Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1976-07-01 00:06:30 |
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Doctor Strange #20
Issue(s): Doctor Strange #20
Cover Date: Dec 76
Title: "Call him: Xander the Merciless!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Rudy D. Nebres - Penciler
Rudy D. Nebres - Inker
Review/plot:
Wolfman continues his story about Xander, the agent of the Collectors he introduced in the last arc. Xander lures Strange and Clea to a museum and attacks them.
Xander wants Strange to come to the "Quadriverse" to help the Creators, but his method of asking isn't very polite. Clea is rendered amnesiac while Strange is brought into another dimension to continue the battle.
Xander takes credit for making the Ancient One demote Doctor Strange from the Sorcerer Supreme role...
...making that event manipulations within manipulations within manipulation (Xander> Ancient One> Nightmare> Eternity, right?).
Meanwhile, Clea is put in a holding cell at a police station, and she's presented with the opportunity to participate in a 70s style female prison exploitation movie (which doesn't even make sense; it's just a police station holding cell, not a real prison; how long has Bertha been there?) but she declines and becomes a scary-ass sorceress instead.
Why do female characters always seem so much more powerful when they are evil?
Strange defeats Xander with a nice left hook...
...and then uses the Eye of Agamotto to find one of the Creators. But Clea is currently wandering the streets of New York and in conflict with the police.
This is continued (sort of) in Dr. Strange annual #1.
Quality Rating: C
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: Even though we saw Xander in issue #19, i'm allowing that enough time has passed in between last issue and this one that Defenders #39, as well as a flashback from Dr. Strange annual #1, can occur in between. Dr. Strange annual #1 occurs between this issue and #22 (issue #21 is a reprint).
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Son of Satan #4-7 | Up: Main 1976 / Box 11 / EiC Upheaval | Next: Dr. Strange annual #1 |
Comments
You may be on to something about evil female characters being more powerful, even though its generally true that any character is shown as more powerful when evil--Magneto as a hero is just another X-Man; Mags as a villain can take on the whole team. But this effect may be more pronounced w/female characters, for reasons beyond building up a threat.
Strange defeating a more powerful mystic by dropping the magics and just slugging him is rather Ditkoesque (and also something Steve Gerber and Jim Starling used in the Defenders story that introduced Korvac). This arc seems a bit like an attempt to square Engelhart's "cosmic" version of Strange with Ditko's "clever, but outmatched," pulpier take on the character.
This was pretty awful, IMHO. Wolfman was in too much of a hurry to undo Englehart's work.
