November 8, 2006
Pick of the Week: Doctor Strange The Oath #2
The second issue of Doctor Strange: The Oath is even better than the first one. Brian K. Vaughan has re-discovered Strange's past as an asshole surgeon and mines it for all it is worth. The transitions between the past and present day are very cinematic. We learn how Strange got shot and there's an old foe from the past who shows up, Baron Mordo--I can't say I'm surprised. Night Nurse accompanies Strange on his mission to save Wong and becomes his "Watson". She's a delightful foil and a possible new love interest? This is the best version of Dr. Strange that I've read since Roger Stern left the character. Can this be an ongoing series, please? Nuff said.
October 30, 2006
Doctor Strange's Massive Orgy in Shamballa
SanctumSanctorumComix reminded us that there were a couple of more memorable Doctor Strange moments when he got down with the ladies. Give us any chance to pound on Scott Hinze and we'll take it! In Doctor Strange Sorceror Supreme 86 (1996), written by J.M. DeMatteis and drawn by Mark Buckingham, Doc travels to his hometown in Nebraska. While visiting his childhood home at night, he runs into an old friend, Amanda Payne. Amanda is a single mom who asks the Scott Hinze question, "...with those clothes and that beard...living in Greenwich Village and all--are you gay?"
I have to admit, looking at Doc in that Warren Ellis-era costume, I might ask the same thing. Too much red! Amanda becomes Doc's girlfriend for a few issues. It's a bit funny that this happens when Doc encounters Baron Mordo again, as that villain showed up at the beginning of Doc's infatuation with Morgana Blessing. Baron Mordo apparently dies in this story, but he's revived in Amazing Spider-Man #500, according to Mordo's Wikipedia article.
J.M. DeMatteis probably wrote the most wicked sex scene involving Doc in Marvel Graphic Novel #23, Into Shamballa. This fantastic gem wasn't a normal comic book, it was more like an illustrated novel, with fully painted artwork by Dan Green. Green was well known for being an top-notch inker, but Shamballa gave him a chance to really shine on his own. Doc's teacher, the Ancient One (now one with the universe), sends his former student on a series of trials where he must overcome earthly illusions.
One of them is Lust. In India, Doc is confronted with a harem of sexy ladies. The lustful feelings are intense and there are so many beautiful babes. What would a Sorcerer Supreme do? After performing a Spell of Separation, Doc does just that, spinning off multiple threads of himself to have a massive orgy. Let's see Harry Potter do that! Nuff said.
October 25, 2006
Doctor Strange Gay? We Say Thee Nay, Scott Hinze!
Scott Hinze's gaydar is seriously out of whack. On an otherwise very fine interview with Brian K. Vaughan at Fanboy Radio, Scott had the audacity to ask if Doctor Strange was gay. Now, Scott is usually a very fine interviewer, but let's just say that at times there are gaps in his knowledge of comic book history. Mr. Vaughan's reply was that Stephen Strange isn't necessarily gay, but he might swing both ways occassionally. Well, we've never seen any evidence of that. Look at the above panel from Dr. Strange Sorcerer Supreme #3 (1989) where the Enchantress goes to great lengths to seduce Doc!
Probably the first subtle mention of sex that I read in any comic as a youngster was Dr. Strange #1 in 1974 (Volume 2) by Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner. There was this little sequence where Clea tells Doc she's interested in far more than magic tricks. That we could infer this action in-between panels from Clea pursing her lips up towards Doc shows you how desperate we were for superhero sex. It released all that pent-up frustration we had from looking at Clea's plum little ass in that leotard. As BKV also mentioned, Doc was one of the first superheroes to "live in sin" with his girlfriend, Clea. I thought that was so cool as a kid, I told my Mom I was gonna grow up to be just like Doc Strange. That's how also I met my first psychologist!
Roger Stern and Marshall Rogers made the sex a little more explicit in Dr. Strange #49, published in 1981. The splash page and the page after that had a mystical sequence of Doc and Clea travelling in their astral bodies. You see, Doctor Strange doesn't make love like ordinary mortals. He won't settle for just a boring old missionary position. Doc fucks the ladies with his mind as well!
On page 3, just in case we were inferring too much, Stern makes it clear through the dialogue that this was a sexual act--a tantric exercise as Doc puts it. Clea's very anxious to exercise more often and frequently, but it was probably the last time the couple made love. Because in that very same issue, Doc found another lover!
An ongoing subplot throughout the excellent Stern-Rogers run was a reporter named Morgana Blessing. Doc kept running into her during various battles, and every effort he made to wipe her memory clean of mystical events ultimately failed. Her attraction to Doc couldn't be denied, which enemies like Baron Mordo tried to exploit. My attraction couldn't be denied either, thanks to Marshall Rogers drawing Morgana with Barbeau* like proportions.
We found out that Morgana Blessing had been in love with Doctor Strange throughout many incaranations in time. During this sequence set in World War 2, Doc foils Baron Mordo's plans by kissing Morgana and letting love flow in an explosion of energy that defeated Dormammu! This led to a rather historic event: Doc and Clea splitting up after being a couple for over 10 years. Clea returned to the Dark Dimension to lead a rebel faction against Dormammu and Umar. Morgana became Doc's lover for several years, which ended when she wrote a tell-all book in Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme #9 (1989).
There you have it, proof positive that Scott Hinze knows nothing about Doc's sexuality. Doc's gay? Only Matt Murdock surpasses Doctor Strange in racking up girlfriends. Nuff said.
* Shame on you, Warlock, for cross-referencing Adrienne Barbeau: Thanks for the Mammaries. Kid Flash, Ye Editor
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Posted by Adam Warlock at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)October 12, 2006
Stan Lee Invades the Marvel Universe
Stan Lee hasn't regularly written any Marvel Comic since the 70s. Sure, he's done one-shots or miniseries here and there, and if we overlook Ravage 2099, that statement is mostly true. Anytime there's been an announcement of Lee returning to write a comic, I usually shrug hopelessly, because Stan Lee usually writes like it's still the 60s: with exclamation points at the end of very sentence! Two weeks ago, the first in a series of Marvel anniversary specials appeared, Stan Lee Meets Spider-Man. In the lead story (written by Lee and drawn by Olivier Coipel) Lee appears as a character in the story and meets his greatest creation, Spider-Man. Spidey complains about his bad luck while Lee makes dinner. The dialogue between the two of them is funny, and I liked Coipel's 60s era depiction of Spidey's memories. The backup story, by Joss Whedon and Michael Gaydos, was also first-rate, about a comic convention taking place in alternate dimensions. Amazing Fantasy becomes Amazing Reality, while Fantastic Four become Normal Four.
The second issue in this series is on sale this week, Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange. Alan Davis draws Lee's story and it's very funny as well. Doctor Strange has turned to merchandising to keep up with the high rent of his Sanctum Sanctorum, the expenses of cleaning his Cloak of Levitation, etc. I'm a big fan of Alan Davis as well, I think this man is incapable of drawing a visually dynamic story. He's talented at drawing both serious and light-hearted stories.
The backup story features the return of the Impossible Man, written by Bendis and drawn by Mark Bagley. IM can't go on a fun romp through a Marvel Universe torn to shreds by events like Avengers Disassembled, House of M, and Civil War, so he eventually travels to Los Angeles to find Stan Lee. He finds a long line of characters waiting to see Lee, including Gwen Stacy, who is upset about having to sleep with Norman Osborne. It's a fun gimmick, one that allow Bendis to use IM as a stand-in for all the old, cranky fans (like us) who hate some of the recent developments in Marvel's continuity. Bendis uses his usual defense (Avengers V1 #16) against IM's cranky fan complaints, but I think this story ranks right up there with all the classic IM tales.
Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange also features a reprint as a backup, one of my favorite Doctor Strange stories of all time, from Marvel Premiere #3. What makes this story special is the amazing artwork of Barry Smith. I imagine the younger crowd won't know Smith, but he was one of the dominant figures of Marvel's early 70s. His work on Conan the Barbarian turned that character into a megastar for Marvel. The detail and craftsmanship of his pencilling is evident in this story. Nuff said.
October 4, 2006
Vaughan Takes Care of Doctor Strange
I haven't read all the comics this week, but it's hard to imagine anything being better than Doctor Strange The Oath #1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. While old-timers thrill to the classic tales by Lee, Ditko, Thomas, Colan, Englehart, Stern, Rogers, etc., the characters popularity has lapsed during the past decade. Numerous writers have tried to update the good Doctor in a variety of ways. Warren Ellis redesigned his costume, while Straczynski tried to reboot him in a mini series called Strange. Vaughan's sensible approach is to keep the classic ornaments (the costume, Wong, Ditko-like dimensions) while bringing other things into the modern era. "Oh shut up with that Zen crap," Strange says to Wong (after he learns about a secret that his servant has been keeping). Wong, who has long been a background character in Strange's life, has become an integral part of this storyline. If you've read the previews, you'll know that the opening pages has Doctor Strange arriving at Night Nurse's clinic with a bullet in his chest. While Night Nurse operates, Strange's astral form supervises. His mysterious relationship with Wong is never ignored: "I'm not sure anyone with his own personal slave boy should be talking about other people's fetishes." And Strange's personality has been given more thought-he's more of a type-A personality, more like the doctor he used to be before giving up the material world. This mini-series is off to a great start. Nuff said.
Check out my classic cover collection:
Doctor Strange @ Gallery Photon
December 30, 2005
Michael Golden: A Retrospective and a Gallery
After writing about his Doctor Strange work, I realized that Michael Golden doesn't have much of an Internet presence. He's an artist of great renown among industry veterans, but I suspect that today's fans don't much about him. He's worked so infrequently over the past 25 years; Golden doesn't have a website, nor does he attend conventions that often. Here's a little retrospective, with some suggestions for you to hunt in the back issue bins. I'll include a couple of pictures here, but I've got scans of nearly everything that I mention in the Michael Golden Gallery.
I first noticed Golden in Batman Family (issues #15-20, circa 1978). His fluid, cartoony art style was a breath of fresh air, along with his dynamic panel layout. He drew some Man-Bat stories, the one shown above guest stars the Demon and Morgaine Le Fey. Golden soon graduated to the main Batman feature and became one of my favorite Batman artists of the time, along with Marshall Rogers. In 1984, Golden returned to the character in Batman Special #1. "The Player on the Other Side" was one of the best Batman stories of the decade. Written by Mike Barr, it told the story of a villain called the Wrath. The Wrath had the inverse origin of Batman: his parents were criminals, killed by James Gordon as a young cop. The Wrath grows up to be a master criminal who seeks revenge on Gordon and the Gotham Police. The fight scene between Batman and the Wrath was pretty exciting, and about the only thing wrong with the story is that the Wrath died at the conclusion. DC should have kept him around as a new adversary for Batman. This story has been reprinted in the anthology "Batman in the Eighties".
Marvel helped make Michael Golden a big name when they gave him a new series called the Micronauts. Based on a toy line, writer Bill Mantlo weaved a mythology around the central characters that was reminiscent of the Star Wars films. A band of freedom fighters who opposed the darkly evil Baron Karza, the Micronauts escaped tyranny by flying into the Marvel Universe-where they happened to only be a few inches tall! In the hands of a lesser artist, this series probably wouldn't have taken off. Mantlo's fun script coupled with Golden's dynamic visuals made it a big hit for Marvel. Golden lasted for a total of thirteen issues before taking off for greener pastures.
Golden's assorted Marvel work are hard to find, but they are unique gems and worth the hunt. Marvel Fanfare was a series aimed at the direct market (comic shops), printed on slick paper, and the early forerunner of today's high tech comics. Michael Golden's artwork graced the first two issues with a story that featured Spider-Man and Angel (of the X-Men) venturing into the Savage Land. Chris Claremont was the writer, who again teamed with Golden in Avengers Annual #10. This featured the Avengers teaming up with Spider-Woman to fight the new Brotherhood of Evil-and it also introduced a new mutant woman called Rogue. Later, Golden tackled a less serious subject when he took on Howard the Duck in his new black and white magazine. Howard the Duck Magazine #5 had a story where Howard met Dracula. The nerdy nebbish Howard H. Howard from Tomb of Dracula also makes an appearance to help Howard resist Dracula's charms. Howard the Duck Magazine #6 features Howard returning to Duckworld along with Beverly. The artwork is black and white in both stories, but it is really great stuff, especially with Bob McLeod providing excellent ink and tone embellishment.
I had all but forgotten Michael Golden's greatest work until I read a comment to the Doctor Strange article. In 1986, Golden teamed with a writer named Doug Murray to produce The 'Nam. This series chronicled the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War. With no superheroes or fantasy at all, it was a very daring series for Marvel to publish. Golden worked on 'Nam 1-13 and his work had never been cleaner or more vivid. The stories are very realistic, since Murray was a Vietnam vet who wrote from his experience as well as his friends. Private Marks arrives in Vietnam and reports to his First Sergeant, who regards him suspiciously. Marks is too naïve to know that the Sergeant is expecting a bribe in return for a cushy job. Since he fails that test, Marks is sent to a unit involved in front line patrols. In issue #3, Marks and his buddies get a day off in Saigon, but it proves almost more dangerous than the patrols. My favorite story was in issue #7, where they present a story on a Viet Cong guide who switched sides to help the Americans. Murray presents the VC point of view, and while it may be too brief in twenty two pages, you have to give him kudos for trying to explain the motivations of North Vietnam.
As far as I know, Golden hasn't worked too much in the past ten years. He's done some covers at DC for series like Nightwing. He did a Spartan X 4-issue mini-series for Topps that was a black and white kung-fu story for the Jackie Chan crowd. This year he drew Birds of Prey 66 in a style that slightly morphed into Alex Toth for a tale about the first Black Canary. I just wish he could do a project that would really show off his skills and be collected to show future generations. In the meantime, we have these assorted gems and the Golden Gallery. Nuff said.
See also:
Michael Golden Gallery
Michael Golden Wikipedia Entry
Doug Murray Interview on the Nam
December 28, 2005
Doctor Strange Gallery now open
One of my favorite Marvel characters has always been Dr. Strange. He was the coolest character back in the day, yet no one seems to have a good handle on him now. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko had an excellent run, and I loved the subsequent efforts of Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner, Roger Stern, Marshall Rogers, and Paul Smith. I've put together the Dr. Strange Gallery, featuring my favorite covers from Doc's many adventures. In addition, I've come uploaded some scans of a Dr. Strange portfolio by Michael Golden. This was sold on a limited basis in the 80s and is long out of print. Golden drew a wonderful issue of Dr. Strange written by Roger Stern, issue 55, published in 1982. I suppose given Golden's low volume of output, we were lucky to have that one issue. I've put some other gems in here from Brunner, Rogers, Smith, and Colan. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)June 17, 2005
Why the Defenders are the Greatest Non-Team Ever!
CBR posted a preview of the new Defenders series by Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire. Surprisingly, I liked it, even though this series is played for laughs, I think they’ve somehow captured the spirit of these unique characters working together. And that led me to wondering, why do I think the Defenders are so damn cool?
The Defenders premiered in Marvel Feature #1 back in 1971. The cover was beautifully drawn by Neal Adams, and it featured the three title characters rocketing towards the viewer: Sub-Mariner, Hulk, and Dr. Strange. Click on this image to expand it; notice the flames in the background, the lamp-post about to fall, and the car turned over on its side. People are fleeing in a panic. When I saw this in the Marvel house ads, it was quite a mystery, you see, because you would think that at least two of these people (Namor and Hulk) would just as soon destroy the world as save it. In Namor’s case he had attacked the surface world a number of times in the Fantastic Four; the Hulk had made several rampages throughout cities in the Marvel Universe. While Dr. Strange was a pretty good guy, we never saw him interact with a lot of super-heroes other Spider-Man. And so when I saw this cover, I had to buy this comic. Only I wouldn’t be to find it until thirty years later at a Wondercon. In truth, the first three Defenders stories in Marvel Feature 1-3 are probably only magical if you’re a kid. In each of them, Dr. Strange is the catalyst for bringing Subby and the Hulk together to aid him on a quest. My favorite one here is Marvel Feature #2: it takes place during Halloween in Rutgers, Vermont, the scene of a parade where Roy Thomas (the creator of the Defenders) actually attended. Dr. Strange’s old foe, Dormammu, attempts to cross-over from his dimension via Dr. Strange’s body. Doc, in turn, uses his astral image to bring Namor and the Hulk to his aid.
In the stories themselves, the trio acted like heroes. Yet to the world around them, they seemed threatening. And despite the occasional guest appearance, mostly to fight the other heroes, these three were quite isolated in the Marvel Universe. This, to me, is what made the Defenders unique: they were all loners. They were outcasts. If Iron Man or Captain America saw the Defenders taking action, they would assume the worst. And unlike the Avengers, the Defenders had no headquarters (although Doc’s mansion was a meeting place), no jet planes, no communication devices, no charter, and no government connection. Almost at the end of every story, the Defenders seemed ready to break up at any given moment. The Hulk and Namor would storm off and tell Strange never to summon them again, but events would dictate otherwise.
Steve Englehart took over the writing for the first twelve issues of the Defenders when they graduated to their own title. He was the perfect choice in many ways, as he wrote the Dr. Strange series (highly regarded) and had written many issues of the Hulk. He was complemented by the pencils of Sal Buscema, who had followed his brother John to Marvel, and was just blossoming into his own full talents an artist. (I had the chance to speak with Mr. Buscema a few months ago on World Talk Radio and he mentioned that the Defenders were one of his favorite series.) Englehart’s first issue started off with a bang: the Hulk wanders thru a hillside and encounters Namor falling to Earth. Namor is unconscious, protected by an invisible barrier, and the only thing the Hulk can do is to locate Dr. Strange. (I love ol’ Greenskin’s line: “Don’t worry, fish man. Hulk will save day.”) Thus begins an adventure that leads the trio to their fourth member, the Silver Surfer. The Surfer fits all the requirements for Defenders membership: he’s the ultimate loner, flying above humanity, and sometimes attacking them when he’s going stir crazy inside Earth’s orbit. The Surfer left after three issues, mostly due to Stan Lee’s edict that the Surfer be used sparingly in case Lee would ever return to the character, but he would return sporadically.
Just as the Surfer exited, the Defenders were faced with a woman who had lost her mind: Barbara Denton. She had been imprisoned by the Nameless One and driven insane. When the Defenders encounter the Black Knight and the evil Enchantress, the witch binds Barbara’s soul with an Asgardian female warrior known as the Valkyrie. The Valkyrie has almost no memories of her life as Barbara, but she’s fully formed and ready to kick ass. While I liked this character, she didn’t really seem to fit the classic Defenders profile. Her main purpose was a character unique to the series; just like in the Avengers, when Roy Thomas created the Vision, this was a character that couldn’t be found in any other comic. An ongoing sub-plot developed about the Valkyrie’s search for Barbara’s past. She became part of the glue that held the loners together.
The Defenders reached its stride (and possibly series high point) during issues #8-11. They crossed over with Marvel’s standard bearer group title, The Avengers. At the time, Englehart proposed something that had never been attempted before: a cross-over storyline between two titles that would last for the entire summer of 1973. When I saw the cover of Avengers 116, with the Silver Surfer blasting the Vision over a flaming volcano, it intensified my interest in the whole Defenders concept. The Defenders were not only outcasts in this situation, they were the underdogs. A Silver Surfer vs. Vision and the Scarlet Witch was pretty even, but how about Iron Man vs. a guy with arrows—Hawkeye? Dr. Strange vs. Mantis and Black Panther in a physical brawl? Yet the Defenders managed to overcome nearly every battle. This culminated in the classic Defenders #10 when the Hulk took on the Thor in an incredible fight that somehow climaxed yet avoided answering the question of which one was stronger.
The war with the Avengers legitimized the Defenders in the Marvel Universe. Sales were good and the title switched to a monthly publication status. When Marvel launched a series of quarterly Giant-Size titles, the Defenders was one of them. Len Wein took over writing the regular series and turned in some solid work. He also brought in a new, regular Defender, called Nighthawk. Nighthawk had been a “Batman” (with wings) amalgam for the pseudo-Justice League team, Squadron Supreme. AKA Kyle Richmond, Nighthawk joined the Valkyrie as a unique member of the team, with his own ongoing sub-plots. Nighthawk entered the series just as Namor left, which was a big loss for the team dynamics. While Namor had a fire and ice relationship with the Hulk and Dr. Strange, Kyle was pretty much a pacifier; I never felt that Nighthawk was a good choice for a Defender. Wein also experimented with bringing in different loners, such as Luke Cage, Power Man. My favorite Wein story was in Giant-Size Defenders #2, drawn by Gil Kane with a fantastic inking job by Klaus Janson. This may have been the first time I saw Janson’s inks and it blew me away. The Defenders get help from another loner, the Son of Satan, to rescue the Hulk who is trapped in hell.
Steve Gerber took over the writing of the Defenders with issue #20. Gerber was the most unlikely choice to write any super-team. His most popular works were Man-Thing, Howard the Duck, Crazy, Son of Satan, the Zombie, and other titles. He had done some nice stories with the Thing in Marvel Two-In-One, but when it came to writing books like Daredevil, something was lacking. With the bizarre non-structural nature of the Defenders, Gerber’s talents were able to shine through. He immediately took to the characters Valkyrie and Nighthawk, and further developed their backgrounds. Valkyrie discovered that Barbara had a husband, Jack, who had been searching for her. Jack follows Valkyrie to New York and in effect becomes a Defender, aiding the team in unlikely scenarios. Jack gets the most sympathy out of any of the characters, because he’s on a hopeless quest: he loves Valkyrie because she’s Barbara; yet Val has little memory or emotion for Jack. And in the only story where I appreciated this character, Nighthawk discovers that his fortune is being used to fund a Ku Klux Klan like organization called the Sons of the Serpent. But Gerber’s wackiest and most infamous contribution to the Defenders were the Headmen: Dr. Nagan, Jerry Morgan and Chondru. The first two are men of science, while Chondru is a mystic. The Headmen were, in a way, the dark mirrors of Namor, Hulk, and Dr. Strange. They came up with bizarre plots to foil the Defenders, such as excising Nighthawk’s brain and replacing it with Chondru’s, who infiltrates Dr. Strange’s mansion. Later the Headmen are joined by a technological perversion called Ruby and an alien called Nebulon, who has a Scientology-like religion to make people believe they are “Bozo” clowns! The Headmen storyline ran for over a year in Defenders #31-41, and finally concluded in the first and only Defenders Annual.
Defenders Annual #1 was Steve Gerber’s swan song on the regular title. In a way it makes a fitting place to stop reading the series, for the Defenders never again had a writer that really understood the quirky dynamics of the various loners. In this last tale, Gerber took things a step too far: Kyle Richmond, who always wanted more legitimacy, actually set the team up in a headquarters with computers and a meeting table with the characters’ logos. This took the team into Avengers territory. Not a good move, but there was a hell of a weird fight with the Headmen at the end. Gerber would write one more Defender tale in the Howard the Duck Treasury Edition, which featured Howard teaming up with the group. The best part was a quirky villain called the Black Hole, who said an infamous line when using his powers (“The Black Hole Sucks!”), and seemed entirely appropriate for both Howard and the Defenders.
Various other writers took the Defenders to strange places. David Kraft wrote some tales that almost worked, along with penciller Keith Giffen. Later J.M. DeMatteis would write a long run, and his most notable creation was a character called the Gargoyle. DeMatteis brought back the Son of Satan and had him romance a female hero called (appropriately) Hellcat. Towards the end, the Defenders jettisoned Dr. Strange and the Hulk in favor of some ex X-Men. Most recently, Kurt Busiek brought the Defenders back and came with the planet entity Gaea as the reason why the big three kahunas needed to come together to save the world. But I felt that he made a mistake in also bringing back Nighthawk, Valkyrie, etc. The new Giffen/ DeMatteis/Maguire series looks promising, because from the icons on the cover logo, you can see they know who the core Defenders are: Hulk, Namor, Dr. Strange, and Silver Surfer. All outcasts, all loners, coming together through weird circumstances to save the world. That’s exactly right, and the laughs never hurt Gerber, so it won’t bother me at all now. Nuff said.
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Posted by Kid Flash at 1:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
