I must admit I’ve been devoting a fair bit of time and thought
to the MC2’s present Sorcerer Supreme, the youthful Doc Magus.
With that being the case, today I’m going to take a look at Dormagus’
parentage. In particular this post will provide the answer to the question of just
exactly who is Dormagus’ father.
So, this one is easier than you might think. Let’s take a
look at the not so subtle and numerous clues from throughout Doc
Magus’ appearances: Firstly in his debut in A-Next #3, the
former Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange refers to Doc Magus by his real
name Dormagus upon his encountering him. The pair are on very familiar,
albeit somewhat antagonistic or strained terms with one another. Doc Magus
refers to Stephen Strange as ‘Old Man’ and is well aware that the
Doctor was ‘fired’ as the MC2’s current Sorcerer
Supreme. Dormagus refers to Doctor Strange as ‘the Old Man’
a few more times and later states he’s become ‘more ruthless and bitter with
age’, meanwhile Stephen reminds the young Sorcerer Supreme that his ‘skills
were honed in this realm long before [Dormagus’] birth' so evidently,
they have a pretty personal knowledge of one another’s history.
While in an unknown dimension alongside the Avenger J2
battles a Darkling posing as the original Juggernaut,
the dark lord Nemesus taunts Dormagus’ about the mystic’s
strained and dysfunctional relationship with his own father. When he is
thwarted and retreats, Nemesus’ parting words to Dormagus are ‘give
my regards to your own dear father!’ (J2 #4).
Around this time, Doctor Strange made an appearance in
Wild Thing #0 where he makes a knowing
comment to Wolverine: ‘Independent children can be such a trial,
eh, Wolverine?’ This is remark is not well received by Logan, but it’s
also very telling of Doctor Strange.
When next he appears, Doctor Strange is greeted by Doc
Magus with far more appreciation due to his lack of expertise when
attempting to save the demonic hero Darkdevil.
Even so, Dormagus still calls Strange ‘Old Man’ and when
asked for help, Stephen responds ‘And you shall have it, my boy!’ (Spider-Girl
#83)
Let’s finish this out, shall we? When Doc Magus
rebuffs Doctor Strange’s offer to work together to solve the mystery of
various kidnapped heroes, Strange quips ‘You certainly have the
arrogance of youth, my son.’ Yet again, Dormagus calls Stephen
‘Old Man’ (Last Hero Standing #2).
By now it should be pretty darn clear that Doc Magus
aka Dormagus’ father is none other than Doctor Stephen Strange. The
real mystery is what has transpired between the two that makes them so often
unkind to one another. It’s obvious that Stephen keeps an eye on his son
and is prepared to jump in to protect him despite all their animosity. For a
future post I’ll be covering the inevitable follow up question of who Dormagus’
mother could be...
Until I stop pointing out the obvious, albeit not explicitly
stated, I remain
frogoat
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