Doctor Strange in the MC2

 

Now that Spider-Man: No Way Home has come and gone, the most anticipated Marvel Studios movie release is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness so now is an excellent time to take a look at Doctor Strange in the MC2.

 

While Doctor Stephen Strange first appeared in Strange Tales #110, his MC2 counterpart makes his debut in the pages of A-Next #3. Right off the bat, this appearance provides a number of insights into Stephen’s new status quo, starting with the issue’s opening page which pretty well confirms the Sorcerer still resides within the Sanctum Sanctorum located at 177A Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village. We also learn that Doc Magus aka Dormagus has replaced Strange as the new Sorcerer Supreme (as Dormagus puts it) ‘ever since The Vishanti fired [Stephen’s] butt.’

 

Having foreseen a world-threatening tragedy that will unfold in the near future, Doctor Strange takes matters into his own hands and recruits his former Defenders teammates Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk in an apparent attempt to save the day using extreme measures. Doc Magus attempts to warn off Strange and when this fails, he takes his mentor Deacon’s advice and approaches the newly formed Avengers team for help. Soon enough the two teams clash in Arizona until Dormagus uses the Eye of Agamotto to uncover Doctor Strange’s true motives were three-fold: to make Namor proactive once more, ensure the Hulk is able to fulfill his destiny and provide the new Avengers team a ‘baptism of fire’.

 

While Doctor Strange himself does not appear, he is alluded to in J2 #4 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!’.

 

Ignoring a warning from Doctor Strange to wait for reinforcements, Dormagus and Zane Yama aka J2 make their way to a pocket dimension to rescue Cain Marko aka Juggernaut. Despite reuniting Zane with his father, Nemesus appears and reveals Doc Magus had fallen into his trap and closed the heroes gateway home, trapping them. Fortunately, Doctor Strange appears alongside his fellow Defenders the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner and aid in escaping from Nemesus’ dimension before they are all swarmed by legions of Darklings. This story makes clear some unexplored history between Nemesus and Strange (J2 #12).

 

Around this time, Doctor Strange made an appearance in Wild Thing #0 where in he is called upon by Wolverine to attempt to remove the cure of the Wendigo from the land around Hudson Bay. Meeting Wild Thing, Stephen makes a knowing comment to Wolverine: ‘Independent children can be such a trial, eh, Wolverine?’ With the aid of the Hulk, Wolverine and Wild Thing, Doctor Strange successfully lifts the curse.

 

When the demonically empowered vigilante Darkdevil is stabbed through the chest by the Venom Symbiote bonded with Normie Osborn, Doc Magus is called upon to save him. Struggling to save the hero, Dormagus admits he is out of his depth and accepts the help of Doctor Strange just as the demon Zarathos appears and warns the two mystics to leave Darkdevil’s body as he claimed it as his own. Unable to perform a conventional exorcism, the two are forced to journey into Darkdevil’s mindscape and restore the balance between the three vying avatars within the hero: the spirit of vengeance Zarathos, the ghostly spirt of the costumed hero Daredevil and the boy Reilly Tyne (Spider-Girl #83-#84).

 

With a string of superheroes going missing, Doc Magus sets out to find them on his own, once again rejecting the aid of Doctor Strange, only to wind up defeated in his astral form by a disguised Loki and fall under the villain’s thrall immediately afterwards when reunited with his mortal form and abducted (Last Hero Standing #2). 

 

While attempting to resolve the mystery of the missing heroes, Doctor Strange is instead attacked by the culprit Loki himself, who mentions Stephen’s ‘fall from grace is well-known to [him]’ before making short work of the Sorcerer. Still enthralled and falsely believing he knows who kidnapped him, Doc Magus leads the other heroes to Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum only to be confronted by a Loki-controlled and enraged Hulk who makes short work of the assembled heroes indiscriminately. Upon finding that Doctor Strange was seemingly in a coma, Dormagus was unable to detect Loki’s handiwork thanks to the dark spell’s effect (Last Hero Standing #4). Asgard’s Grand Vizier reveals the truth to Doc Magus and Doctor Strange is shortly after present to witness the death of Captain America (Last Hero Standing #5).

 

Unless I’ve missed a cameo somewhere, that’s the last time we see Doctor Strange in the MC2. I find the still-unresolved mystery of how and why Doctor Strange lost the position of Sorcerer Supreme to be a most tantalizing plot thread. I sincerely wish we learned the details of this massive development.

 

Until I learn to master the mystic arts and become Sorcerer Supreme only to lose the job under unrevealed circumstances, I remain

 

frogoat  

 

 

 

  

Doc Magus in the Multiverse of Madness

 

Someday I’ll manage to cover literally every single aspect of the MC2 and wrap up this blog, but today is not that day. No, for today’s entry I wanted to detail a previously unknown (to me) appearance for Doc Magus aka Dormagus in the Marvel Multiverse. Specifically, Doc Magus in the 616 aka the Main Marvel Universe. Sorry about the clickbait-y title, I couldn’t resist!

 

Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme was a series released from 2016 to 2017 following the Main Marvel Universe’s Doctor Strange teaming up with various other characters who have at some point in their time or reality carried the mantle of the Sorcerer Supreme, including a young Yao who would later be known as The Ancient One, the mentor of Doctor Strange and many others.

 

At the conclusion of the series (Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme #12), Yao is faced with the seemingly impossible task of by completing the Trials of the Worthy in order to obtain The Cup of Eternity which will extend his life (hence the later title of Ancient One) and is aided in this task by Doctor Strange’s team of Sorcerers Supreme. Meanwhile, guided by a book known as The History of the Supremes, the mysterious Merlin (also apparently at one time a Sorcerer Supreme) disappears to recuit more help.

 

With the aid of his fellow Sorcerers the young Yao makes his way through various obstacles until finding himself unable to pierce the magical barrier preventing him from reaching the Well of Longing within which lay the Cup of Eternity. Fortunately, Merlin returns with a large group of Sorcerers Supreme from across time and realities.

 

 

Nestled among this assemblage of Sorcerers Supreme is the MC2’s very own Doc Magus aka Dormagus, alongside such characters as 2099’s Stranger, the Main Marvel Universe’s Clea and Baron Mordo and the future Guardian of the Galaxy’s Krugarr. Using the groups combined magical might concentrated through Merlin who wielded the last Word of God, the magical barrier was broken allowing Yao to go and fulfil his destiny.

 

Before heading into the cave containing the Well of Longing and ultimately the Cup of Eternity, all the Sorcerers present showed their respect to their future master with a bow. Yao apologized for the fact he would never mention this to any of them when he would later meet them in his future. Merlin shortly afterwards returned the Sorcerers to their rightful places.

 

While this is merely a cameo appearance, I do like that Dormagus is represented here as he is the MC2’s own Sorcerer Supreme. This appearance also suggests that perhaps Merlin has read about Doc Magus’ fate in The History of the Supremes. Furthermore, the way Doctor Strange explains to Yao that he lives long enough to teach all of the Sorcerers Supreme present certainly requires exploring. Doctor Strange is probably speaking metaphorically as Dormagus and others such as Krugarr and the Stranger were born after the lifespan of the Ancient One, with his teachings being passed on to future generations, his legacy.

 

Until I stop digging up, digging into and just plain digging these little MC2 related details, I remain

 

frogoat