Issue(s): Strange Tales #15
Cover Date: Jun 88

Cloak & Dagger

Title: "Gathering dusk!!"
Credits:
Terry Austin - Writer
Dan Lawlis - Penciler
Bob McLeod - Inker

Doctor Strange

Title: "On having no head"
Credits:
Peter Gillis - Writer
Richard Case - Penciler
Randy Emberlin - Inker

Marc McLaurin - Assistant Editor
Carl Potts - Editor

Review/plot:
On both the Cloak and Dagger and Doctor Strange sides, this issue is a breather, taking a rest before moving the plots start moving forward again.

The Cloak and Dagger side is actually split into four parts. First, a Dagger story with her and her father walking through New York and chasing a purse snatcher.

Then an "interlude" with 'Rusty' Nales investigating the death of her friend Brigid O'Reilly, who isn't actually dead but is now Mayhem.

Then another "interlude" with Father Bowen showing up at the mental institution where Father Delgado is being kept. Delgado is going to be released in a few weeks, but he's actually crazier than ever, hilariously praying to "Our Father... who art in my closet, Mister Jip be thy name".

Then a Cloak and Mayhem part, with Mayhem trying to come to grips with her vengeful persona and going to cloak for comfort. Cloak's body is now solid thanks to the way his powers were restored by Mr. Jip.

After Mayhem leaves, Cloak gets a message from Mr. Jip's pet Yipyap, who reminds him that he still has an outstanding debt.

The art is generally stiff throughout, although it's not as bad on the Cloak & Mayhem section. I wonder why Terry Austin never drew any issues of this series, though. Storywise, despite this working out to about 4 pages per character, it's not too bad.

On the Doctor Strange side, Strange turns out to still be alive, although he's lost all memory of himself. Strange's recent mentor Kaluu seems to have been in some alternate Asian-themed dimension for an "eternity" and has just been sitting on the side of a road but he rouses himself when he hears about the appearance of a Buddha that turns out to be Strange.

Kaluu challenges the idea that he's Buddha...

...and teleports Strange away to another dimension. It's not that Strange has lost his actual memory, but his ego has been destroyed and so he feels no connection with the previous Stephen Strange. Another problem is that Strange is so full of the energies he absorbed fighting Shuma-Gorath that if he were to travel directly to Earth he would destroy everything.

So he has Strange discharge some of his energy as they move through the various planes of existence.

But he's still having trouble restoring Strange's ego. That's when Enitharmon the Weaver shows up to collect his payment for repairing Strange's Cloak of Levitation a little while back.

He says that price is that he once again become Dr. Strange. And with that, he leads Kaluu and Strange through a mystical door.

Give a dinosaur some glasses and magic powers and you've got me sold, so i'm happy to see him return.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Regarding Dormammu's listing in the Characters Appearing here, see the References for 1988's Doctor Strange #1.

References:

• Brigid O'Reilly became Mayhem in Cloak and Dagger #5.
  
• Cloak says that there is compassion in Mayhem because she had the opportunity to kill the corrupt cop in Cloak and Dagger #8 but she allowed him to be arrested instead.
  
• Dr. Strange's talismans were destroyed in Doctor Strange #79-81, setting off the plotline that led to him having "died" after fighting Shuma-Gorath last issue.
  
• Enitharmon repaired Dr. Strange's Cloak of Levitation in Doctor Strange #78. The footnote is for Doctor Strange #77, which is actually when the cloak was torn.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The Dr. Strange story was a copout. All the previous issues of Strange Tales have him breaking his vows as both physician and sorcerer and abandoning all human morality to stop Shuma-Gorath. But instead of having a corrupted Strange try to become a good person again, Gillis instead takes the story in a different direction and has Strange have to regain his ego, which isn't what the previous chapters of the story were about. It's a cheat- Strange never has to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Point taken. Then again, I doubt there could ever be a satisfatory aftermath for the previous storyline.

I wonder if the purple dinosaur with glasses here was the inspiration to give Dragon Man glasses in Hickman's FF.