This is one of those collections that I didn't even make into the house with. I finished reading it in the front seat of my car, with dusk falling and tears running down my face, nearly making myself late for my dance class.
Doctor Strange was where it all started with me with Marvel comics, sitting in Jacqueline Lichtenberg's living room as a young teenager, reading away the long shabbos afternoons. I was a subscriber to Elfquest and getting my issues by mail. Doctor Strange made me venture inside my local comics store -- does it still exist, I wonder? -- in search of new issues, and then of back issues as I slowly became a collector as well as a reader. Through the great crossover story
But Doctor Strange was first. Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme. The Dread Dormammu. The Dark Dimension. The Sanctum Sanctorum. (Marvel loved its alliteration, yes it did...) White haired, purple-clad Clea. Wong. That ludicrous red and blue costume. Oh, yes.
I never collected Doctor Strange the way I did Tomb of Dracula and X-Men, but it still has a special place in my heart. So when Serge sent me the compilation of the recent (well, 2004) six-issue origin reboot, Doctor Strange: Beginnings and Endings
Comic books and strips all have the notorious lack-of-aging problem, as characters move through decades of history and have their look and surroundings modernized again and again while the age only a few years, if that. I was used to this from the Modesty Blaise books, which went merrily along for a good quarter-century with Modesty still in her mid-twenties. This elastic approach to time used to be something that was pretty much ignored. It was just One of Those Comic Things. But lately (for a decade or more's worth of lately, I think; I've been out of the loop), the comic companies have been possessed of a (blatantly commercial) urge to rewrite origin stories to bring them into line with their characters' overt ages. Peter O'Donnell even did a speculative version of this for Modesty Blaise, bringing her childhood backstory from World War II to communist Europe in the 1970s. Sometimes this kind of updating works, sometimes it doesn't.
This one works.
The tweaks are substantial, adding a student medical mission to the Himalayas and an early prophecy of Strange's destiny, but the writers maintain the essence of the story of a selfish surgeon, the destruction of his hands in an accident, and his mystical rebirth as the Sorcerer Supreme under the tutelage of the Ancient One. His rivalry with Baron Mordo, meeting with Clea, connection with Wong, and battle with Dormammu...all are there, neatly rearranged into a tight little story taking place primarily in New York City, where the Ancient One, when not occupying himself with his role as the barrier between our world and other dimensions, wears a natty yellow suit, serves bottled water ("Evian or San Pellegrino?"), and listens to Simon and Garfunkel.
And it works. It really does. I could feel the Marvel Universe neatly rearranging itself around me as this became the new, but true, history of Doctor Strange. The long-haired Wong made me grin. I liked that Clea got a chance to really kick some demonic ass, though I missed her white hair and those wacky printed tights. I won't spoil it by explaining how Strange's family was handled, but it was heartbreaking.
Reboot accomplished. Reboot accepted.
I'm very grateful to Serge for making me read this, but now I want to know: did Marvel continue this storyline anywhere? Or was it just a miniseries that is now considered an alternate version of the main Marvel Universe? The plot wasn't left hanging, exactly, but there were hints at the end about Clea that I would like to see pursued. I can't figure it out via Google-fu.
This one is a must-buy for Strange fans, though I suspect that by now I'm the last one to read it. Have a shopping link anyway:
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