by a fictious United Planets or a decidedly capitalistic, unified Earth government, but by an evil enemy nation which should have been far inferior in their scientific endeavors. It was USA all the way, whereas in the USSR supposedly, it was all still sticks and stones. But even once the Russians discovered that “Object D”“ was way too complex in its design, and that the low impulses emitted by the powerful engines of their R-7 rocket had an unduly influence on the sensible instruments of the metallic globe, Comrade Korolev kept his calm. The Chief had a perfect alternative in mind, and quickly he and his team devised another little satellite which they were to name “Sputnik 1”“. And on October 4, 1957 the comrades shocked the world when the little craft made it into orbit, powered by a huge rocket not only able to leave the Earth but to reach any place down on the ground as well. And surely, even “Object D”“ would see flight sometime later under its new moniker “Sputnik 3”“. By that time, a satellite wasn“t anything special, since mankind had recovered from the shock and anxieties the mere presence of such a tiny object within Earth“s orbit had created. Then, suddenly, on April 12, 1961, Soviet Air Forces pilot Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human to leave the Earth when he and his capsule “Vostok 1”“ had made it into outer space. It seemed that the Soviets had heard Kennedy“s inaugural address as well, and it was them who now rode to the new frontier and beyond. But in-between this speech and the one with which Kennedy energized the Nation to dedicate itself to this one goal, reaching the Moon before the Soviets did, something else had happened. Had Kennedy asked around among the good people who had gathered at Rice Stadium in Houston on the day, many of which were students, some freshmen surely could have told him about the one man capable of beating the Russians. While The Chief remained the bogeyman of the American Space Program until his unexpected death in 1966, and Wernher von Braun was kept to limited role for the time being, Hitler“s rocket master had yet to prove himself under his new overlords, there was one man who not only had the brains to rightfully claim that he was the smartest man on Earth, but he also had wherewithal not to sit on his hands idly. This man was a genius and a space explorer. A pioneer in the truest sense of the word, as required for the exploration of this new frontier. Though looking at his picture, you wouldn“t suspect this in the least. While the President looked younger than his years or his office let on, this man, this scientist, was clearly of a generation that wore short pants during the Great Depression, a generation whose men would storm the beaches in a foreign country on D-Day, or who“d brandish flamethrowers and live grenades against enemy troops in the South Pacific once they“d barely reached the end of their teens. In 1961, the scientist was a distinguished, scholarly guy who wore a suit and a tie. He was of slender build, his wavy brown hair sported white temples, and of course, he smoked a pipe. Some years prior, in a B-movie, he would have been portrayed by Richard Carlson or John Agar, actors hired to play cerebral, slightly brooding men, who still needed to have the looks and the bodies of a leading man which coded them as the good guys as was required during the Atomic Age. And lo, these handsome men wouldn“t be confined to their laboratory, lest they“d be considered science nerds. They travelled to the Amazon to have a reason to be shirtless and to show off their impressive physique. Or when situation called for it, they“d even travel into the far reaches of space. It would take them but mere seconds, and even less time to hesitate, and they“d be changing their trusted tweed jacket with the obligatory elbow patches for utilitarian space coveralls. Men like Jeff Morrow in “This Island Earth”“, men who were optimistic in their worldview, yet watchful and who had female scientists following them around, who all were beautiful, of course, and who all came with the curvy body of a 1950s supermodel and a face that suspiciously looked like that of either Faith Domergue, Mara Corday or Julie Adams. And while the latter, in her role as hot marine biologist Kay Lawrence (the only woman among five scientists and the only character among them without a doctorate), would swim in a sexy white bathing suit with “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”“, Jeff Morrow“s Dr. Cal Meacham flew in a borrowed Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star Jet to his laboratory like it was the most normal thing to do. But nearly a decade later, these men of science, like our scientist, had gotten older. Now they were meant to stay on the ground. It was the age of a new hero, one who wore a silver-metallic protective suit and belonged the Mercury Seven. If someone thought scientists were still the heroes, they only needed to look at an issue of Green Lantern, the new version which had premiered in Showcase No. 22 (1959). His alter-ego Hal Jordan was a test pilot and he had a hot girlfriend. And though the 1950s belonged to the men of science, when DC Comics had brought back The Flash in 1956, in this incarnation, he was not a big shot or a genius, but a guy who worked as police scientist. Thus, he was neither a though police detective nor a hero scientist.

 

But by the time John F. Kennedy gave his speech at Rice University, those among its student body who were still reading comic books, probably had outgrown the shiny adventures of DC“s revival heroes. In all seriousness, how long did it take a kid who was in college now, to realize that almost every adventure of The Flash followed the same pattern? Even though Hal Jordan was a cool dude, his stories were fairly repetitive as well. No, if you were much older by now, eighteen or nineteen, a guy like Hal Jordan didn“t cut it anymore. Not when there was an alternative around which, without any fanfare or at least proper announcement, had appeared on the newsstands, right around the time when most readers at this age normally left reading comic books behind. Yes, this scientist, the world“s smartest man, these students could have told the President about, he was a comic character, too. But why not? Kennedy himself had met the most powerful superhero in the world of comics, Superman, who had even entrusted him with his secret identity. This seemed a bit boring when compared to Fantastic Four No. 1 and to this scientist named Dr. Reed Richards. At first glance, he seemed an anachronism, a holdover from the monster and science fiction books Fantastic Four“s publisher was wont to put out, the company that had changed its name to Marvel Comics with Journey into Mystery No. 69 earlier in 1961. While the new logo appeared in a box with the simple letters MC, so tiny that you might miss it altogether on the cover, and this book with its tales of huge creatures was nothing to write home about, the change seemed to hint at bigger things to come, not just even bigger monsters from a bygone era. Sure enough, with the publication of the first issue of Fantastic Four near the end of that year, verily, there was something new. Those folks among the students who did not read comics would have laughed at the idea of bothering the President of the United States with telling him about a comic book or a single character, but what Reed Richards stood for, the world he represented, was too powerful for it to be simply contained by a simple page of a comic book. And if you belonged to those who found this laughable, how then, in your opinion, had a thing like “Object D”“ begun its very own existence? Stories, including those told in a pamphlet printed on cheap paper, with ads for X-Ray-Goggles and guides of how to throw your voice to scare the bejesus out of your neighbor, were all about ideas. So was a satellite. Who then was this Richards? Even though it might seem that he had heard that first speech by the President, the one about the new frontier, he in himself obviously possessed so much initiative, confidence and agency that he needn“t words to prod him into action. This man was not like Barry Allen, The Flash, who got his powers in a freak accident, or his pal Green Lantern who got recruited by a dying alien into an intergalactic police force, because being a fearless test pilot made him make the cut. It was pretty obvious that this guy with the gray temples hadn“t gotten the memo that said scientists were not supposed to be the dashing heroes in this Space Age any longer, or he“d simply chosen to ignore it. Richards was in his apartment and he“d just informed a small gathering of his intentions. They were four. Other than the scientist there was his college buddy Ben Grimm and Richard“s younger looking fiancée Susan Storm, and her brother Johnny who was still a teenager. There was a rocket ship waiting at the spaceport on the outskirts of town, ready to take them to the unknown void of space, further than any man or woman had ever gone. Why wait for clearance or any such nonsense? The timing was perfect. He told them more or less: “Let“s go for it! It“ll be fine.”“ Dr. Richards was facing the reader directly and his expression was calm. His mind was set. But he was not like his colleague Dr. Meacham from “This Island Earth.”“ Richards apparently could do many things, yet flying a rocket ship or even a plane was not among them. So, why shouldn“t he have roped in his pal who was good for just that. Not the smartest knife in the book, mind you, but since he had flown fighter planes, a space rocket shouldn“t be too hard to manage either. What was surprising, though, Ben Grimm seemed ideally suited to play the hero in such a story. Broad-shouldered, and with a rugged look to his face that made him a dead ringer for actor Rod Taylor, he was even a pilot. And if Richards got his way, he“d be flying a spaceship next. If there ever was somebody more perfect to play an astronaut, his name was not Hal Jordon who looked like effete pretty boy by comparison. Ben Grimm was a rough and tough bruiser when he needed to be, but whereas Richards was cool and at ease like Charles Yeager, he was a loudmouth who hid his self-doubt behind a lot of bravado. To add irony to insult, where most flyboys would have been eager to jump into that rocket, it was he who chickened out. Indeed, he wanted more tests to be done: “You know we haven“t done enough research into the effect of cosmic rays!”“ He, who would have been the hero during this time, not only let his nerves show, but the girl? She was with the nerdy science guy, Richards. As if this wasn“t enough wish fulfillment by proxy for all those male readers who did not like playing football, but rather would spend their time behind a book or in some lab, Susan, the blonde babe who actually pined for the older science geek, even assisted him, as if the two of them had rehearsed for this possible scenario. Susan now nudged this hunk of a go-getter gone lame into the right direction by using some female guile with a dose of passive-aggressive sentiment: “Ben, we“ve got to take that chance”¦ unless we want the commies to beat us to it!”“ As if all this still wasn“t enough, and apparently, it wasn“t, or she just wanted to make darn sure that he definitely got with the program, Sue went right for the jugular with less than a moment“s hesitation: “I”¦ I never thought that you would be a coward!”“ Now that was something no self-respecting jet pilot in the early 1960s would stand for! She had pushed the right buttons, since now Ben Grimm smashed a phone stand with one punch of his fist as he angrily proclaimed: “A coward!! Nobody calls me coward! Get the ship! I“ll fly her no matter what happens!!”“ A decision, he was soon to regret, but what was he supposed to do after the blonde girl had triggered him so unduly? And like he had predicted, the cosmic rays did something to these four. They were now transformed, and they all got fantastic powers. But once again, the pilot hero drew the short end of the stick. Grimm mutated into one of those creatures the hero scientists fought during the 1950s.

 

What then was so groundbreaking about this first issue of Fantastic Four? In Reed Richards, in this older scientist with his graying hair, you saw the spirit of Kennedy“s inaugural speech perfectly reflected. Not only did he embark towards the new frontier, and in doing so, his actions already anticipated Kennedy“s address at Rice Stadium, but he was without fear. He was like the Son of Man who had told his disciples during a storm at sea to do what he had done, to get out of the boat and walk on water: “Take courage! It is I. Don“t be afraid.”“ And like Peter, Ben Grimm had begrudgingly followed him. He too, was walking on water now. But then a storm had frightened Grimm. He was afraid, and he began to sink. And as he did so, this pilot, this supposed hero, cried out, “Save me!”“ Richards caught him, but not without making a speech of it as he was clearly wont to do: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”“ Too distracted were Grimm and the girl and her teenage brother by what had transpired and the transformation their bodies had just experienced, that nobody asked the obvious question. Since they knew about the cosmic rays, why had Richards not shielded the ship? He was the smartest man on the planet after all. Was it since he had faith, that he knew, he could simply will something into existence? How much of this was chance then, and how often had he already played out exactly this outcome in his mind? And with him risking so much, gambling with their lives, was this truly an accident that had changed them so? What about the other heroes who would follow soon? Where these truly freak occurrences in how these characters acquired their superpowers? Dr. Bruce Banner was handling radioactive material for the military, Peter Parker was into all kinds of science, and surely, at one point or the other, he“d be exposed to radioactive material as well. Tony Stark was already a weapons manufacturer, and when he was severely injured in Vietnam, what came more naturally than to create an invention, to not only save his life, but to defend himself against his communist capturers? Then, Dr. Henry Pym, another scientist. Young Matt Murdock was unselfish and dutiful, a prime candidate for helping a fellow man while putting himself at risk. And Donald Blake? Did he travel to the home of Northern myth only because it seemed a scenic destination for a holiday? But once there, it was clearly his decision to search for the alien invaders he had heard a man in a small fishing village talk about. And this search led him to finding the cane into which Mjolnir, the enchanted hammer of the thunder god Thor, had been transmuted. What were these machinations but just bits and pieces that came from previous incarnations of superheroes as they all had appeared during the Golden Age, leftover plots from the intermediary years and some of that fearlessness that is born each time whenever a new frontier seems to hold so much more promise than the tried and true. What all these new heroes had in common however, they did not follow conventions. One middle-aged scientist who showed more reckless abandon than a veteran jet pilot, a bespectacled atomic researcher working for the military despite being a nervous wreck, two science nerds, an industrialist who was a player and an arms dealer, a blind man and a lame medical doctor. You can will something into reality, if you have faith and an idea is powerful enough. In Russia, “Object D”“ had started with a single thought. Stan Lee and but a handful of artists (and co-plotters) had laid the foundation for a new and very unique universe. But surely you wouldn“t have guessed it had you looked at this little group that made up what became known among fans as the Marvel Bullpen, especially those who stayed with comics a bit longer than a generation of readers before. When Kennedy spoke to those students at Rice Stadium, Lee was forty years old, but were you to run into him at the elevator banks in the lobby of 655 Madison Avenue, a slender man who still wore a hat, perhaps to hide his fast receding hairline when out on the street, you might have mistaken him for another insurance salesman. And his top collaborator, Jack Kirby, five years older than Stan, would be famously described by a journalist as man who looked like he worked as foreman in a girdle factory. And while Kirby and a handful of other illustrators, some of the finest the industry had ever seen, built worlds within worlds, Lee infused these new characters with something that was truly unique, because to him it seemed the right kind of thing to do. Looking at the first couple of pages of the first issue of Fantastic Four, it immediately became apparent that the main characters weren“t just tropes. They displayed human traits. Lee imbued the foursome, and the heroes who would follow, with something that actually resembled a real personality. But once you compared them to The Flash or Green Lantern, something else stood out very noticeable. This was a universe of mostly men in their middle ages, nerdy scientist, created by men at the same age. Predominantly, these were the wish fulfillment fantasies of a guy who had wasted his best years in a small office and behind a typewriter. Not the gung-ho pilot had the blonde fiancée, it was the middle-aged geeky type, who possessed a will of steel and an unshakeable confidence. Or a scientist who would turn into a monster, and who still had a girl who chose this nervous wreck over a much more attractive and virile Army Major with the looks of a young Errol Flynn. The blind lawyer had a gorgeous secretary, a blonde like Susan Strom. The lame doctor had a lovely nurse. By itself, this wasn“t so far removed from Stan“s own reality. Lee had married a British-American hat model with a striking look. What united the women Lee (and his collaborators) created, were three other things. They lacked the personality of the heroes, and they mostly stayed in the background. What is even more surprising, considering that Lee and his wife Joan were born in the same year, the women, who had no jobs or who worked as secretaries or as nurses, were much younger than the men with whom they were associated, in many cases as the love interest or as future romantic partner. In these cases, being younger, was also heavily coded as “being inexperienced”“, in addition to youth representing a higher attractiveness. This was especially true if these females were designed as superheroines. It isn“t surprising that Lee gave Sue Storm the power of invisibility. Whereas her fiancé was the “intellectual leader of the group”“ (according to Stan), the writer would often let Susan play the part of the dizzy blonde. In Fantastic Four No. 22 (1964), while wearing a dangerously looking device on her head, a gadget to help her control her powers, of course invented by the man who had given himself the name Mr. Fantastic, and she posed her body like a pin-up model, Susan remarked “You know, Reed, this measuring device to test my invisibility would make the kookiest hat!”“ And in the same year, in X-Men No. 3, Stan Lee let readers know, that even though Jean Grey (Marvel Girl) was a student of the much older Professor X, and by that point in time she was barely of age, this did not keep Xavier from having romantic feelings: “As though I could help worrying about the one I love! But I can never tell her! I have no right! Not while I“m the leader of the X-Men and confined to this wheelchair!”“ Professor X and Reed Richards were not the only intellectual guys who showed an interest in that one special lady in their lives that was considerably younger and who could not even hope to compete with them as far as their smarts or their life experience were concerned. There was Dr. Henry Pym, the socially awkward scientist who had invented a formula that let him shrink to the size of an ant. When Stan decided that this hero should have a female companion (which wasn“t as original as he made it out to be, considering that during The Golden Age of Comics several heroes had had a superheroine partner, and even Captain America had traded his trusted sidekick Bucky for Golden Girl), he would later describe his intention in “The Superhero Woman by Stan Lee”“ (1977): “Why not let Ant-Man have a partner who“d be his equal in every way. She“d be intelligent, courageous, dedicated, and resourceful”¦”“ However, his original idea had looked a bit different: “I had planned to make her a spoiled playgirl, a jaded member of the jet set.”“ Lee changed the character (though there is some irony in that his first concept would become part of Janet“s character nevertheless some years after her first appearance), since he felt a guy like Hank Pym wouldn“t “be interested in such a female for very long.”“ So, what kind of girl would Pym find fascinating according to Lee? When readers picked up Tales to Astonish No. 44 (1963) they found out that Pym was a widower. He had been married to a Hungarian beauty named Maria Trovaya. But when she“d insisted that they“d spent their honeymoon in Hungary, she was murdered as a presumed traitor to her country. Luckily, right about the same time he was thinking about looking for a partner in his crime fighting work, another scientist visited his house. And this man brought his young daughter along. Hank immediately set his eyes on her: “She looks somewhat like Maria! But she“s much younger! Not much more than a child!”“ This however didn“t keep Pym from revealing his identity to Janet, and furthermore, to implant her with synthetic cells, as he told her: “They are specialized cells! I can implant them below your skin tissue! It will leave no scar! But when you are reduced to the size of a wasp, you“ll grow wings and tiny antennae!”“ Now, what girl wouldn“t want that? In all fairness, after he had written the plot, Lee handed off the writing duties to his friend Ernest Huntley Hart. But still, the way Janet Van Dyne is introduced, the way her characterization is handled, and the role she plays in the narrative, feels very Lee in 1963.

 

However, there were exceptions to the way the writer would normally set up a new female character, though he denied that there was a conscious plan at work then: “Y“know, over the past few years, many people have asked what Marvel“s policy is in regard to women. Basically, we have no policy at all.”“ But when he decided to bring back one of the very first heroes Marvel had ever presented (courtesy of his creator Bill Everett), when the publisher still was called Timely Comics, namely Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner, first as a villain in the pages of Fantastic Four, and in 1965 to replace Giant-Man (former Ant-Man) and The Wasp in Tales to Astonish, he did not extend the invitation to his female companion. She was of course Betty Dean,  another pretty blonde, but a very capable New York City policewoman who held her own during the adventures they“d shared together during The Golden Age and during the first revival for the King of Atlantis in the 1950s. Miss Dean had no superpowers, but she was athletic, a very good swimmer and a highly skilled police detective. Now Namor was romantically linked to Lady Dorma instead, a distant cousin of his, and a female who had even preceded Betty in the original series by Bill Everett who by then had left comics (though he would eventually return to The Sub-Mariner a few years down the line). But whereas Betty Dean had been nearly Namor“s equal and she“d provided a balance to his wilder nature and she and Namor complemented each other, Dorma was demure. Like the typical Stan Lee superhero girlfriend, she let Namor shine as the hero of his own tale. But unlike the other girls, who were much more modest and reserved in that aspect, in the very first storyline in Tales to Astonish (and later on once John Buscema took over as artist), Dorma was allowed to be much more glamorous. As depicted by penciler Gene Colan (working under the moniker Adam Austin) and inker Vince Colletta, she had the alluring look of an exotic dancer. Dorma was seen wearing a one-piece bathing suit, similar to the one Julie Adams had worn in her most iconic role, a long cape, long gloves and knee-high boots. Her lush, luxurious hair was wavy and styled like the hair of a female movie star. And as much as Namor was a Beatnik superhero, Dorma was his hip, go-go dancing girlfriend. And she definitely needed a hero, since his foes like Lord Krang wanted to either make her their queen or capture her to be put on display and serve as bait for Namor. Interestingly though, once the second story arc started in Tales to Astonish No. 77 (1966) Lee and his artists toned down her alluring look and also her presence considerably. The other exception was of course Spider-Man, or more precisely his alter ego Peter Parker. While he was still in high school, he dated Betty Brand, another secretary character. Since she was a career girl, Betty not only was a bit older than Peter, but also more experienced in the way of the world. When Betty was introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 4 (1963), there might not have been a plan for her and Peter to hook up. Thus, initially artist (and co-creator) Steve Ditko portrayed her as the type of pretty young woman you would see around the offices of Manhattan during those years. With her short, wavy brown hair and her slender figure see looked nice and proper. But around the time Daredevil No. 1 premiered in 1964, and with it the introduction of Karen Page, Betty“s looked had changed. While the secretary of blind lawyer Matt Murdock and his best friend possessed the look of a starlet and a feminine, hourglass-shaped figure right off the bat, Betty Brand“s appearance changed once she started dating Peter. This is very obvious in issue No. 11 (1964). On the splash page, while presented in a full figure shot by Ditko, she looks much more alluring with her perfectly styled hair and in high heels, as she also seems far more advanced in life than Peter or Spider-Man for that matter. And throughout the story, which introduced readers to her effete looking brother, a lawyer who was in cahoots with a gangster due to his gambling debt, Ditko depicted her as somebody who could easily play a character in a romantic movie, somebody who was in her early twenties, dating a guy who was long out of college, and not a high school student. But alas, there was an easy fix. At Lee“s behest (one can only assume), Ditko radically changed the way he portrayed her. And the contrast was immediately noticeable. Her curls were gone in favor of straight bangs which made her look younger and less womanly and her clothes were less fashionable. Her whole personality came across as a bit mousey now. And when the duo introduced a new love interest for the young hero who came in the form of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 31 (1965), clearly, she was the ideal Stan Lee woman. The young co-ed was certainly beautiful, but in a non-threatening way. She wasn“t over the top and she was rather sweet without too much of a personality to speak of. Though he and John Romita soon introduced another female character, Mary Jane Watson, who very much was the opposite of Gwen, while equally stunning, it was fairly obvious who Peter (and Stan Lee) preferred.

 

While Lee, according to his words, had no hand in the creation of Doctor Strange when he first appeared in Strange Tales No. 110 (1963), when it was time to introduce a female character into the series, Stan“s fingerprints were all over that particular story, and arguably it was the weakest among the earlier tales. After Strange had fought his arch-nemesis Mordo in Strange Tales No. 111, and readers would see him again in the origin tale in No. 115, he was also the villain in issue No. 114 which was used by Stan to try out a new female protagonist in this series, the very first ever since Strange“s debut. And why not? The Master of the Mystical Arts still shared the book with the youngest member of The Fantastic Four, and the Human Torch had eighteen pages of story while his adventures felt somewhat tagged on with their five pages. Her name was Lady Victoria Bentley. It seems his motivations were similar to those he“d had when he“d added Janet to the Ant-Man series in Tales to Astonish: “Ant-Man seemed to need a shot in the arm, so we added The Wasp. Hope she“ll help.”“ Like Lee had introduced young Janet via her father, who had died in the story in which they“d both premiered, Victoria was mentally summoned by Doctor Strange to her late father“s castle where Mordo had trapped him. Only the thing was, Strange was never really trapped, and hence he had no in-story reason to call upon her. But there was of course a reason, because in the story readers learned, that there was instant chemistry between the mage and the young woman: “I feel as though I know you”¦ as though our fates are intertwined!”“ Victoria, with her father gone, was certainly open to having a somewhat older gentleman caller take his place, exactly like Janet was after her scientist father had been killed. But unlike Janet, she came already with her own powers. Only not as advanced as Strange“s, of course, hence she needed him to teach her: “He said that I have a talent for the mystic arts! Is it true? Can you teach me? May I be”¦ your disciple?”“ Well, Strange stalled for a bit. Maybe this was Stan waiting for a response from readers. Ditko however did not seem to like this character. Ditko either seemed to have lost his interest in Doctor Strange for a bit, or he was simply biding his time until Doctor Strange had garnered more fans to do his thing. The next couple of issues did little to advance matters. Between some seemingly appropriate advertisement for mail order magic items such as “Magic for fun and money”“, a book that taught you how hypnotize people, and a “Hypno-Coin”“ that promised the same thing with no book needed, Ditko delivered the origin of Doctor Strange and a fantastic story involving the demon Nightmare. But other than that, the mage fought Mordo twice and Nightmare another time. But these tales felt a bit lackluster. And so did stories involving haunted mansions and possessions which harkened back to Ditko“s horror stories from the 1950s. And there was of course the obligatory story in which Stan Lee tried to connect Strange to the larger universe he was in the midst of creating with his artists. At least having Strange team-up with Thor to fight Loki felt not that terribly shoehorned in as if Strange now wanted to become a member of The Avengers like Spider-Man would soon. When nearly a year later, readers saw a mysterious woman who hid her identity with a hood and a veil in Strange Tales No. 124 (1964) it seemed that perhaps now Strange would get a girl companion. But readers were disappointed, since by the end of the story, “The Lady from Nowhere!”“ turned out as a displaced woman from history, namely Cleopatra herself. And while she perhaps would have made an interesting love interest for the sorcerer, Ditko had other plans. In the first two-part tale, which ran in No. 126 and 127, he introduced Doctor Strange and readers to a strange girl which did not share any attributes with the women Lee would come up with, except for the fact that she was younger than Strange, by several years it seemed, even though, since she was not from our reality, this was hard to say. There was already a sense of foreboding when Strange, upon visiting The Ancient One, saw what his wise mentor described as a messenger, a spirit form sent from the Dark Realm by Dormammu, the being Strange“s arch-nemesis worshipped. When learning that this demon now wanted to conquer our realm, The Ancient One figured that Dormammu needed to be stopped right in his own world. Since he considered himself too frail for the task at hand, Strange jumped right at the chance to prove himself. Though he had visited nether worlds before, he had done so in astral form. This time around this would not do. Instead his mentor opened a gateway to send him to Dormammu“s dimension as a creature of flesh and blood, which proved an awesome experience since now Ditko cut loose. Once again, like he“d done in the Nightmare stories, he created a bizarre land of floating shapes and otherworldly beings. He kept the best design for the big boss, of course. Though Lee claimed he had come up with the name for the villain, Ditko surely provided a unique character design which he would refine in subsequent issues. But the most striking element was right there in Dormammu“s first appearance. The demon had a head that was on fire while his facial features were blurred out. But as amazing as all this was, Ditko had one more character reveal. Among the colorful geometric forms and frighteningly misshapen beasts, there was beauty to be found. A gorgeous girl in fact with a long, elegant face with fine features and very thin eyebrows and a crown of silver hair done in a unique style. Her body was slender and long-legged, and her weirdly patterned pants came with impossibly high stiletto heels. She was curious in nature and she was even a little bemused to learn what creature would dare to take the fight to the ruler of this world. So then, this was the type of girl a Randian objectivist like Steve Ditko envisioned as ideal partner for a former surgeon turned Master of the Mystic Arts. Whereas Victoria Bentley came across as a Girl Friday, and she right away applied for the job of “disciple”“, this girl was anything, but. She was not afraid for a man she had just seen for the very first time, but she simply thought his endeavors foolish. While she observed him in action, her thoughts revealed a lot: “Why does he continue on? Surely by now he can see how hopeless it is! Back! Go back, noble human!”“ And even though Strange offered a good showing for himself, she finally abandoned her watch post and approached him: “Stop! You must go no further! The Dread Dormammu waits to slay you!”“ Talk about stating the obvious, as the mage remarked: “I am aware of that!”“ But instead of telling him “to have courage”“ or some such morality boost, she remained matter-of-factly: “But you cannot suspect how powerful he is! You throw away your life by facing him!”“ Those readers who had seen the latest movies with then popular actresses like Jean Seberg, Jane Fonda or Jeanne Moreau, or to take the age difference between the characters into account, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in “Roman Holidays”“, could have identified this type of female character quite easily. What Ditko offered was an imaginative, quirky antidote to the brooding older man Strange and the dull Victoria Bentley who very much felt like an ingenue who only knew one facial expression. This girl“s face was changing constantly unlike any other female character Ditko had ever presented, making her more beautiful while she ran a gamut of distinctly expressed emotions as varied as the many weird opponents Strange faced one after the other as he advanced to the final boss battle. In this girl, who would remain without a name for the next two years, Ditko created the only female character that would work for a man who once was the greatest surgeon in the world and who would become the Sorcerer Supreme: a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Since men like Stephen Strange (and Steven Ditko) would only allow a girl who was a pure magical creature to hold considerable sway over them, especially if they were pushing forty.

 

And even though she had properly warned him, the first part ended with Strange confronting the final boss: “It is with me you shall deal! If you wish to attack The Ancient Once, it cannot be done while I still live!”“ When the next issue started, Ditko revealed a stunning double twist. Dormammu was not really interested in fighting Strange. He considered him too weak an opponent, as he craved the challenge of fighting The Ancient One again. But Strange didn“t desist, though, once alone, he let his nerves show. It was the girl who once again came to him to tell him that even if he won, he would doom their world. Since Strange was too focused on the fight that lay ahead for him, she had to show him. And show she did. She conjured up an entrance out of thin air and then the two of them floated past the most bizarre objects a human mind can think of let alone put on paper, and all the way to the outskirts of the realm controlled by The Dread Dormammu. And there they were: “The Mindless Ones”“. These were creatures of the most violent temperament, devoid of emotion or intelligence, only motivated by their dull sense of causing destruction in their wake. And even now, left to their own devices, they most brutally battled each other. But even though these living killing-machines became aware of the sorcerer and the silver-tressed beauty, they couldn“t attack. Dormammu had created an invisible shield to hold them back. But should he fall in battle, there wouldn“t be anything to hold these brutes at bay. Once they had returned, the demon now punished Strange“s ally by putting her into heavy chains. Then their battle begun. And surprisingly, while these two gave it their all, the two opponents found respect for each other. Whereas Dormammu was more experienced and more powerful, he appreciated Strange“s courage and valor. It was at this point during their fight that the barrier began to lose its potency since the demon now forced all his dark magic into besting Strange, which now even gave him pause. But with him having depleted his powers this much during their duel, Dormammu was unable to hold the raving beasts back. It was only when Strange joined forces with him, that The Mindless Ones yielded, and the barrier could be set up. The benefit was two-fold: not only had Strange saved this world and the girl, but the demon showed that even he had a code of honor. He considered himself now indebted to the man who had aided him. And surely, Strange had two favors to ask: “And then, the debt shall be paid. One: no harm must come to this female! Two: you must vow never to invade the Earth!”“ As a man or demon true to his word, he agreed. And then, in another twist, it was Strange who asked the silver-haired woman if she wanted to come to his world, but she instead decided to let him down easy: “No, this is my world! It is here that I belong”¦ no matter where my heart shall be!”“ But at least Strange finally got his Cloak of Levitation from The Ancient One as his reward and a new, more powerful amulet. But if readers thought that these two issues represented some sort of peak for this series, they were ill prepared for the battle that came but a few issues later, a battle that would extend well beyond the pages of a mere comic book. What Ditko started in Strange Tales No. 130 (1965) had not been seen in comics since the days when Otto Binder was writing the adventures of the original Captain Marvel for Fawcett Comics and he had orchestrated the twenty-five chapter long “The Monster Society of Evil”“ storyline. But that was in the 1940s. Yet here was Ditko kicking of a story in fifteen parts which was then followed, after a one issue break, by a most interesting coda. And among all the Doctor Strange stories told, this multi-part narrative might still have a very unique place. In modern times, such an event would surely start fairly slow, with the first one or two parts used for set-up. Ditko kicked off his massive storyline with the loudest bang. Mordo was back, but he was now aided by two disciples of his own, and more importantly, Dormammu granted him new powers, since this way he could circumvent the promise he had given Strange, one that still stung. And little time did the evil Baron waste before he and his allies openly attacked The Ancient One at his own home. Luckily, Strange was around. But, Baron Mordo was too powerful for even him. With the old man wounded in the attack, the mage beat a hasty retreat. And not soon enough, since Mordo had failed in his initial wave, Dormammu unleashed a small army of spirits from the nether world to serve as Mordo“s bloodhounds to track down Strange and the old man. But Strange had one advantage. He had brought his mentor to a secret safe house (a hidden cave) where a servant took good care of him, while he lured the spirits across the globe to win time until The Ancient One had regained his magical strength. But as Strange traveled to Hong Kong to see a disciple of his badly wounded mentor, a man who could provide the documents and funds for him to continue his trip without revealing his powers, the evil Mordo had his spies and allies everywhere it seemed. To avoid captured, lest he be tortured to reveal the location of his ailing mentor, he split into many versions of himself right on the street, while dressed in civilian clothes. If this was not the inspiration for a similar scene involving Agent Smith in the Matrix movies to be shot so many years later, nothing really is. With that, Doctor Strange now became a man on the run, as Ditko was off to the races. The next parts would now also see the return of Clea, who ultimately had a much more active role. To stop Dormammu from aiding Mordo, she released The Mindless Ones even at great peril to her life if she were found out. This happened while the mage, in astral form, was hunted by Mordo and the spirits to the ends of The Earth, and further still, into domains beyond the imagination of most men. And Steve Ditko now introduced an even more astonishing being, Eternity, whose name had only been but a hushed whisper in earlier installments. This fantastical entity was the embodiment of the multiverse itself. While the plotter and artist showed readers these wonderments in increments of ten pages, editor Lee still ran the adventures of The Human Torch, which he himself scripted, as the main feature of the same book at twelve pages each. Even with talent like Wally Wood and Bob Powell, who handed in work that was serviceable at best, the contrast between these series was utterly jarring.

 

Then, to conclude the second act of this epic saga, most unusual in size and more importantly, in scope, while tightly plotted by Ditko as well as depicted in a way that had not been seen in any medium before, Mordo managed to abduct his former mentor, while Dormammu held Clea hostage. With his king and queen captured, Strange had become a pawn on a chessboard. Thus, now the stage was set for the final confrontation between these sworn enemies. While Dormammu was watching from his realm and this fiend made the girl observe as well, the two sorcerers dug it out among themselves like they had never done. Whereas Dormammu could grant the Baron as much power as his mad mind craved, The Ancient One, in his weakened state, was a far less potent supporter for Strange. But still, Mordo could not beat his resourceful foe and the demon grew impatient with him. It was time for the final boss battle, and it would take place in a neutral dimension, a DMZ to which Dormammu now had transported his enemies and to which he summoned the rulers of the neighboring dimensions for them to witness how awesome he was when defeating Strange and The Ancient One once and for all. But as the battle turned in favor of the mage, Mordo blasted Strange in the back like the coward he was and as an attempt to weasel his way back into the good graces of his master. With Strange cowardly defeated, Dormammu“s rage knew no boundaries towards the man who had robbed him of his possible victory. And while he confronted the smarmy Baron, a seemingly slain Strange on the ground between them, another battle was waged behind the scenes. Readers who took note of all the information on the splash page for the Strange tale in Strange Tales No. 141 (1966), noticed a peculiar change. Whereas previously writing credits had been presented as “Written Stan Lee”“ or as something to that effect, and they said this for the first tale which was a Nick Fury story (drawn by Jack Kirby, and according to the credits, this was all he did), they simply read: “Dialogue and Captions: Stan Lee”“. Though the writer / editor had given Ditko a “plotted by”“ credit before, now he publicly conceded what many may have suspected the true nature of their collaboration was. Doctor Strange was by all accounts a Steve Ditko book, and it now said so. Clearly, something was amiss in the working relationship between these two men, but most likely less obvious as the fight that took place on the printed page where Strange now resumed his part in the deadly duel since his mentor had managed to deflect Mordo“s magic blow to some degree. And whereas Dormammu fought with a lot of anger, Strange used strategy. And then, Strange not only won, but in a gesture of triumph and of degradation completed towards his enemy, he lifted his defeated opponent with one arm over his head. But ultimately revealed as a sore loser, he now banished the girl to an unknown dimension for treason. Still, Ditko“s multi-part epic continued. How could it not, with the silver-haired beauty now lost? At this point however, another strange thing happened. Stan Lee withdrew from the series entirely as reflected by the credits which now solely listed him as editor and gave the writing credits to Roy Thomas at first, and in Strange Tales No. 145 (1966) to Dennis O“Neil who had just joined the publisher. On paper, the same held true for issue No. 146 (1966) which served as an epilogue to Ditko“s fifteen-parter, but upon closer inspection, this was Ditko unleashed. And even though readers had no inkling of this, the title of this tale would prove most prophetic: “The End”¦ At Last!”“ Once again Dormammu, still stinging form a defeat so humiliating, lured Strange into his world. But as a precaution, the demon had imprisoned the one being that could assist the mage. He had trapped Eternity in a sub dimension. But when this entity awoke and became aware of these constraints, Eternity broke free. Mad like a bat, the demon with the flaming head dared to attack the being that was the multiverse himself. And by the end of their struggle, both opponents, locked in such a violent conflict, had seemingly destroyed each other. Subsequently, the mage freed the beings that had been banished by Dormammu to unknown domains. They included the silver-haired girl, of course, who finally had a chance to introduce herself: “There is much pleasure in speaking my name to you”¦ it is Clea!”“ When they left each other, they both spoke identical words to one another: “Though we each have our separate tasks, I feel in my heart that it is our destiny to meet again!”“ When Strange returned to our world and his Sanctum Sanctorum, his thoughts were with Clea: “I shall go to the quiet of my retreat, to rest”¦ and to savor the sweet rapture of the name Clea.”“ After all this drama of the many months during which Ditko had told this amazing story, many readers might have overlooked the announcement that came right after the words “The End”“. Or they simply took it as a piece of hyperbole: “Next month the Master of Mystery begins a new life!”“ But those who did read those words could only wonder. They had seen the contrast in his reaction to the somewhat boring and over-eager Victory Bentley and the pixie girl who was Clea. So, would Clea join the sorcerer? Well, no!

 

Strange Tales No. 146, published in the late summer of 1966, was Ditko“s last issue for Marvel. Though he would eventually return to the publisher many years later, he would never work on these characters ever again, characters Stan Lee had admitted were his sole creation. But what about the new creative team? At first, Denny O“Neil and penciler Bill Everett took over. Stan pitched in with some of the writing. Yeah, you might think he got very busy that was why he had left the strip earlier. But as with the artist, the writer changed as well. Everett got replaced by Marie Severin and before he would relent his duties once again to a rotating stable of writers, Stan returned once more to the series that had been Ditko“s up until recently. With Ditko gone, so was Clea. Lee could just as easily have let Clea remain in the Dark Dimension, but as long as she was around, her presence would haunt Strange like the specter of an ex-girlfriend the protagonist of a romance story still had feelings for. With Ditko gone, Lee could bring back the character he had originally intended as Strange“s love interest. But for this to work, he needed the silver-haired girl out of the way permanently. It surely had to have come as a rather huge shock for fans of this character, when the cover to Strange Tales No. 154 (1967) already told them what was going to happen to this lovely young woman who had succeeded in capturing the heart of Doctor Strange. “Clea Must Die!”“, bold letters claimed in a huge caption. Without Clea anywhere in sight, there was the hero as he was assailed by a foreboding figure in a long white frock with a hood. The figure itself was invisible though. Not only did a mass of gray colored people cower in terror at the sight of this weird apparition, Strange himself recoiled from it with a look of pain and disgust on his half-concealed features. If he was not a perfect representation of death himself, nothing was. However, for the issue itself, Stan wasn“t really blowing the doors of his imagination from their hinges. Earlier Roy Thomas had introduced Umar, sister of Dormammu (and mother of the lovely Clea as was later revealed) who had taken over the Dark Dimension with her brother gone. While initially she had seemed content with using Clea as bait, Umar now was intent on destroying the young woman. Umar not only looked but acted like the Wicked Witch of the East and she had her own little army of flying monkeys. And while the hooded figure was Veritas and not Death, the result was the same. Umar sent out a bolt of energy to slay Clea. Still, the sorcerer was able to whisk Clea away to safety across various dimension. But alas, they could not escape Umar“s wrath forever as The Ancient One told him in the next issue. With no further option open to them (since Lee needed her gone), the old man (and Lee) now used a magic spell which would literally make the girl disappear, as Doctor Strange mused: “Never have any returned from the unknown Spell of Vanishment. We now send the helpless Clea to a fate of which nothing is, or can be known! And yet, though she be hidden from me forever”¦ she shall be safe from Umar, too! It is the only way”¦!”“ With Clea gone, it fell on Raymond Marais to bring back Strange“s original love interest. He did exactly that a few issues later in a new storyline which saw many mystics banding together, emboldened by forces of black magic on Earth. In Strange Tales No. 160 (1967) among the group responsible for returning Baron Mordo, readers spied a somewhat familiar face. In the next issue, Victoria Bentley found out that she was under a spell from which she was able to free herself. While it is probably unknown to time if the writer had a choice in bringing Miss Bentley back to the series, the fact that he has only five writing credits with Marvel, all of which were for “split-titles”“ of this time period, indicates that he was neither held in high regard nor that he did have much say over the direction of the stories he wrote. Lee“s name came first in the credits and he was the editor. While Victoria was here to stay, cast into the same weird dimension as Strange himself, she was forthwith in constant need of rescuing from some outlandish, yet simultaneously dull-looking menace, courtesy of new regular artist Dan Adkins, Marais was off the book after only two tales. With the series now written by Jim Lawrence (and co-plotted by Adkins) until Dennis O“Neil took over for the two last issues, the British woman stayed at the mage“s side as they adventured through many bizarre dimensions that were but a faint reminder of Ditko“s ground-breaking work on the character. It was the most tedious, uninspired period this series had ever seen, only rivaled by The Wizard of Oz rip-off storyline Lee and Severin had rendered, the one which had led to Clea“s banishment. But then came the opportunity for Marvel to put out more books on a monthly schedule, and with Nick Fury spun-off into his own series, with issue No. 169 (1968) Strange Tales became Doctor Strange. Once Roy Thomas was fully ensconced as the new regular writer, to say things were about to chance is an understatement.

 

There are a couple of pages that perfectly sum up the difference between Stan Lee and a much younger Thomas. When Lee was working with Don Heck on The Avengers, all the characters, especially once in their civilian identities, had a lot of the swagger and style of men and women in the early 60s. And alas, like folks of that era, as their alter-egos, these heroes frequented swanky cocktail lounges. Heck“s men were handsome, and his women were impossibly glamorous. This certainly was a scene Lee would dig. Once Thomas came onto the title, there was less hedonistic self-indulgence and romantic flirtation, but a younger, more earnest outlook on life. These now were character less of the jet set and more written for a college crowd, even though Lee prided himself with writing to exactly this audience (and he did so in The Amazing Spider-Man especially thanks to John Romita“s romance books skills). But whereas with his (and Kirby“s) Fantastic Four, Susan and Reed Richards became a royal couple that reflected the silent majority, Thomas“s Avengers were hip and happening. In The Avengers No. 45 (1967), and on the pages in which the heroes and heroines meet their fans and a bunch of reporters in Central Park in particular, there is a youthful spirit. While the photographers seem to belong to a different generation, with their hats and bowties, the crowd is young and hopeful, and so are the heroes. They are rock stars and bigger than The Beatles, but not in their early incarnation, but right at the time when “Sgt. Pepper“s”“ had just been released. And when Janet Van Dyne arrives in her silver Mark ST sports car, she poses for her fans and the cameras, with one guy from the crowd asking: “Where did you dig up the glitzy new costume?”“ Her response: “Why, thank you for noticing! It“s just a little something I threw on, as they say. Of course, I“ll confess it took me three hours of throwing!”“ And even though the camera guys treat her like a pin-up model while she sits for them on the hood of her expensive car, Thomas let readers know between the lines that she was the Grace Slick of the superheroine set, and that Earth“s Mightiest Heroes were at least as cool as Jefferson Airplane. Janet was no longer the young girl who followed her beau around to boost his ego. And Hank Pym, who now used the moniker Goliath, was immediately jealous of every other man and all the attention she was getting. Like Lee, Thomas worked with Don Heck for this issue. But the difference could not have been any more noticeable (even though Vince Colletta“s inks provided some additional glam). Another example of how the two writers differed came at the end of that year when Lee introduced a new Captain Marvel in the pages of Marvel Super-Heroes, a move motivated by the intent to secure the now vacant trademark. Marvel was really Captain Mar-Vell of an alien race that was known as The Kree. While the gray-haired man was a virile and all-manly war hero, his hair and his rank indicated that he was indeed pushing his late thirties or early forties. In the same issue, Lee (and artist Gene Colan) introduced readers to his love interest Medic Una (another nurse, basically) who by our standards, looked like she was in her early twenties. She was full of admiration for the hero, as she attended to his needs constantly. And she cried a lot. As they said goodbye when he embarked on his mission on Earth, and whenever he seemed in danger. When Thomas took over with the next issue, he had Mar-Vell assume the identity of a scientist, but Una now became much more resourceful while she secretly aided the hero behind the back of her commanding officer who was the bad guy. This was very reminiscent of what Clea had done when she secretly and remotely aided Strange from the Dark Realm. Thomas did not stop there. Once Mar-Vell had gained access to a military installation under the guise of Dr. Walter Lawson, he met Carol Danvers who was head of security and literally wore the pants. She was of course very beautiful, but older and clearly more confident and capable than Una. In a way she was very similar to Namor“s original girlfriend Betty Dean. With Roy Thomas being a huge fan of Golden Age comic characters, this doesn“t seem a coincidence. Carol worked independently from the hero; Una solely existed to support him. This was the Dorma and Betty dynamic all over again. That is until Thomas departed the book. With Gary Friedrich (who was actually three years younger than Thomas) and Frank Springer eventually taking over (with Vince Colletta on inks), Carol was immediately seen in the shortest mini dress that they could get past the Comics Code at that time. While she was menaced by an android, she also seemed to have forgotten all her military training as she awaited the return of the hero to save her from the gigantic machine man. Now the writer of Doctor Strange, Thomas had other plans. When Strange returns from the temple of the Ancient One in Doctor Strange No. 171 (1968), the third tale in the re-titled series with Thomas at the helm, his trusted servant Wong and readers quickly learned what he was up to. After his mentor had spoken the Spell of Vanishment to send Clea to a place not even he knew where (a location which nobody could ever hope to find her at as Lee had promised), the old man had conveniently remembered another spell by which Doctor Strange would simply achieve just that. So confident was his mentor in this now recalled incantation, that he had given the mage his word that it would prove successful. There was a catch (there had to be, so Thomas could cleverly set up the next storyline). The spell was only half a success for now. Clea, of whom readers now found out that she was an immortal due her banishment, was only shown to him. His mentor had told him about an out should this happen. He only needed a female with whom he had formed a mystic rapport. Well, now would he use Victoria Bentley to find Clea? What a dick move that would be! Just seconds later, while the lady of castle Bentley was in the midst of hosting a fancy party, in mid-conversation, she got a mental message from the good doctor. And like any other lovelorn creature, she stopped everything else at the drop of a hat. And once she is quickly, and dangerously so, transported via another dimension to his Sanctum Sanctorum, without so much of a hello, he right away starts yapping to her about Clea: “Once she was a queen until her dimension was absorbed by The Dread Dormammu! Then, because she dared aid me, she was menaced”¦”“ Now what did Victoria think of all this: “When he speaks of this Clea, his eyes see nothing”¦ to think that when his summons came, I thought it might mean that he loved me!”“ Well, she is willing to help him anyway, of course. Even if it means to cross “the barrier into the realm unknown!”“ And other than Clea, who seems to possess a great deal of undefined mystical powers, Victoria knows her limits quite well: “Then I stand ready to do what I may”¦ though I have no true mystic powers of my own!”“ And once he opens a portal into a weird dimension (nicely depicted by artist Tom Palmer in one of his rare jobs as a penciler), Victoria is completely focused on Strange: “I should be fearful for my life! Still, I cannot”¦ as long as he is near me!”“ But then, the young woman is so overcome by fear, that our hero puts her under an enchanted aura for her protection while he muses to himself: “Before we came to this place, I would have thought she was made of sterner fibre!”“ Their earlier adventures during the last couple of issues of Strange Tales seem to have entirely escaped his mind as he leaves her behind. For good reason it would seem since soon enough he encounters a violent man with whom he must do battle, though he realizes too late that his powers have been drained and that he has even shrunken to the size of doll. And as Thomas closes the issue, Strange is easily snatched up by a very alive Dormammu. Behind the demon with the flaming head there were the women in Strange“s life, both of them trapped.

 

When readers picked up issue No. 172 (1968), they discovered that the series had yet again a new artist. But this change was different. Not only had Thomas found a collaborator who was perfectly suited for the type of stories he wanted to tell, but this penciler would become as widely associated with the tales of The Master of the Mystic Arts as Steve Ditko himself. And this made total sense, too. A year younger than Ditko, Gene Colan had a history of rendering horror tales as well, and like Ditko, he had really come into his craft once Marvel had started this new trend in superhero comics. Whereas many stalwarts of the days of Atlas Comics and even from the Golden Age had not adapted their layout techniques to take advantage of these new types of characters who were a bit more rough around the edges and showed a lot of emotions all the time, both Ditko and Colan jumped at the opportunity to experiment with the way they laid out a page. Ditko, to achieve a claustrophobic effect, kept the panel grid highly regulated. He limited the experimentation to what was happening inside each panel. Colan broke with the classic form of the panels and their borders constantly. Like a masterfully apt director of photography, he kept on changing the zoom constantly, from vast vista to tiny staccato panels that were tight on the faces to wring even the tiniest drop of raw emotion from them. Ditko, a master of the psychological terror, gave visual representation to an over-active mind. Colan excelled at creating an expressionistic atmosphere. Thomas provided Colan with ideal tableaus to showcase his skills. As it turned out, after his earlier fight to the death with Eternity, Dormammu had ended up in the same domain as Clea, which under Colan“s pencils and Tom Palmer“s assured inks (the latter had switched into the role in which he“d worked with Colan before, and they together had already proven a powerhouse team) felt like a prison planet. When the demon arrived, like in any other penitentiary, he got immediately challenged by gargoyle-like beasts who wanted to pit their strength against his. But to little avail as it turned out. He ruled supreme, and so sure was the demon of his powers that he had projected the image of Clea the mage had seen in his study when casting the spell of his mentor. Since Doctor Strange had entered into the Realm Unknown, the demon was no longer bound to the enchantment that tied him to this sphere. While he had Strange under guard, he gathered his troops and even summoned his sister Umar to ready an invasion of Earth. Meanwhile, after he had battled his guard, another demonic creature, Doctor Strange had regained his powers, and in turn he released the two women, which didn“t go so well for Victoria. Once Strange was reunited with Clea, he only had eyes for the silver-haired pixie girl. Victoria strolled off as he was talking to his love, with her thoughts revealing her state of mind: “I always knew it would be this way when he found the fair Clea for whom he sought! But still, could I ever refused him”¦ when he asked me to help him find her? For, may heaven forgive me”¦ I love him!”“ With another confrontation so close at hand, Strange sent the women away. Then he alone blocked Dormammu and his army access to Earth as they approached the Doorway of the Dimensions. Not only had Strange released Dormammu from his spell, unwittingly, in his haste to find the girl, he had revealed the location of this portal to his enemy. It would seem that Strange had been perfectly played by his arch-nemesis, and that the Earth itself stood to pay the price for his miscalculation and lack of risk-assessment. Though Dan Adkins provided a striking cover for the next issue, readers were once again treated to the amazing artwork by Colan and Palmer (who, in addition to providing the most excellent inks for the former“s linework, also created the color guides). And while Strange fought alone, the two women tumbled across the dimensions towards Earth. To add insult to injury, Clea voices her worries how Victoria will fare during the rough transition, while she can manage just fine. Apparently, Strange is good at multi-tasking, since even when he does battle, he uses a spell to protect them both, giving Roy Thomas one more opportunity to drive home the notion that Victoria was totally unsuited as Strange“s mate, a realization that dawned on the British woman herself: “I see now that the one I love can never be mine.”“ Still, pathetically so, she“s hung up about Strange: “If anything should happen to him, how could I go on living”¦?”“ Way to go, girl! Both of them conveniently appear right in the middle of Strange“s Sanctum Sanctorum, and Clea immediately takes charge, of the situation and of Wong. While Victoria remains in the background, Colan and Palmer render Clea at her most beautiful in several full-figure shots that displayed not only how gorgeous she was but underlined her charisma and inner strength as well. And she was clearly much younger than Strange who does look like a man in his early forties now more than ever. When he and Dormammu battle, this struggle is one for the ages. Colan and Palmer“s art is dynamic and slick and the right blend between mystical stuff and superhero fights. This was Marvel art of the late 1960s at its best. In the end, Dormammu was not able to cross over to our world since he“d once vowed that he wouldn“t do this, after Strange had him beaten during their first bout in Strange Tales No. 127, at the mid-point of the original run by Ditko. Before he was ready to start the next arc, Thomas still had some house cleaning to do. Strange now had two girls hanging out at his place, and he was not happy about that. The man needed time to himself, but Thomas let readers know that he was a cool, modern dude in that he wanted the woman he loved to have a life of her own, and not for her to be hung up about him non-stop: “Clea, we must find a dwelling-place for you. Somewhere that you shall be safe”¦ and yet be free to build a new life for yourself!”“ That does not keep him from choosing some new clothes for her, or better have Wong do it. But his servant had done so already, and he has even guessed Clea“s size right. And as Clea and Strange lean intimately into each other, allowing the artists to again show off her young, nubile body in the most advantageous manner, Lady Bentley slinks around the house like some ghost from the past. Even though she muses: “I would have braved a thousand realms unknown”¦ to have been thus the object of his attention!”“, she still can“t take the hint apparently. All this is not keeping Strange from showing the city to Clea while showing her off at the same time. And then of course, Strange and Clea kiss. But Strange has other matters to attend to since he has been urgently summoned by a member of the British aristocracy, and he now flies there to investigate which is a convenient way for Thomas to have Victoria return to England as she and The Master of the Mystic Arts take the same plane across the Atlantic. The remainder of Doctor Strange No. 174 (1968) played out like a re-imagining of Strange Tales No. 114 (1963), with this never heard of noble man and practitioner of black magic, Lord Nekron, taking Baron Mordo“s place. But whereas Stan Lee had used the former story to introduce Victoria, Thomas used this issue to take her off the board once and for all. At the end of the tale, with Nekron soundly defeated, it was time to say goodbye. Though it was clear that Victoria would be counting the minutes until she saw Strange again, Thomas needed her gone. Clea would be better mate for Doctor Strange, especially for the next storyline he was planning.

Author Profile

Chris Buse (RIP)

A comic book reader since 1972. When he is not reading or writing about the books he loves or is listening to The Twilight Sad, you can find Chris at his consulting company in Germany... drinking damn good coffee. Also a proud member of the ICC (International Comics Collective) Podcast with Al Mega and Dave Elliott.

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