The vengeance of Doctor Strange, Pt. 1

A year or two ago, Marvel decided to compete with DC’s reboot.  After all, sales increased for quite a while.  But instead of rebooting the entire universe, they figured they’d reset all the titles back to number one and switch up all the writers/artists.  Continuity remained the same, but now all their superstar writers got to tell stories using characters they may not have written before.

So, as the Marvel world winded down, the New Avengers team (a different group than the Avengers) slowly broke apart.  Their leader Luke Cage, sick of seeing his newborn child and wife put in constant danger, decided to leave the group.  Ask the Fantastic Four — raising a child as a Marvel superhero may be one of the hardest activities after keeping girlfriends alive and holding down a steady job.  But before the series comes to an end, one final story gets to be told in New Avengers #31-34, written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Michael Gaydos, Carlos Pacheco, Michael Avon Oeming, and Mike Deodato — each artist drawing a single issue.

First up, Daimon Hellstorm (actual son of Satan) receives an unexpected visitor.

Daimon doesn’t wear shirts.  That’s his entire costume.  And Victoria Hand, the former right hand of Norman Osborn, now helps out the Avengers as redemption for basically being the Pepper Potts for the Green Goblin.  Turns out, some magical anomalies are afoot.

Yes, something weird is going on.  Especially when Hand continues her magician rampage.

Notice what Kale said?  Someone’s controlling Hand.  How sad.  While a possessed secretary pummels sorcerers, we cut to Doctor Strange at the Avengers mansion.  Not all Avengers business includes zapping bad guys (though to be fair, most of it is).

Before their leader departs the team (roster of Cage, Captain Marvel, Thing, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Mockingbird, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and Victoria Hand), everything has to go wrong.  Because that’s how superhero comics work.

Now technically, the Avengers operate within the laws of the United States.  And Maria Hill (who’s pretty much been leading SHIELD in absence of Nick Fury for the past decade or so), has a power far greater than rocky skin and the proportional strength of a spider.  She has political power.  Anyway, Victoria Hand mystery and whatnot.

While explosions, tensions, and political drama unfolds back on Earth’s dimension (and I’m skipping those pages), Doctor Strange has to figure out the identity of this possessor: the monster that can jump from body to body without any magical ribbons or bright lights or anything that gives off a clue. But using the best of his detective skills (in those pages I’m skipping), the good doctor solves the mystery.  And it’s a doozy.

So I figure I have some explaining to do.  Remember Monday’s post where I mentioned Doctor Strange no longer has the title of Sorcerer Supreme because of dark magic abuse?  Well, the sorcerer Brother Voodoo (real name Jericho Drumm) became his successor.  His brother Daniel’s spirit occupies his body or however that works.  Sorcery confuses me.  Two years later, Brother Voodoo sacrifices himself to save the universe from the magical heavyweight Agamotto.  As you’ve noticed, Daniel isn’t too happy about what happened.  Revenge time.

What happens next involves a chase between Maria Hill and Doctor Strange that leads to New Orleans and all over weird dimensions.  I’m skipping all that, though it’s totally worth your while to read it yourself.  As we come to our story’s climax, the action ends up back at Avengers mansion.

Let’s finish on Friday, where Doctor Strange battles the Avengers and the New Avengers.  At once. Fourteen versus one.  Aren’t you excited?

Demonic baseball with Dr. Strange

Confession: I tend to get perplexed with dimensional and time travel.  Not because the story isn’t good, goodness no.  New rules and physics apply when a character leaves present-day Earth that my science-hindered brain has trouble grasping.  But I love Doctor Strange, who pretty much exemplifies my greatest comic confusion.  The sorcerer has access to wizardry and realms with the only limitations being the imagination of the writer (though the same could be said about technology, Iron Man especially).

Magic actually gives him an unforeseen narrative edge.  Doctor Strange’s powers allow access to a different kind of supervillain.  He gets to fight demons, mystics, monsters, and even gods the other Marvel heroes won’t run into.  Like today, in Strange #1, volume 2, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Emma Rios.  The full four-issue miniseries, which I found exciting, funny, interesting, and wildly heartbreaking, is totally worth your money.  Hopefully a taste of the first issue will entice you to buy the full thing.  We pick up our story at a local ball game.

Understand that Doctor Strange has lost most of his magical power as of this story.  Formerly Sorcerer Supreme, effectively making him the most powerful magician in the Marvel world, he abused some dark magic and had his title stripped from him by the magic guardians or whatever. Unfortunately, magically-handicapped or not, bad juju continues to suffocates his world.

You can buy the book for the full story, but it’s essentially a deal with a demon gone bad.  If the home team loses, they also lose their souls.  Bad demonic deals happen sometimes, if by sometimes I mean all the time.  Demons are jerks no matter what adventure they show up in.

Then the demon appears because even demons like baseball.

So when one loses the coveted Sorcerer Supreme title, word gets around.  Especially when the greatest protector of Earth suddenly possesses only a fraction of his former power.  Plus, now we get to raise the stakes.

With our villain firmly established, it’s time for our hero to step up his game.  His shirt may be stained with fallen nachos and his pride beaten down by terrible odds, but he does have comic book magic on his side.  Way more useful than super strength.

Remember, Doctor Strange can’t defeat Tul’uth with magic alone.  But as long as he helps the team win the game, he’ll save the lives of thousands of people.  Sadly, that’s going to rely solely on his baseball skills against a team of cheaters.

I’ve already shown you far more pages than I’m probably allowed.  But you would get to see three or four pages of Doctor Strange running the bases while dodging magical booms, tentacles, and giant insects.  Luckily, the finale’s still wonderfully heroic.

Doctor Strange has had his share of apprentices.  Tons.  Casey Kilmont ranks as one of my favorites, and the rest of the miniseries develops their relationship as the two travel the world stopping more tricky bad guys.

Y’know what?  On Wednesday we’ll get more into Doctor Strange, because no matter what the story, magic’s always so bright, colorful, and full of explosions.

The appeal of Deadpool

There’s something about Deadpool.  The character’s been around for a little over twenty years, yet his popularity has soared far above many of the older and more established comic book characters.  His solo series include over two hundred individual issues.  At one point, Marvel not only published his main series, but also Deadpool Corps, Deadpool MAX, Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth, Deadpool: Wade Wilson’s War, Deadpool Team-Up, and many, many more.  He even just had a starring video game released.  But why?

Seriously, why the huge popularity?  I believe I have the answer.  Ask non-comic book readers about the stereotypes of comic books.  They’re wildly sexist and objectify women.  They’re massively gory and horrifyingly violent.  They’re essentially an adolescent’s wet dream.  And Deadpool exhibits all of those.  He ogles over women, bloodies up hordes of bad guys, and his immaturity is only surpassed by the sheer volume of sex jokes.  And this succeeds because the series recognizes and shamelessly disregards any real worries or desperate need to prove anything.  That and a large dose of humor.

Look, I love passionate character studies with deep mysterious plots and brilliant personality development, but I also enjoyed all three Transformers movies.  With Deadpool, we don’t have to pretend we’re better than we are.  You get action, fun, and dirty jokes.  Lots of dirty jokes.

I’ll prove it today using pages from the miniseries Deadpool: Suicide Kings, written by Mike Benson & Adam Glass and drawn by Carlo Barberi.  You’ll get no context and no back story.  I have about ten or twelve of my favorite pages that I believe perfectly sum up Deadpool’s appeal.  Or not.  I guess that’s up to you.

If you don’t know the superhero, he basically goes like this:

Mercenary.  Healing factor.  Insane (hence the two other voices in his head).

Deadpool holds a firm distinction of being the only superhero disliked by every other superhero in the Marvel world.  Even the Punisher has a on-and-off friendship with Wolverine. But Deadpool’s obnoxious, and we as readers understand that.  With all the tragedy and grief oozing over the superhero world, it’s nice to have a comic so bright and silly.  And speaking of the Punisher, the three New York City “street” heroes (Punisher, Spider-Man, and Daredevil) all hold prominent roles in the miniseries.  Having normal superheroes interact with Deadpool remains half the fun.  Like when Frank Castle taps Deadpool’s phone:

This, of course, leads to bloodshed.

I enjoy the contrast of Punisher and Daredevil teaming up with Deadpool, if only because those two are probably the least funny superheroes in the Marvel universe.  I’ve seen Captain America make more jokes.

And if you want sex jokes within a firmly established comic book world, here’s your character.

Yes, Deadpool’s unapologetic pervertedness and overwhelming creepiness show a sharp contrast from the white knights currently patrolling the Marvel universe.  I’m not saying Deadpool’s better, I’m saying that the writers don’t care and that allows a sort of disgusted freedom.

Even the battles take on a nonsensical and non-serious attitude.  Let Batman brood while mangling baddies, not Deadpool.

No Deadpool series will ever win an Eisner Awards.  No Deadpool series will ever change the industry. But we love Deadpool.  He’s fun, and that’s all we really desire from our entertainment anyway.  Plus, the current ongoing series is remarkably funny, fast-paced, and well-written.  The dude’s not a perfect comic book character, but I believe he’s one we certainly need in our comic book roster.  Let’s embrace those stereotypes once in a while.

Human Torch, Negative Zone gladiator

Real fast and off topic, but we should stop being so critical, especially about superhero movies.  I’ve actually heard people complain in Man of Steel that Lois Lane shows up exactly in the right place far too often to be believable, but they had zero problems an hour before that when a man singlehandedly holds up an oil tanker.  We need to just enjoy our shared experiences, suspend our disbelief, and stop being so negative.  Look, do I read comics I dislike?  Oh goodness, yes — probably over half.  But you’ll never hear me talk about them; we have enough of that on other websites.

Anyway, let’s delve into the Human Torch.  He’s hard to relate to.  The guy’s super good looking, popular with the ladies, extremely wealthy, and can turn into fire — his biggest fault being immaturity rather than anything majorly serious like alcoholism or building Ultron.  Though over the past few decades, he’s grown quite a bit as a character.  I mean, he’s still gorgeous, dates supermodels, and can shoot fireballs, but now he’s becoming a legitimate superhero on his own rather than Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman’s kid brother.  And I’ll prove it today.  Hopefully.

About two years, Johnny Storm died.  It was sad.  Though he did go out wonderfully, sacrificing himself to shut the Negative Zone’s gate so Annihilus and his bug army couldn’t take over the world. Here’s the scene from Fantastic Four #587, written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Steve Epting:

Spoiler alert: he dies.  His ultimate ability, the “supernova,” is similar to an explosion from a small nuclear warhead, which certainly makes him formidable.  Though a supernova can’t quite defeat a billion bad guys.

About a year later, he returns alive.  Comic book death and whatnot.  How does he do it?  Well, Fantastic Four #600, written by Hickman and drawn by Carmine Di Giandomenico, will tell you. Here’s the death scene again but from a different artist:

First off, he definitely died.  You should buy the issue for the full fight scene.  But in the Negative Zone, death turns out to be not such a big deal.  The bugs can fix it.

Like most evil bugs from strange dimensions, they entertain themselves by having prisoners fight in a gladiator arena.  I always think I’d get tired of gladiators used as a plot point, but I’m proven wrong time and time again.  Y’see, the difference between Johnny Storm and the other Fantastic Four members involves how they deal with bad situations.  Frustrated and angry by the predicament he’s in, the Human Torch becomes a jerk.  A huge jerk.

And with this first act of defiance begins the rebellion against Annihilus to ultimately escape the clutches of the Negative Zone and its horrors.

Well, eventually.  This rebellion ended with Johnny being cut in half.  Happens to the best of us.  In case you don’t know, meet Annihilus, the Anthrosian alien that conquered the Negative Zone using his Cosmic Control Rod.  Even without the weapon Annihilus remains super strong and tough, but with it he can manipulate cosmic energy to do all sorts of wacky stuff I don’t understand.  From his first appearance forty-five years ago in Fantastic Four Annual #6, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, the dude’s been bad news:

Luckily for the Human Torch, being in an alien gladiator prison brings some unexpected benefits: all his fellow inmates also have crazy superpowers.  More than enough to take on Annihilus, just as long as they remove the Cosmic Control Rod from the bug’s hands.  Thus the actual escape plan begins:

The plan doesn’t involve anything fancy.  They aim for Annihilus, knock that weapon out of his hands, and grab it for themselves.  Then they use whatever magic it contains to gain control of the Negative Zone.  Sounds easy enough.

So does he do it?  Does Human Torch, the young playboy superhero, defeat one of the most powerful and deadly of the Fantastic Four’s foes?  No amount of worms’ll fix whatever wound Annihilus will deal onto our hero if he fails this grab.  But y’know how these stories go.  You read comic books.

Say hello to Johnny Storm, wielder of the Cosmic Control Rod, ruler of the Negative Zone, commander of a billion bug army, and now the most dangerous man on the planet.

More Fantastic Four

Part two’ll be tomorrow.  Summer vacation brings in more free time, y’know?

For a small group of cosmically-enhanced humans, the Fantastic Four have accomplished an insane amount of stuff.  They travel the microverse, the Negative Zone, and outer space.  They’ve defeated Galactus more than once, who is responsible for destroying hundreds of planets.  Their arch-nemesis Dr. Doom has appeared in more superhero comics than any other supervillain (after Lex Luthor). They’ve successfully raised two children, which is practically impossible in the comic book world.  So how come they don’t get the fanfare the Avengers do?  I mean, Captain America doesn’t go to outer space.  Often.

Is it the uniforms?  They’re better now, I promise.  Is it all the science talk?  There’s always been less science and more punching.  Is it a lack of cool villains?  Y’know, Mole Man’s become quite powerful in the past few decades.  And remember when Spider-Man joined the team for a year or so?  You love Spider-Man, right?

As we move on to other topics on Monday, I figured one last effort to have you fall in love couldn’t hurt. Shall we begin?

Mr. Fantastic

In Marvel Knights 4 #4 (a series you should seriously be reading), written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and drawn by Steve McNiven, the team has had to get “real” jobs when they lost all their money.  Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) works computers for a tech company.  On his way to work one morning, he stumbles upon this:

With no remote controlled parachutes or virtual trampolines to save the man with, Reed has to rely on quite possibly his weakest skill: conversation.  But gosh darn it, he’ll try, because that’s what superheroes do.

I know the jumper plot device has been done many times before.  It’s okay.  Because as Mr. Fantastic taps into that empathy section of his brain squished between quantum mechanics and alien physiology, this scene serves an important purpose: it humanizes the world’s smartest man.

I’m a big fan of the concept of superhero-ism being more than jump kicking bad guys.  As our betters, superheroes work to make the entire comic book world a better place.  With great power comes great responsibility and blah blah blah.  Remember one of the most memorable pages from All-Star Superman?  If you read the series, you know exactly which one I’m talking about:

Powerful stuff, right?  I’m just saying that the thrill of superheroes involves more than them bloodying their knuckles.  Though that’s still a major part.

Invisible Woman and Thing

In Marvel Knight 4 #7, written by Aguirre-Sacasa and drawn by McNiven, the Fantastic Four (minus Human Torch) go camping.  Of course, being like most superhero vacations, aliens show up, abduct lots of people, and the team discovers a town’s horrible secret.  Normal superhero stuff.  When Mr. Fantastic sneaks aboard the alien mothership to rescue to captives, he and the others get trapped.

Teamwork, my friends.  What your parents and teachers have ingrained in you since you popped out of the womb comes in handy when you can’t accomplish everything by yourself.  Even the Lone Ranger has a partner.  Because Mr. Fantastic’s been working with the same three team members for over ten years, he knows exactly how the rescue will be played out — all without a walkie-talkie or e-mail or anything.

And when clambering super strength alone won’t solve the problem, well, that’s why it’s a team.

Time and time again have proven the Invisible Woman by far is the most powerful member of the team, if just because her superpower can do so many crazy things besides sneaking around and blocking attacks.  She can fly be creating and moving a force field directly below her.  She can turn an entire living room invisible with a single thought.  She can use her powers to block telekinesis and other pesky psychic powers.  She can hold off tsunamis and tornadoes.  And God help the Marvel universe if Sue Storm ever goes full-on supervillain.  She can create a bubble inside people to cut off oxygen. She could enlarge a force field to explode a person from within.  A thrown force block that’s strong and large enough could crush most superheroes instantly.

Most importantly though, she doesn’t take crap from alien invaders.

Tomorrow will be all Human Torch, my friends.  Johnny Storm, not the Human Torch that killed Hitler.