Superman created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963, the Doctor Strange is “the Master of mystical arts” to which all the other supermen appeal systematically when they have mesh to leave with the magic. This monopoly made of him one of the key supporting characters of the universe Marvel, even if its solitary adventures never had, with share in its beginnings, of durable success.

Biography of the character

Stephen Strange was a brilliant neurosurgeon but also a dépravé, cynical and egoistic being. Oublieux of its duties and the medical deontology, it sought before very making fortune and selected its patients according to the contents of their bank account. But one night, whereas it returned one evening sprinkled well, it had an car accident. It left alive but had there the two hands if damaged that it could not operate any more. Despaired, it sank in a deep depression. It undergoes many interventions with an aim of recovering its legendary dexterity. In vain. Gradually, his/her colleagues, his/her friends forsook it. It was a finished man.

Then one day, he heard of Old the, a kind of healer living in the mountains of the the Himalayas and supposedly able to make miracles. Strange believed that it could help it to become again the famous surgeon who it had been. He undertook at once a long voyage to the end of which he met a man with the strange capacities. The Old one proved to be an extraordinary Master of the occult sciences and the ultimate agent of ancestral secret practices. He does not cure Strange but made him undergo initiatory tests to which its pupil subjected with, at the beginning, a certain reserve.

At the conclusion of this long training, Stephen Strange carried out its last errors and decided to devote its life to the mystical arts. Its mentor then gave the Coat of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto to him, an amulet with the capacities divinatoires. Thus celebrates it Doctor Strange was born. Very quickly this one was confronted with terrible enemies of which the Baron Mordo, a disciple of Old who had turned out badly, and Dormammu, lord of the Dimension of the Shade. The Old one entrusted to its dear pupil the protection of the Earth and named it Supreme Sorcier of planet.

The doctor settled in a manor with Greenwich Village, New York, and took with his service faithful the Wong. To fight the forces of the evil, Strange founded soon the group of the Défenseurs which joins together at its sides Hulk, Namor the prince of the seas and the Money Surfer.

Leading history

Doctor Strange was at the top of his glory in the years 1960 and 1970, at the time where competition between comics was moderated and where they were sold better. Its adventures published in the review Strange Bruise number 110 to the 168, its then renamed review Doctor Strange and continued until number 183 thanks to the talents of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

The second series devoted to the Master of mystical arts comprised 81 numbers and was inter alia the work of Steve Englehart, Roger Stern, Chris Claremont with the scenario and of Gene Colan, Marshall Rogers with the drawing. In 1987, Strange divided with the Cape and the Sword the poster of the second series Strange Tales which stopped after only a few months to set out again to zero under the name of Doctor Strange sorcerer supreme. It is the fourth and to date the last regular series devoted to the good doctor by Roy Thomas, Warren Ellis, J.M. DeMatteis with the scenario and Jackson Guice with the drawing. It stopped in 1996.

Did Doctor Strange also appear in the various series telling the adventures of the Défenseurs, in the albums Into Shamballa (by J.M. DeMatteis and daN Green) and Triumph and torment (by Roger Stern and Mike Mignola), in some one-shots like What is it that disturbs you Stephen? (by Paul Craig Russel), in the mini-series Flight off bones (by daN Jolley, Tony Harris and Paul Chadwick from February in May 1999) and lately in the mini-series entitled simply Strange (by Joe Michael Straczynski and Torch Peterson), these two last series being appeared under the label Marvel Knights.

Other media

In 1978, a telefilm Doctor Strange was born.

Homonymy

• the Doctor Strange (Hugo Strange), in the cartoons of the characters of cd. Comics, is super-unpleasant, enemy of Batman.

Sources

• Marvel universe volume 2

Random links:

Martin Luther | Septentrional dimension | Bonhoure | Marie-Jose Laloy | Scott Lowell