Issue(s): Strange Tales #169, Strange Tales #170
Cover Date: Sep-Oct 73
Title: "Brother Voodoo!" / "Baptism of fire!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Dan Adkins - Inker

Review/plot:
De origin of Brudder Voodoo! And that's how people actually talk in these issues. The issue starts with an action sequence, as Brother Voodoo arrives just in time to save a UN pathologist from the unwashed anti-UN hordes.

Then we get the flashback that shows how Voodoo got his powers. Jericho Drumm, a psychologist, returns to his homeland of Haiti because his brother Daniel is sick - cursed by the spirit of Damballah, the serpent god.

Daniel was the voodoo priest of Haiti but was challenged by Damballah. Daniel dies, and Jericho seeks out the wise man Papa Jambo, who teaches Jericho to become a voodoo priest. In addition to receiving the same training that Daniel had received, Jericho also engages in a dangerous ritual that binds his brother's spirit with his own, giving him the power of two men plus the ability to use Daniel's spirit to possess others.

With his new powers, Jericho, now Brother Voodoo, defeats Damballah, preventing him from taking control of a group of evil mystics from around the world.

Brother Voodoo picks up his Wong analogue in this issue, an old man named Bambu.

What Brother Voodoo really needed was an interesting supporting cast; this guy won't really qualify.

The Damballah that appears in this story seems to be simply an evil voodoo priest. In some later stories we will see a Damballah that truly is an evil serpent god. I'm assuming that the priest we meet in this issue was in some way possessed by or otherwise channeling the god, and therefore for tracking purposes i'm listing this as the same Damballah as those later appearances. By contrast, the MCP lists 3 separate Damballah entities, all in some way related to the same serpent god.

The story is fairly generic, but Gene Colan's art is nice as always. The reprint is recolored using modern techniques that don't really work well with the older art style (the scans here are from the originals).

There's always going to be something a little awkward about this character. He was, i suppose, an earnest attempt at adding some more diversity to Marvel's line-up, but a lot of aspects (the name, the dialogue...) just feel a bit... ah... culturally insensitive.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Brother Voodoo

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Doctor Voodoo: The Origin of Jericho Drumm

the toughest thing about brother voodoo is that he really was a sincere attempt on marvel's part. they really wanted brother voodoo to succeed and put a lot of effort into his creation. Unfortunately, the stories are so repetative (basically this story over and over again with a different voodoo badiee each time) that they had to give up on him and send him to guest star limbo.

Brother Vodoo will eventually become Sorceror Supreme and change his name to doctor vodoo

He will later die as sorceror supreme to save the world from aggamato who wanted his eye back. This will also cause Daniel's spirit craving for vengence on dr.strange and the new avengers for there involvment

Anonymous is me doomsday

Part of the changing of the Damballah character was based on the fact that it was culturally insensitive to portray Damballah as an evil snake.
Voodoo adherents would never consider Damballah to be evil!
Roy Thomas would sort of get around to correcting this misconception eventually (during his run on Dr.Strange in the 1990s).

Colan revealed in Comics Interview #97 that he didn't care for the character at all.

Fred Hembeck kept the character visible until BMB used him in New Avengers.