Review by Graham Johnstone
British Marvel’s Definitive Collections offer samplers of Marvel characters at a manageable size and price. This Doctor Strange volume includes examples from each decade, from the 1960s to 2010s, but are they really the highlights?
Few will object to thirteen pages used between Strange’s striking debut, and still compelling origin story, both credited to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. However, the duo’s third example reflects the character’s mystery anthology roots, whereas a later episode could have represented the ground-breaking, and dimension-spanning, quest that followed. Acclaimed runs by Roy Thomas/Gene Colan/Tom Palmer (late 1960s), and Steve Englehart/Frank Brunner (1970s), are similarly represented by early efforts. Choices seem limited by avoiding ‘to be continued’ endings.
Still, the editors manage to represent Roger Stern and Marshall Rogers’ acclaimed time travel arc, with a self-contained WWII two-parter. A crossover with Tomb of Dracula, shows the Englehart/Colan/Palmer, team at their best, with the Marv Wolfman-written Dracula episode a welcome inclusion. The selections also highlight supporting characters, notably Clea. She appears as inter-dimensional refugee and Strange’s lover, (1968), at a major turning point (1982), and as Strange’s counterpart in her Dark Dimension home (1992-3). Notably absent, though, is her powerful debut opposing Dormammu to save Strange. That would have introduced two characters recurring here, (and set the scene for the 1990s story filling a third of the book). Its absence is another cost of editorial policy.
Each story builds on the Lee/Ditko foundations, with some fresh twists. Roy Thomas re-rooted Strange in earthly reality (aptly, 1960s hippie-haven Greenwich Village), and Stern follows first foe Baron Mordo’s roots back through history. Len Kaminski has the most intriguing twist: what if the mystic entities Strange routinely invokes decided he owed them a debt? Sadly, over this hundred page extract the premise doesn’t fully pay off. Brian K. Vaughan returns to the Doctor’s medical roots in The Oath, represented by the final chapter, so avoiding the ‘to be continued’ ban. It’s a smart exploration of corporate medicine meeting magic, with very personal stakes for Strange. In remaining story ‘The Old House’, Roger Stern tells how Strange acquired his Greenwich Village ‘sanctum’. It’s an appealing premise well-delivered, and ends the book neatly with a callback to the start.
The selections offer a fascinating overview of evolving comic art fashions. Ditko, even on his early work here, is a master of composition, movement, and storytelling and his increasingly bold depictions of occult paraphernalia, mystical effects, and magical dimensions shape everything that follows. The Colan/Palmer team’s 1968 sample is solid, but their 1970s selection (pictured, left) is outstanding, capturing the realist as well as the supernatural, in some beautiful, dynamic pages. The stylish page designs and magical effects of Marshall Rogers (1980s, pictured, right) compensate for his awkward figures. Geof Isherwood’s art is of its time, recalling 1990s fan favourites as glitzy, mannered and overblown, looking as if he learnt to draw entirely from copying comics, without reference to actual humans. He favours flashy layouts, over clarity or storytelling, and multiple inkers don’t help. However, this was early work and he improves over these three chapters. The art is much improved for the 2000s selection (Marcos Martin) and again for the 2010s, with Neil Vokes delivering an appealing 21st Century homage to the Ditko era.
Key creative teams are represented, but often by early episodes, before they finessed their approach to this unique series. This isn’t the best of the best, but for anyone wanting an introduction to the series, it’s a sound buy. The recommendations offer other career highlights.
