Doctor Strange Epic Collection, Volume 3: A Separate Reality by Roy Thomas, et al.

First half meh, second half marvelous

The Epic Collection is a series of trade paperbacks in which Marvel reprints their classic comics in full color. The Doctor Strange Epic Collection, Volume 3, published in 2016, consists of issues from 1969 to 1974 featuring Marvel’s master of the mystic arts. I had recently read Doctor Strange Epic Collection, Volume 1 and couldn’t get my hands on Volume 2, so I jumped ahead to Volume 3. Since Volume 1, the magazine in which Doctor Strange got his start, Strange Tales, has been retitled to Doctor Strange while continuing the same numbering system. Volume 3 begins with issues 180 to 183 of that series. Apparently, the good doctor was not one of Marvel’s more popular characters at this time, because Stephen Strange retires from sorcery and superherodom in 1970. Not until December of 1971 does he return to once again take up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. Even then, the character was relegated to titles like Marvel Feature and Marvel Premiere. In June of 1974, however, Marvel finally had enough confidence in the character to start a new Doctor Strange series beginning at issue #1.

Volume 3 starts out well with four issues of art by the incomparable Gene Colan, whose dynamic page layouts lend themselves well to Strange’s occult adventures. The writing by Roy Thomas, however, is not so great. It was at this time that Doctor Strange was wearing a blue mask and attempting to maintain a secret identity, even though his real name and superhero name are the same. Unlike most Marvel characters, Strange has almost no personal life to speak of, which makes him rather one-dimensional, although he does have a girlfriend, Clea, who spends a lot of time on the sidelines. (There is one odd scene in which Strange meets the writer Tom Wolfe in Times Square, and it turns out they’re old friends.) The stories in the first half of the book are mostly horror stories in which Strange faces off against a series of reptilian humanoid creatures that look like they came right out of old Tales to Astonish comics. Once Colan leaves, things get even worse as the Doctor is juggled like a hot potato through the hands of a string of mediocre artists and writers.

With Marvel Premiere #9, however, writer Steve Englehart and artist Frank Brunner take up the creative duties for Strange, and from there his exploits take a turn for the better. I’m not a huge fan of Englehart; some of the stuff he wrote for the Avengers and Defenders just seemed too weird-for-weird’s sake to me. Here, however, his style meshes well with the essence of the character. After too many pedestrian horror stories, the Strange tales once again enter the realm of glorious cosmic mysticism. Brunner also excels in his artistic duties. He is not quite the consummate anatomist that Colan is, but he does a great job of envisioning and rendering all of the alternate dimensions and magical phenomena that Strange encounters in his sorcerous work.

One thing I have never seen in a superhero comic in my entire life: a character actually excuses himself to go to the bathroom. One of the villains says, “Nature calls,” and exits the room for five minutes, allowing his captive to escape. Leave it to Englehart to come up with that.

The first half of Volume 3 is probably 2-star work, with the exception of Colan’s beautiful art. The second half of the book, however, is solid 4-star work from Englehart and Brunner. Initially, the reader of this collection might judge Doctor Strange to be a forgettable B-list hero, but by the end of the volume one finds hope that the character will ascend to Marvel greatness.