Sorcerers Supreme, as a rule, do not retire. “Defender of all reality” is not a job that is particularly conducive to packing it all in and moving to a condo in Florida, in the first place, because it has a remarkably high dying-on-the-job rate. People who become Sorcerers Supreme are disinclined to retire anyway; the sort of person who is right for the job never really stops being right for the job until they are disqualified from it by reason of end of life. (Even the ones who are total bastards. Especially the ones who are total bastards, really.)
Most Sorcerers Supreme, when you get right down to it, become Sorcerer Supreme because they were never truly meant to be anything else, and thus there isn’t any point for them to not be Sorcerer Supreme; the acceptance of the job is simultaneously the acceptance of one’s own mortality, along with a bit of general foreknowledge that it when it comes, it will probably be rather violent. In fact, there are no recorded instances of Sorcerers Supreme fully retiring to give the job to the next fellow in line. Even the Ancient One died in battle against Shuma-Gorath (he pretended to retire and give Stephen the job, but really he was taking care of many things his pupil wasn’t yet ready to handle, much as a parent lets their child swim on their own while keeping their hands close by in case they need to rescue them from drowning).
Which is why it comes as such a surprise, during a particularly relaxing series of mediations, when Stephen Strange finds himself in the future. That bit of it isn’t particularly surprising – the magical powers of the Vishanti which he has mastered do allow for time travel and one does occasionally wander, not unlike puttering through an engaging farmer’s market and coming across a country cheese stand you have never seen, except instead of cheese it is time. (Which also helps with cheese, incidentally, but that is another thing entirely.) So finding himself in the future is not that odd. Even finding himself is not that odd. (At least, not to Stephen Strange.)
But what is odd is that Future Stephen is retired. And not Ancient One retired; for real retired. He gardens. He does his t’ai chi every day, to ward off the stiffness of old age. He does the odd bit of mystical consulting because once superheroes learn that they can ask you questions they never really stop doing it, even if nowadays it’s Spider-Girl and American Dream asking the questions. He has tea twice a week with the new Sorcerer Supreme (whose identity he refuses to divulge: “look, when I realized who it was to be, I was distinctly surprised, and I think that was important”), and tells his protege about the importance of extra socks often.
He speaks with his daughter on the phone every day, and he dotes on his grandchildren.
All of this of course makes Current Stephen extremely suspicious, because he’s not a damned idiot. Here Is Your Blissful Future is somewhere in the first half-dozen pages of every would-be conqueror’s guide to sidelining a Sorcerer Supreme, after all, and he knows as well as anybody that his job doesn’t really allow for this sort of future. At best, you get the satisfaction of having kept things from going to hell, and that has to be enough. But Current Stephen does test after test – he knows every possible way someone could fool his senses and he knows how to nullify or counter every single one of them. And every one comes up empty. For every test Current Stephen knows, and even a few he improvises, says the same thing: this is real, this is no trick, this is your beautiful house and your beautiful life, this is what you get.
And that is when Future Stephen – who, since he is Current Stephen plus time, is even harder to fool than Current Stephen – poses a question:
“If this is real – and let us assume for the moment that it is, since I think I am quite tangible – then we accept that this is unlikely. But it is also unlikely that you would see this for no reason. Which leads us to ask: who gains by having you come to this particular now? Are they your enemy, seeking to sideline you with the fear of potential? Are they mine, hoping to eliminate you in a future you cannot be prepared for? Or perhaps does someone wish to ensure that this particular iteration of your future never comes to be – or, indeed, definitely comes to be?”
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We can assume that Stephen has not been pressured or forced into retirement, because if so, Future!Stephen would know about it. So the fact that he finds this particular future has to be caused by something neither Stephen knows. Can you travel to a time, meditatively, where you are dead? If not, maybe this is just selection bias.
He speaks with his daughter on the phone every day, and he dotes on his grandchildren.
Indrani, I gather.
this is your beautiful house and your beautiful life
Is this whole comic going to just be a series of talking heads?
I just want you to know that “Reasons Why I Should Write Doctor Strange” never fails to cheer me up when I’m feeling miserable.
The question here is whether Future Strange reveals as much as he can to Present Strange, or holds back everything he can.
Obviously he doesn’t tell him everything in this pitch, since he refuses to name his successor (and there’s a good chance he made sure his successor knows about this event, so whoever they are doesn’t accidentally drop by), but that still leaves a lot of room for obfuscating or revealing things. Both approaches give reasons for Present Strange to be suspicious, since too much information seems like a good way to guarantee this future, while no information makes whoever may be responsible appear to be bluffing. And of course, there’s the issue that the longer Present Strange stays in this future, the more things could be going to hell in the present, since being stuck in a possible future that then collapses seems like a good attempt at killing a Sorcerer Supreme….
You know what, outside of whenever Kurt Busiek does new Astro City I stopped reading comics years ago. Add to that I was a DC/Wildstorm guy through and through. But I would read your Dr. Strange.
by Agomotto (?sp?) i want to read that book!
Tales to Enrage: and there’s a good chance he made sure his successor knows about this event, so whoever they are doesn’t accidentally drop by
Future Stephen is prepared for this. “Hello, Past Stephen. Won’t you take a seat? Also, today is the summer solstice before our 63rd birthday. Remember that. Have some of this tea I made for you earlier this morning.”
And the overall idea reminds me of the backstory of the Odysseus one: “Hello, Past Odysseus. Won’t you take a seat? Also, today is the summer solstice before our 63rd birthday. Remember that. Have some of this ouzo I pulled out for you earlier this morning.”
As always lovely writing, except I’ve slightly ruined it for myself by reading Dr Strange’s lines in my head with Dr Orpheus’s voice.
“If this be reaaaal… and let us assUME! for the moment that it isssss… since I think I am quite tangible– then we accept that THIS! IS ! UNLIIIIIIIKELY!” *fist in the air, lightning bolts*
I was already happy and then you made me happier.
I’m assuming it ends with Stephen realising that he must give up his blissful future to avoid a horrible one even further down the line caused by whoever wants him out of the way? Kind of like what happens to John Constantine in the draft of Twilight of the Gods, only deliberately engineered to take Strange out of the game rather than just being the kind of stuff the universe reserves for Constantine.
I notice that Future Stephen isn’t shown doing any magic. Answering questions about it, yes, but not actually doing it. So maybe he can’t anymore, and this might provide an explanation.
I read “Sneak Preview,” and I got my hopes up that we would actually see more than just one of these little glimpses. These “I Should Write” bits are like looking at the best goddamn cake in the world, and only being able to lick some of the frosting.
You know, I don’t quite buy the whole “Sorceror Supremes don’t retire” part of this pitch.
The part about the job having a very high mortality rate, yes, that makes perfect sense. But you know what else the job also features? Truly, fucking… VAST amounts of trauma and mental anguish.
Now, you don’t get to be Sorceror Supreme by not being mentally resilient and highly stable. But it seems like the job would also have a pretty high incidence of “you know what? I’m through. I’m OUT. That was one too many fucking trips to the Nightmare Dimension for me, thank you. Do you know there’s now a part of my brain that I have to magically segregate from the rest of it because if I don’t, I’m literally incapable of sleeping anymore? Fuck this. Staff? Broken. Tools? Drowned. If anyone wants me, I’ll be in Boca, developing a truly amazing drinking problem and hitting on divorcees with low expectations.”
And then they fuck off and stop taking calls.
I think the presumption is that people like that end up as Sorcerers Demi-Supreme. The SS is not the lone guardian of an entire realm, there are other people out there doing good and fighting off the bad things. But by the same token there is only ever one SS, because the SS is a job with such very high requirements. The SS is chosen, it’s not a choice, and the powers that do the choosing are rather picky.
ALWAYS a thrill to wander by the site and see and entry with a “Reason Why I Should Write” banner.
It’s been too long.
Legion made it to 50. Come on. At least 5 more of Strange! And soon!!
So he becomes the Benedict XVI of Sorcerer Supremes?
I kind of agree with the people who say forced retirements by the Sorcerer Supreme should happen plenty.
And of course just because he’s retired at the moment what’s to stop him from being unretired by a situation
Thanx for the pleasant surprise. The timing is funny. I just recently finished reading the four Essential Dr. Strange trades and had just reread all of your WISWDR just a few weeks ago.
Damn, man. Just damn.
First thing I thought of-maybe it’s not an enemy. Maybe it’s a FRIEND. Somebody decided that yes, Stephen has been through a lot, and why don’t we reward him? So they get their hands on an Infinity Gauntlet or some super-science gizmo or something and decided to change the nature of things. That would be a lot tougher-it’s not malevolent, and you have to fight someone who loves you.
Good work. Possibly stealing as an RPG adventure hook. Again.
What if Stephen did it to himself?
A lazy route is that the new SS is the Baddie and is controlling the events.
Also, time travel makes my head hurt.
This is absolutely the best thing that happened to me today. Thank you.
I’ve had an idea for a while that could involve Dr Strange or a ton of other magic user. Both DC and Marvel have a Nightmare character. A monster who wants to take over dreams. Well, what i there was a second Nightmare. One who just wants to do his job and doesn’t care about causing suffering or misery, the other is actually some nightmare version of that guy
Here’s my issue with the conceit: No; Sorceror Supremes don’t retire. Either they fall (and forsee that fall, taking steps to groom a replacement)…
… or they go bad. And a replacement must arise to Protect SpaceMagickTime (if spacetime is the fabric of the universe, then magick is the stitching. Or the sewing machine. Or, even–scariest case scenario–the seamstress). I mean, how many times can someone, who must needs possess enough of an ego to command the forces of the universe (and be comfortable with thinking of him- or herself as “the Supreme”), save the universe without anyone acknowledging, being grateful, et cetera.
Too, not every SS is Stevie Strange, holed up in his deco Bleecker street manse, with an extradimensional hottie and a manservant. Some have been itinerants. Hermits. Monks. Loons.
Not all that very conducive to pronounced and prolonged sanity.
Really, we should be shocked that Strange has stayed this sane for this long.
(Another thing: Just how old IS Stephen Strange? In objective time, he’s been at this game for twenty years at the most. SUBjective time? Who can even guess? How many years spent battling foes between ticks of the clock?)
I’ll note that exactly how long Stephen’s been doing this stuff is a question with some contradictory answers. He’s met a high school girlfriend and a woman from his surgeon days in his own title, and neither appeared noticeably older than him, but at the same time, Stern had him active as a sorcerer at least 50 years ago in Lost Generation. YMMV, I suppose.
Why shouldn’t Strange retire?
In the last century, society has changed more drastically than in the millennium before. Who is to say that magic hasn’t changed as well?
It’s perfectly reasonable, I’d think, that Stephen may feel that while he has the power and the skill to be Sorcerer Supreme, he’s just too old-fashioned to deal with the new world that has arisen.
For example, what if the lower planes had their own equivalent of an “Arab Spring”, leading to several major threats simply not existing anymore….
I can see it now:
Nightmare, replaced by either Danielle Moonstar (with Hela’s support) or his son Trauma.
Dormammu finally deposed, with Noble Kale acting as regent. (Umar retires to a tropical sub-dimension with S’ym 😉 )
The Hell-Lords find a new sheriff in town, one Patrick Walker-Hellstrom (a.k.a The Hellwalker), who keeps them from being more than minor nuisances.
OTOH, Kid Blackheart keeps throwing wild parties on the Astral Plane, annoying the Vishanti to no end, and an MIT Student just did an OCR upload of the Pnakotic Gospels. Now Facebook has become sentient, and is trying to Unlike reality…
All interesting ideas. I had my own, after going over and puzzling out the meaning of that last line. Clearly, if someone really wanted this good future to happen – and for malign purposes – what would they gain from it?
Well, the fact that Stephen is no longer the Sorcerer Supreme may be all that matters for their plot to succeed. Someone clearly much less experienced and untested for the role is a different kettle of fish.
Or perhaps, it’s not even about Strange at all, save as the means to the end. Our mysterious new Sorceror Supreme clearly came as a surprise, and they aren’t expected to be nice good people.
Dr. Doom might very well have been tapped, and set up in this future for Mysterious Baddie (TM) to get their way. Or Doom himself might be behind it, to ensure he gets the title and the power.
Just maybe though… his retirement, Dr. Strange taking up home and tai-chi, it’s the knockdown effects… new heroes taking over as their parents depart….. fixing the problem is a lot harder when it’s not all about you…
Note that we definitely know of at least one retired former Sorcerer Supreme, the Aged Ghengis. Presumably his senility is what forced him to step down. I’ve also read that Merlin (who was still alive and manipulating people last time I checked) was at least the de facto Sorcerer Supreme in the 6th century A.D., though he may never have inherited the official title, Eye of Agamotto, etc.
Admit it, the next Sorcerer Supreme is Rex.