What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

I didn't think there'd be time to post today. I went to leafy Lenzie, one of the poshest places I've been since Melrose to visit the tiny comic con in the town hall. I'm back, however, after a thunderous downpour. This is the first of another miniseries of themed posts.

In the last seven or eight months, I've written more about Dr. Strange than I expected.
https://materioptikon.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/the-many-loves-of-doctor-strange/
https://materioptikon.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/journey-of-the-sorceror/

Today, I'm looking at A Separate Reality: the Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner collaborations  which are compiled in a hardback in the Marvel graphic novel reprint line. ( I might tie it in to the Avengers Defenders War tpb- we'll see.)

I probably hadn't read these stories since their b/w reprints in Britain as part of the gorgeous, trippy Avengers/Savage Sword of Conan Weekly of the mid-70s.

The Crypts of Kaa-U/Finally, Shuma-Gorath/Homecoming: Englehart announces in these Marvel Premiere stories that "the password has just become Kosmic". He commemorates the tenth anniversary of Dr. Strange (and does the same thing at the beginning of the aforementioned Avengers/Defenders Clash. It's a respectful and classy move.)

MP had been a Lovecraftian pastiche book since the Barry Smith Starkesboro story. Englehart and Buddha conclude the storyline but with a return to the Eastern mysticism of Lee and Ditko.  Unfortunately, the story begins with one of Marvel's ubiquitous crucifixions (c.f. https://materioptikon.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/death-machine-for-hire/)

In the tombs of the Ancient One's sect, Strange discovers his mentor has been possessed by the octopoid "cosmic obscenity" just as the Second Doctor's old friend Padmasambhva was taken over by the Great Intelligence. The Ancient One sacrifices himself  but becomes "One with the Universe ", not unlike Mar-Vell, Mantis and the obscure JLA villain Libra. The corpulent and culturally insensitive villain the Living Buddha is killed in the cataclysm but there is a coda and a partial reprint, with an early battle with Mordo from the Ditko days.

This is also a prelude as Strange, now the Sorceror Supreme of our reality goes to make peace with Mordo. A time travel adventure then kicks off in Portal to the Past/Time Doom/Sise-Neg Genesis.
Lilia the gypsy queen prefigures Madame Xanadu and Scorpio Rose and Sise-Neg reminds me of Flash's foe Abra Kadabra, coming from a future era where magic is commonplace.

This voyage through Inner Time is moody and psychedelic, involving Cagliostro, Sir Lancelot, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Shuma-Gorath and the creation of the Garden of Eden. It's also as outrageous as anything Gerber did in Man-Thing or Son of Satan -and somewhat insensitive. Mordo is stupefied when the time-travelling Sise-Neg is revealed (of course) to be the Judeo-Christian God and creator of the universe.

Dr. Straneg then regains his own title for the first time since his Thomas/Colan blue-mask days in the late Sixties as we begin the final arc in the book: Through An Orb Darkly/A Separate Reality/Amidst the Madness/Where Bound'ries Decay/ Cloak and Dagger.

Inspired by a late night Disney outing for Englehart and his tripping pals, this is the one with the hookah-smoking caterpillar. Trapped in the Orb of Agamotto, Strange has been targeted for assassination by a religious fanatic. The Carroll tribute continues with a Mad Hatter's tea party with the Defenders, Nick Fury and Captain Midnight, the wartime radio hero. Death, however, is the real enemy but Strange defeats Him/Her and is reborn. He will not age now and may live forever. This is a comic book version of an occult rite of passage and it's hard to comprehend. Eternity figures somehow. It's HEAVY.

Vengeful Vatican cardinal Silver Dagger is defeated and is exiled to the Lewis Carroll World. With his cloistered, violent backstory, he reminds me a little of the Djinn from the Coyote series. I was frustrated to see how helpless Clea is in these stories. Silver Dagger mistook her for one of the "hippies" he is "cleansing" of blasphemy but she should have been able to defeat him herself. It's surprisingly unenlightened of Englehart.

There is also another reprinted interlude: the first appearance of Dormammu and of Strange's second, more colourful costume. I much prefer his original Ditko look - or even the 40s Kirby Vision version.
While these stories are often rambling, a little crass and undoubtedly pretentious, they're also inventive , moody and mind-blowing for us 70s Brit- kids.

Things would get even more, er, Strange with the return of Colan; the secret of Umar; the destruction of the Earth and the Manson-esque James Mandarin.  Englehart was clearly fascinated by the "Rising and Advancing of the Spirit". Not only with Shang-Chi and Strange, but also with Mantis, Coyote, Hank Pym, Sharon Ventura and Norrin Radd. In a future post, we'll see the Stainless One take Bruce Wayne on a "strange" trip of his own.

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