Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
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Doctor Strange #75
Issue(s): Doctor Strange #75
Cover Date: Feb 86
Title: "Souls in torment!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Mark Badger - Inker
Rosemary McCormick-Lowy - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor
Review/plot:
This is Roger Stern's last issue, and since a good percentage of this book is a straight retelling of Fantastic Four #277...
...it kind of feels like he had one foot out the door already. The story here is that a creature managed to escape from Hell after Mephisto's defeat in that issue...
...and after battling it for a while...
...Dr. Strange discovers that it is Topaz, of Werewolf By Night fame.
This seems to be the beginning of a story to restore the portion of Topaz's soul that was stolen from Topaz in Werewolf By Night #27-30, but that plot seems to get dropped in the transfer from Roger Stern to Peter Gillis, even though Topaz will remain on as a supporting character in the book.
Also in this issue, Sara learns that Wong is committed to a marriage arranged before his fiancee was even born.
Issue #73 serves as a good finale to Roger Stern's run (#74 was by Peter Gillis), and this should really be thought of more as a coda or a fill-in. As for the art, i've mentioned several times after seeing Sal Buscema, paired with the right inkers, drawing mystical stuff in ROM and Hulk that i would have liked to see him have a run on Doctor Strange, but this fill-in isn't what i was hoping for.
Quality Rating: C+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Peter Gillis will pick up on the Topaz story next issue, but it doesn't need to follow this one directly.
References:
- Topaz's ability to escape Hell came from the defeat of Mephisto in Fantastic Four #276-277, which the first six pages of this issue recap.
- At the time, Mephisto was taking advantage of the Dire Wraith's attack on Earth, and was weakened when they were defeated in ROM #65. It's somewhat interesting to see Dr. Strange refer to the Wraith's attack as an "outside force" here, which implies that Mephisto is really bound to Earth and isn't a cosmic representation of evil.
- There's no footnote, but Topaz must have been trapped in Hell since Tomb of Dracula #64.
- Sara and Wong started bonding while Dr. Strange had withdrawn due to Clea's departure circa Doctor Strange #55.
- In Doctor Strange #66, Wong began to discourage Sara's interest in him.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
Thus endth the greatest Strange run since Ditko and his magic mushrooms. The run was over far too quickly for my tastes. That said Uncle Rog certainly closed off most of the dangling plot threads while still leaving sum for incumming writer Gillis.
The number of writers who can write a Strange centric book (as opposed to his usual magic helper of the Marvel Universe role) are few and far between. I don't believe it's until JMS' Strange mini-series sum 20 years later that we'll get a quality Strange book again.
