Doctor Strange #10

I love 70s Doctor Strange, and it was was this very story arc which started me down the road to writing this blog. As much as I was enjoying what I was reading I was struck by the various plot holes, narrative causalities, moments of poor characterisation and so on, and I started posting contextless observations about particularly facepalmworthy moments on Facebook, which my friends found amusing, and now here we are... so without further ado I bring you the beginning of the end of the world in Doctor Strange #10!

Doctor Strange and Baron Mordo battle it out on the cover, and even their cloaks are getting in on the action by having a bit of a pose off. Meanwhile, unheeded by either combatant the enigmatically psychedelic figure of Eternity (who LIVES!) looks on. Strange clearly takes the same approach to fashion that he does reality itself as he sports a pair of opaque tights that perfectly match his tunic. Apparently he didn't have time to put any shoes on, so Mordo would have a clear advantage if the contest were being fought on gravel.

ALONE AGAINST ETERNITY...

As befits the Sorcerer Supreme the splash page is surreal and mysterious (taking bets now for how long it takes me to run out of synonyms and end up back at 'enigmatic')... Strange looks into an ornate mirror, where the image of a doorway is superimposed over his own reflection and he thinks to himself "doorways...!"

But! In the decade-and-a-bit since the comics I opened this blog with were published the splash page has become a direct opening into the story, rather than simply showcasing the heroes and villains, and as we turn the page we find Strange alone with his thoughts, being as inscrutable as a MOTHERFUCKING WIZARD should be. It appears he has been opening rather a lot of doorways, possibly too many, and for days "and most especially nights" he's been feeling the "shadow of some lurking fear..." although this could just be a draught from leaving all the doors open.

Never one to let anything get in the way of self-aggrandisement Strange ponders that only he, as the Sorcerer Supreme, could have felt this malign presence and that while he has fucktonnes of magical artefacts they are as flawed as the humans who made them and any might turn on him at any time if he's not careful. Strange, he tells himself, is the master of arts he doesn't really understand, which I guess is like being an expert in dark matter only more magical, and that reality is but an illusion, while illusion is reality, man.

Now, for some context it's worth noting that Doctor Strange was created by an Ayn Rand fanboy who was baffled at the attention the character got from hippies and weirdos, and by the 1970s those same hippies and weirdos were working for Marvel and, it is said, were not afraid of dropping a bit of acid now and then

Anyway, Strange is concerned that something evil is seeks entrance to one of his doorways (snrrk), but he is jolted from his reverie by a howling scream for upstairs. Strange runs through his Sanctum, opening heavy oaken doorways with but a gesture, and finds his house guests standing outside the locked room from which the screaming comes. Waving his hand Strange opens the door to reveal that the screamer is none other than his old enemy... Baron Mordo!

CAN I PLAY WITH MADNESS?

Strange has been caring for Mordo - who Lord Pfyffe exposits has been an enemy since their days as disciples of the Ancient One - after they both "saw God", or possibly just got really fucking high. Mordo has been in a coma since then, but now is suddenly recovered. Or at least isn't comatose any longer, because let's be honest, screaming for several minutes is stretching the definition of 'recovered' a bit. Strange goes through the doorway (because there's nothing like taking a metaphor and making it a literal plot device) and plummets into "an empty ebon void" along with the still screaming Mordo!

Ever downward they fall, towards a purple planet, but instead of being turned to jam by the impact they simply come to a halt on the surface. As they scramble through twisted trees Strange quickly realises that this isn't just any old random dimension hop, but Mordo's madness; because when you're a MOTHERFUCKING WIZARD this shit is a thing that can happen.

Strange casts a sleep spell on Mordo, but as the crazy conjurer falls into a slumber Strange notices a dark figure riding a dark horse atop a dark ridge. A figure that introduces itself as Nightmare, but then Mordo slips into full unconsciousness and the pair are snapped back into the 'real' world. And so, amid the unheeded queries of his house guests, Strange stomps off to ponder this turn of events...

FROM HERE TO...

Wandering through his house Strange recalls that Nightmare is quite fond of attacking through the subconscious, as if the name "Nightmare" and his appearance in a dream wasn't enough of a clue, and remembers Nightmare's involvement with Eternity... indeed the very name "Eternity" sends a shiver of narrative causality up his spine! Strange delves into the depths of exposition further, to recall that Eternity defeated Nightmare, and that the former left "a hole in the cosmos ... by assuming the form of man-- the hole which Death could not enter!" (Snrrk)

Further exposition, however, is interrupted as the cloak of levitation flips over Strange's head, but it's not some malign influence but purply dressed Clea... apparently Strange was walking too sombrely (the fuck?) so she decided to tease him. Strange is not in the mood and admonishes his student, immediately bringing out insecurities at her being a bother to him (Clea does this a lot) but he's not talking about them personally but as master and disciple, but Clea is having none of this detached nonsense and goes to kiss Strange, but is interrupted when the sky starts falling! Which is the actual opposite of the Earth moving. But then, even as the planets and stars rush towards them there is no cataclysm, instead a huge figure looms over New York...

...ETERNITY

"He has come, as I felt he would!" Strange exclaims euphemistically. They wait for Eternity to reveal his intention, but no words come, and the crowds in the streets become aware of a thing that should not be... Strange acts fast to save their collective sanity and casts a spell which hides the reality of Eternity's presence by conjuring an illusion of a reality the assembled throng can deal with, and with a level of dismissive forgetfulness that Russell T. Davis would be proud of the people shrug off their mental ordeal and go on their way.

Strange resolves, then, to deal with Eternity in the most emo way he can: by himself, leaving the protesting Clea behind to call if he's needed.

The first stop on Strange's journey is a crazy old man living in a cave, but although crazy old men living in caves can be a great source of (albeit somewhat garbled) wisdom Aged Genghis is completely fucking doolally by this point and just giggles and drools in response. Thankfully Strange is not as much of a dickhead as he used to be and decides to take the elderly sage back to his Sanctum to be looked after.

But no sooner have they left the cave then tentacles burst forth from nowhere, though Strange now recognises the eldritch influences at work. He realises that the turmoil of Aged Genghis' mind has lent form to the squamous appendages and casts a spell to send the old man to sleep. Then, deciding he can't be arsed to be altruistic after all, Strange leaves the ancient mystic sitting on the floor and continues on his quest to do fucking everything by himself.

WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE

Even as Strange sends Aged Genghis into a magical slumber, Baron Mordo awakes from his; driven to wakefulness by visions of Nightmare and his "gnome-like minions", though without a pointy red hat for fishing rod in sight these are some fairly shit gnomes and would not be welcome in even the shabbiest garden.

Mordo leaps out of bed and runs through he door which Strange conveniently forgot to re-lock earlier, while Strange himself returns from his excursion and resolves to "enter the place of Eternity and fill it..."

Utilising the powers of the Eye of Agamotto, Strange casts his mind both inwards and outwards (because why the fuck not?) and soon finds himself "becoming one" with... Eternity!

CARRY ON, DOCTOR

Eternity, pulsing like a rainbow with a limited palette, booms out his words to our hero: warning of an impending doom that shall befall the whole of mankind... the end of the world itself! Strange shouts his denial of this fate, but Eternity is all "no joke" and goes on to explain how the end shall come... it won't be at His hand, but at those of mankind itself! Communication, even thirty years before the rise of social media, will be mankind's undoing... for it is this communication that allows humanity to rise out of blissful ignorance and demand more unto itself; and where every man wins, so too must every man lose!

(As we've already noted Ditko had a bit of a hard-on for Randian philosophy, so one has to wonder whether this is a bit of a 'fuck you' from the counter-culture types who ultimately embraced his creation.)

Strange, however, is adamant that humanity will find the answer but Eternity is having none of it, cryptically* stating that there is no answer, only answers! He then goes on to predict the Internet Moron logic of "you can only care about one thing at at time" by stating that because there are so many choices that have to be made humanity will inevitably fail. You can care about starving children but if you do you're not caring about homeless veterans! CHECK MATE, SNOWFLAKES.


But there's no way Strange is just going to sit back and let this happen, so he becomes the ultimate Social Justice Warrior; defending literally every human from the machinations of the cosmic being whether they want him to or not. Change for the sake of change, it seems, is just as bad as no change at all, and Strange contends that we haven't reached the point where change must be inevitable, so Eternity is all "nah, mate" and Strange is all "yeah, bro", but Eternity has one more ace up his cosmic sleeve... Strange himself!

Eternity moves the goalposts not just into a different field, but an entirely new game that he's just made up, and says that Strange will have to fight against aspects of himself if he is to triumph: the doctor, the drunkard, the acolyte and the Masked Magician.

Strange doesn't understand what is being asked of him, because "overcome aspects of yourself" is apparently difficult for a Sorcerer Supreme to grasp, and Eternity just reiterates that this is his game and his rules and if Strange doesn't play he'll just take his ball home anyway, and then Eternity departs leaving Strange to deal with whatever the fuck it is he's got to deal with.

And all the while, atop the Sanctum's roof, Baron Mordo howls at an uncaring sky before sending his astral form on a unknown mission...

Next time: Doctor Strange #11 - Shadowplay

*Not really that cryptically, but it's probably super cryptic if you're tripping balls.