MRL - Doctor Strange Season One
Jul. 31st, 2025 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sonotadreamDoctor Strange Season One (2012) - written by Greg Pak, art by Emma Rios
A bit of Background: the Season One graphic novels were Marvel's way to modernize some origin stories. They end up being placed in a different universe from Earth-616, except for this one. They also seem to be hit or miss in terms of quality.
Doctor Strange is definitely a hit. It starts with a brief, faithful retelling of Strange Tales #115, just smoothing out some rougher edges - does Strange walk in on Mordo casting dark magic? No, Mordo invited him in an attempt to recruit Strange to his side.
Skip to a few months later and Strange's mystical studies aren't going very well. He sort of accidentally invokes Dormammu, which earns him the eternal enmity of Wong, until the end of the first arc.
The main difference between the Wong from the Silver Age and this one is that the latter is actually a character (TBF he only appeared twiceinthecomics I read).
Anyway, Wong has been studying the Mystic Arts his entire life and is a Kung Fu master, but has a chip on his shoulder about Strange. The Ancient One encourages the two to work together because they compliment each other: Wong has the heart, but lacks the discipline or patience necessary to advance, while Strange has the discipline but his heart is lacking - he's here only long enough to heal his hands and go back to his previous life.
We meet our third teammate, Sofia di Cosimo,of il Museo Della Mitologia Antiga Rome. She came looking for Wong and the Ancient One because she discovered three powerful rings went missing and now she's under attack by supernatural forces. The mission is to recover the rings and neutralize them.
The Ancient One forbids his students from going, so of course they slip away in the middle of the night.
The first ring is in Salem in the hands of a corrupt politician. He thinks he's the best thing ever because the ring has been protecting him his whole life, a feeling Strange can relate to. He's able to charm the ring away from the politician, who now has to reevaluate everything he thought he knew about himself.
The politician's ancestors, however, object to this turn of events, but Strange manages to invoke the Vishanti for protection, and then dispel them when they object to an unworthy worm holding the Ring of Compulsion.
The second ring is in Cairo, in the hands of a doctor, Ahmad Amin, who's using it to basically perform miracles. He got it from an old monk in the Himalayas, funny enough.
Strange feels conflicted in taking the Ahmad's ring, but Mordo is also after the rings and sends a horde of monsters to attack the doctor. Our trio manages to save him with some magic and Wong takes the ring.
Ahmad's confidence is shaken, but Strange gives him a pep talk and a helping hand, and maybe remembers why he became a doctor himself.
He's also becoming more in tune with the magical forces around him, which allows Strange to direct the trio to Stonehenge when their magical map stops working.
There is Wong's turn to get a pep talk. He's feeling down because, despite training in Lamar Taj his entire life, Strange is the one with the ability to invoke the Vishanti. Strange reminds him what the Ancient One said, how he has the heart, he just needs to find the words, and the two work together to vanish another horde of Mordo's monsters.
The third ring is in the British Museum, in the hands of an old lady who believes herself to be the last on a long line of guardians against evil magic. Unfortunately, the ring is attracting powerful, evil spirits and Strange resorts to awaken the ancient gods whose energy is still around to defeat them.
It works and they get the ring, but now they have to confront Mordo.Wong calls on the Vishanti, but he's not strong enough to control them, so Mordo, with Dormammu's power behind him, takes control. It's Sofia's turn to give Strange a pep talk, remind him he's not worthless and he manages to call on the Vishanti for help to defeat Mordo, who shows himself not to be so much better than the two novices.
Strange and Sofia help Wong regain control of himself, the rings decide Strange is not an unworthy worm and he returns them to the Vishanti, instead of healing his hands and going back to his old life.
In conclusion, this is a good adventure story. It does a good job of bridging Strange's arc between his origin and being an established sorcerer. And it's nice that the central relationship between the main trio doesn't revolve around a love triangle, it's all about friendship.
The art and colours, especially in the final battle are phenomenal.
Mordo remains a one-note villain, though.
A bit of Background: the Season One graphic novels were Marvel's way to modernize some origin stories. They end up being placed in a different universe from Earth-616, except for this one. They also seem to be hit or miss in terms of quality.
Doctor Strange is definitely a hit. It starts with a brief, faithful retelling of Strange Tales #115, just smoothing out some rougher edges - does Strange walk in on Mordo casting dark magic? No, Mordo invited him in an attempt to recruit Strange to his side.
Skip to a few months later and Strange's mystical studies aren't going very well. He sort of accidentally invokes Dormammu, which earns him the eternal enmity of Wong, until the end of the first arc.
The main difference between the Wong from the Silver Age and this one is that the latter is actually a character (TBF he only appeared twiceinthecomics I read).
Anyway, Wong has been studying the Mystic Arts his entire life and is a Kung Fu master, but has a chip on his shoulder about Strange. The Ancient One encourages the two to work together because they compliment each other: Wong has the heart, but lacks the discipline or patience necessary to advance, while Strange has the discipline but his heart is lacking - he's here only long enough to heal his hands and go back to his previous life.
We meet our third teammate, Sofia di Cosimo,of il Museo Della Mitologia Antiga Rome. She came looking for Wong and the Ancient One because she discovered three powerful rings went missing and now she's under attack by supernatural forces. The mission is to recover the rings and neutralize them.
The Ancient One forbids his students from going, so of course they slip away in the middle of the night.
The first ring is in Salem in the hands of a corrupt politician. He thinks he's the best thing ever because the ring has been protecting him his whole life, a feeling Strange can relate to. He's able to charm the ring away from the politician, who now has to reevaluate everything he thought he knew about himself.
The politician's ancestors, however, object to this turn of events, but Strange manages to invoke the Vishanti for protection, and then dispel them when they object to an unworthy worm holding the Ring of Compulsion.
The second ring is in Cairo, in the hands of a doctor, Ahmad Amin, who's using it to basically perform miracles. He got it from an old monk in the Himalayas, funny enough.
Strange feels conflicted in taking the Ahmad's ring, but Mordo is also after the rings and sends a horde of monsters to attack the doctor. Our trio manages to save him with some magic and Wong takes the ring.
Ahmad's confidence is shaken, but Strange gives him a pep talk and a helping hand, and maybe remembers why he became a doctor himself.
He's also becoming more in tune with the magical forces around him, which allows Strange to direct the trio to Stonehenge when their magical map stops working.
There is Wong's turn to get a pep talk. He's feeling down because, despite training in Lamar Taj his entire life, Strange is the one with the ability to invoke the Vishanti. Strange reminds him what the Ancient One said, how he has the heart, he just needs to find the words, and the two work together to vanish another horde of Mordo's monsters.
The third ring is in the British Museum, in the hands of an old lady who believes herself to be the last on a long line of guardians against evil magic. Unfortunately, the ring is attracting powerful, evil spirits and Strange resorts to awaken the ancient gods whose energy is still around to defeat them.
It works and they get the ring, but now they have to confront Mordo.Wong calls on the Vishanti, but he's not strong enough to control them, so Mordo, with Dormammu's power behind him, takes control. It's Sofia's turn to give Strange a pep talk, remind him he's not worthless and he manages to call on the Vishanti for help to defeat Mordo, who shows himself not to be so much better than the two novices.
Strange and Sofia help Wong regain control of himself, the rings decide Strange is not an unworthy worm and he returns them to the Vishanti, instead of healing his hands and going back to his old life.
In conclusion, this is a good adventure story. It does a good job of bridging Strange's arc between his origin and being an established sorcerer. And it's nice that the central relationship between the main trio doesn't revolve around a love triangle, it's all about friendship.
The art and colours, especially in the final battle are phenomenal.
Mordo remains a one-note villain, though.
