By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
With Dr. Strange premiering Nov. 4 – and already getting great reviews – we all need a refresher on Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts. Here are 21 Fun Facts To Know and Tell about Dr. Strange:
1. Dr. Strange debuted full-blown in 1963 at Marvel Comics, the brainchild of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (but mostly Ditko). Initially he looked Asian, but progressively became more Caucasian. He looked to be thirtysomething, but he doesn’t age. According to the Marvel Wiki, he was born in 1930 …
2. … in Philadelphia. Although his family is actually from Nebraska. (The Stranges were on vacation in the City of Brotherly Love.) Dr. Strange may be the only superhero in the history of comics to be a Cornhusker.
3. Strange’s family consisted of a sister, a brother and both parents, all of whom died before he was 30. This was revealed in flashback in the 1980s. It was further revealed that Strange had frozen his brother Vincent, who had died after being hit by a car. It was further further revealed that Strange, while still a neophyte magician, tried to revive his brother by using a tome of white magic called The Book of the Vishanti, but bungled it. Vincent revived all right, but as a vampire. Whoops.
Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) fights extra-dimensional evil armed with mystic might, his Cloak of Levitation, and the Eye of Agomotto. ©2016 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.
4. They don’t mention ol’ Vincent much anymore. But Strange did have a knock-down, drag-out with Dracula once. It ended in a draw (since both were starring in their own books).
5. The Book of Vishanti has an opposite number, a book of evil magic called The Darkhold. It is currently playing an important role in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC.
6. Ghost Rider is also an important part of this season’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Coincidentally, G.R. was part of a loosely affiliated team of mystical characters in the ‘90s called the Midnight Sons, a team that included Dr. Strange. At Marvel Comics, it’s all six degrees of separation, all the time.
7. The Vishanti are three extra-dimensional mystical entities made up by Stan Lee that Strange calls upon to give him power in combat, consisting of Agamotto, Oshtur and Hoggoth. Agamotto has also contributed an amulet Strange wears, the “Eye of Agamotto,” that can do just about anything the plot requires, but mainly its light shows only the truth. Strange also uses the “Orb of Agamotto,” essentially a crystal ball (but it’s really cool-looking).
8. Strange also wears the Cloak of Levitation, which not only allows him to fly, but is semi-sentient and can fight for him independently if need be. (Although not terribly effectively. It is, after all, a cloak.)
9. Strange calls upon lots of other mystical critters that Lee made up, including the demons of Denak, the winds of Watoomb, the illusions of Ikonn, the ruby rings of Raggador, and so forth. In his early days he called upon the dread Dormammu, who turned out to be a really bad dude from the “Dark Dimension,” and eventually Strange’s arch-foe. Strange doesn’t call on Dormammu any more (but he shows up anyway).
The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton, left) and Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) have been part of the Dr. Strange strip since the 1960s. Photo Credit: Jay Maidment. ©2016 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.
10. Other major baddies in Strange’s rogue’s gallery include Nightmare and Baron Mordo. Nightmare is from the Dream Dimension, and is the embodiment of nightmares who draws energy from, yes, nightmares. (He rides a horse, which he calls his … oh, you guessed.) Mordo was a fellow student with Strange under the tutelage of the Ancient One, a disciple who went rogue. He’s a good guy in the movie (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), but we’ll see how long that lasts.
11. In the comics, the Ancient One was an incredibly old Asian guy, but in the movies will be an androgynous sort played by a Caucasian, Tilda Swinton. Some fans wax wroth over this, especially those who feel that Asian characters should be played by Asian actors. I’m sympathetic, but at the same time, Strange’s origin – white man goes to another place, becomes the best at what the locals do – is one, huge mass of cultural appropriation. Varying a bit from the cliché of the white guy learning hidden knowledge from a mystical Himalayan city – a cliché that has played out in the origins of The Shadow, Iron Fist, Green Lama, Chandu the Magician and countless others – is actually, to my mind, a welcome relief.
12. The Ancient One was the Sorcerer Supreme of our dimension, charged with protecting it from all the extra-dimensional baddies that would like to enslave humanity (or just snack on us). When he died in the 1970s, Strange became the Sorcerer Supreme. Before that, Strange was billed as the “Master of Black Magic” or “Master of the Mystic Arts.”
13. One of the mystical entities Strange calls upon is Cyttorak. It turns out that Cyttorak is the power behind X-Men foe The Juggernaut. Like I said, six degrees of separation.
The Sanctum Santorum of Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has always had this weird window, straight out of the mind of co-creator Steve Ditko. Photo Credit: Jay Maidment. ©2016 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.
14. Strange calls his house in Greenwich Village, NYC, his “Sanctum Sanctorum.” That’s lifted from Judaism, a Latin phrase essentially meaning “Holy of Holies,” the most sacred place in a temple. The address is 177A Bleecker Street, where two of Strange’s writers were once roommates. From the outside, the Sanctum is a three-story brownstone – but the inside is much larger (and much stranger).
15. In the latest Dr. Strange series, Strange explains his groovy pad to a visiting librarian: “The Sanctum Santorum is the greatest concentration of occult esoterica and mystical phenomena in existence. It should go without saying, but do not touch anything you see, except the floor. And be careful where you step. In this house, simply opening the wrong door could literally unleash hell on Earth. And that’s just the refrigerator. … Basically, do not look at anything for long unless you want your eyeballs to melt out of your skull.”
16. The place is run by Wong, son of Wong, the latter being the Ancient One’s manservant. Now Wong II (or whatever) is Strange’s manservant. Or at least he was, until someone finally realized how dreadful that term was. Now Wong is referred to as Strange’s friend and ally. (One who does the cooking and cleaning.) Here an Asian is played by Asian in the movie, an actor coincidentally named Benedict Wong.
17. At one time, Strange’s girlfriend was Clea, the niece of the dread Dormammu. It didn’t work out.
18. At another time, Strange had a disciple named Rintrah. I don’t recall where he was from, but he was a minotaur. That didn’t work out, either.
19. It has been retroactively revealed that Strange has long been a member of a hidden group called The Illuminati, along with Black Panther (representing Wakanda), Reed Richards (the Fantastic Four), Tony Stark (Avengers), Sub-Mariner (Atlantis) and Charles Xavier (X-Men). They had banded together to nudge humanity in the right direction to avoid major catastrophes and crises. That didn’t work out very well, either. (I sense a pattern.)
20. The first team Strange joined (that we know about) was a group called The Defenders. In 1971 he summoned the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner, with whom he had shared previous adventures, to fight a sudden menace. Originally The Defenders was called a “non-team,” in that it only came together in an ad hoc fashion. Later it began to resemble a more traditional team, but the “membership” fluctuated wildly, eventually including dozens of Marvel characters. Three of those characters were Luke Cage, Daredevil and Iron Fist, who will be three-fourths of Marvel’s Defenders, coming to Netflix in 2017.
21. There has already been a Dr. Strange movie, a made-for-TV affair that aired in 1978. It starred Peter Hooten, who played a psychiatrist who had a way with the ladies, no doubt due to his curly hair, porn-star mustache, turtleneck shirts, bell-bottom pants and a penchant for pendants.
Was it awful? Oh, yes.
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Replies
The worst thing about the movie was that awful music that was completely wrong for what was going on. And the fact the villain gives him a costume closer to his regular outfit than the British Ancient One did. Was he really going to wear yellow and purple every episode if they'd made the series?
When was Iron Fist a Defender?
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said:
He was one of the heroes who joined briefly in the "Defenders for a Day" storyline. From the Marvel Wiki:
When Defender's associate Dollar Bill made a documentary about the group and aired it on television without their permission, it attracted a group of super-heroes who were interested in joining the group because of its lack of rules and loose formation. This led to a disaster as the large group of different personalities often clashed and the poor leadership of this large group (led by long standing Defenders Nighthawk, Valkyrie and Hellcat). Their first and last mission was against a team of super-villians (Led by Libra and Sagittarius) who had joined together and also called themselves the Defenders, using the publicity of Dollar Bill's documentary to give the Defenders a bad name.
Although they managed to defeat the villains, the experience proved to be haphazard, and disorganized that all the "Defenders for the Day" quit.
Here's the Marvel Wiki on who the "Defenders for a Day" were.
Luis Olavo de Moura Dantas said:
Here's the cover for the Defender for a Day story. Marvel's version of "Dollar Bill" is in the lower right corner.
I didn't know about that one, Richard, so thanks for the heads up. (I stopped buying Marvel comprehensively in 2010.)
Richard Mantle said:
Some more facts:
1) All the mystic names used by Doctor Strange were made up by Stan Lee. Readers actually tried to research them!
2) There were training versions of both the Eye of Agamotto and the Cloak of Levitation.
3) Doc briefly wore a more super-hero-ish version of his outfit in the late 60s.
4) Doc allied himself with the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner because he needed them to battle more physical threats. Plus Doc doesn't like to get punched!
5) Doc finally became an Avenger fairly recently and it didn't last long!
Philip Portelli said:
3) Doc briefly wore a more super-hero-ish version of his outfit in the late 60s.
Boy, did I hate it!
His sales were tanking, and Marvel thought maybe if he went more superhero-y he'd sell better. He even had a secret identity, Dr. Stephen Sanders.
THEN! LATER! Somehow or other he got split into three beings: Dr. Sanders, a superhero-ish thing called Strange and, uh, whatever Dr. Strange called himself. I think Eternity was involved. Or maybe that was earlier.
Anyway, it all stunk.
You know.....I quite liked it.
(Ducks and runs)
Philip Portelli said:
3) Doc briefly wore a more super-hero-ish version of his outfit in the late 60s.
Richard Willis said:
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