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mygif

“You will not fail to be surprised by the individual who brought back Vincent Stephens from the brink of nonexistence.”

Clea, duh. If she can’t get Stephen to commit to her, she’ll settle for his tulpa.

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Just a heads-up MGK, your last couple of twitter links have come out as 404 errors. Obviously you can click through to the main site and find the articles there, but you might want to look at your code or something.

On-topic, I loved the Legion plotting you did, and these are just as awesome. I would read the SHIT out of these comics.

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Sage Freehaven said on April 7th, 2009 at 9:32 am

It’s Squirrel Girl, right? It’s revenge for Strange not bringing back the Squirrel Army per her fevered requests, right? I mean, her being a goody two-shoes with a heart of gold and openly working with the Initiative would be the PERFECT cover for a megalomaniac in the making.

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Kelberon said on April 7th, 2009 at 9:49 am

Stage Two: As indicated in the picture above Vincent Stephens changes a furry convention into real animal-human hybrids, then hands out business cards that allow the holders to see Dr. Strange’s house and says he’s opening a fetish realization clinic at 177 Bleecker Street, New York, New York. Stephens also calls several television stations with tips on the opening of this new kind of business, and how he will be glad to give interviews during the grand opening-which will happen in 3 days.

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mygif

EVIL TWIN! It’s an entertaining bit because the twin isn’t really a twin, he isn’t really all that evil, and he isn’t even a fair match for the good Doctor.

And he makes a good reoccurring villain if only because you’ve got a guy who will likely do just about anything to avoid getting banished / reabsorbed / whatever. So you know his first priority is “don’t get caught”. And, to be honest, it leaves Stephen with something of a moral quandary, as at this point getting rid of Vincent basically amounts to murder. :-p

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mygif

Its Salomé, isn’t it? The bitch on wings is back.

I wonder if Sister Nil is still hanging around Doc’s place. She had kind of a creepy relationship with him.

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I’m going to go with Clea as well, and that she wants Vincent to be reabsorbed by the Doc, because she figures that Vincent is some part of Stephen that has been missing, which made their relationship fail.

Or failing that, it’s Rintrah.

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Lister Sage said on April 7th, 2009 at 10:06 am

I think it’s Scarlet Witch still pissed off that Strange made her get rid of her “children” in House of M. Plus, House of M gives her an excuse to try and divide the hero community so that the Avengers won’t hear about Strange being taken out, then the X-Men go missing, next thing you know Wanda’s on the front porch pissed off and looking for a fight.

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NCallahan said on April 7th, 2009 at 10:44 am

Hmmmm… Strange has a villainous clone born from a spell gone awry, Tim Hunter has a villainous clone born from a spell gone awry, Constantine has a villainous clone born of a spell gone awry, The Wotch has a villainous clone born of a spell gone awry….

Can anybody tell me if Dr. Fate, Zatanna, or Howard the Duck have villainous clones born of a spell gone awry?

(And yes, I don’t know why, but I instinctively include Howard the Duck in Marvel’s magical pantheon. I don’t know why. He just seems to fit there…)

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Andrew W. said on April 7th, 2009 at 11:05 am

I honestly think that with the many years of continuity that something like is a tough pill to swallow. Characters’ve been impersonated so much (and it’s pretty well happening in Dark Avengers right now) that they should be willing to give their friend Stephen Strange the benefit of the doubt when he says “I’ve got no idea what happened. I was off in [some magic place], having magic adventures last thursday! I couldn’t possibly have done [whatever bad thing is]!”

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mygif

If the writer isn’t a hack, they’ll give him the benefit of doubt. Unfortunately, far too often writers fall on the age old “Heroes don’t get along!” routine, no matter how ridiculous.

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mygif

Unfortunately, far too often writers fall on the age old “Heroes don’t get along!” routine, no matter how ridiculous.

I don’t think any distrust of Dr. Strange is based on “not getting along,” but rather an acknowledgement that Strange deals in matters that most superheroes – who don’t know dick about magic – find kind of creepy. There’s an inherent amount of discomfort involved.

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Sean D. Martin said on April 7th, 2009 at 11:31 am

Interestingly, 177 Bleeker Street seems to be a a tattoo parlor

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mygif

Characters’ve been impersonated so much (and it’s pretty well happening in Dark Avengers right now) that they should be willing to give their friend Stephen Strange the benefit of the doubt when he says “I’ve got no idea what happened. I was off in [some magic place], having magic adventures last thursday! I couldn’t possibly have done [whatever bad thing is]!”

But characters also have a bad habit of going totally ape-shit crazy or turning horribly evil or otherwise just having alternative motives that put them at odds with the rest of the superhero community at large. Secret Invasion, Civil War, the Marvel Zombies… they all had their share of “good” guys acting not so good for their own reasons.

Depending on what Vincent does, the greater community could still see his actions as “bad” (or at least “bad for them”) without being out of character. People who might already have a grudge against Strange in previous encounters – maybe the real doctor pissed in one of Reed’s experiments or kidnapped an X-man for his own purposes or mindfucked an Avenger as necessary – wouldn’t necessarily give him the benefit of the doubt. And if Strange doesn’t deal with the original charges diplomatically, telling people to piss off rather than curtiously handling their concerns, he could just sow more of his own doubt.

So it’s certainly harder given the high population of skrulls and clones and alternate universe dopplegangers, but it’s not completely impossible.

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mygif

“maybe the real doctor pissed in one of Reed’s experiments”

I see it going something like this:

“Why are the Avengers assembled outside my front door, Wong?”

“Well, master, it seems that last night at their soiree, you… well… put your Wand of Watoomb in Captain America’s oatmeal. And by Wand of Watoomb, I mean your -youknowwhat- and by Captain America’s oatmeal I mean… Captain America’s oatmeal.”

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Lister Sage said on April 7th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

Matt: And here I thought Reed was the dick!

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Stage two:
One night only! Dr. Strange will be performing stage magic at the Laugh Factory in LA. Be sure to come early and enjoy the comedy stylings of his close personal friend Michael Richards.

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mygif

(I promise that it is not Dormammu, Nightmare, Umar, Baron Mordo, Dr. Doom, somebody brand new, or somebody so obscure that it essentially is somebody brand new. You will not fail to be surprised by the individual who brought back Vincent Stephens from the brink of nonexistence.)

Clearly it’s Wong.

(And yes, I don’t know why, but I instinctively include Howard the Duck in Marvel’s magical pantheon. I don’t know why. He just seems to fit there…)

Well, he did take over for Dr. Strange in the Howard the Duck Treasury Edition.

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mygif

Wait, what? If Doctor Strange can create avatars of various abilities, why are cults a problem? Can’t he just create a dozen low-level avatars whose jobs are to go hang out at crazy, religious gatherings, like the Narrator went to self-help groups in “Fight Club”?

Also, I assume Djehuty’s Gambit is to implant sleepers into Shuma-Gorath’s cult-network. According to network theory you can destroy network if you take out enough of the nodes to weaken its structure.

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mygif

I’m with the Wong theory.

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Sofa King said on April 7th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

Loki? He’s magic-y.

Wiccan, for reasons I can’t explain on here?

Brother Voodoo? He’s already got a ghost-brother.

Can you at least tell us if it’s a magic person?

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HitTheTargets said on April 7th, 2009 at 4:52 pm

It was Strange, wasn’t it? Right under our noses, man!

Also, please tell me that Vincent meets Spider-Man and he somehow manages to bring up Ben Reilly. It just seems like it’d hit closer to home than any other ’90s era replacement hero would.

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DistantFred said on April 7th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

My guess is it’s Dracula. Dracula HATES people you kill him (which, admittedly, is a long fucking list because he dies like 4 times a year)

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Christian said on April 7th, 2009 at 7:45 pm

its Dr Doom…

anyone remember that Batman: The Animated Series episode with the girl Robin falls for who turns out to be part of Clayface. So sad!

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mygif

I think there are problems with this plot but it has a lot of potential:

1. Vincent thinks he’s Strange and his powers have been taken away by the impostor

2. Vincent is *granted* Strange-level powers by his mysterious benefactor — maybe when he and/or Strange least expect it, and hopefully after Strange has done something to piss him off

3. Better yet, at this moment Vincent’s benefactor decides to sucker-punch Strange and mess with *his* powers — oops

4. This seems to fit well with the Cytorrak “something is infiltrating the magical world” story — Strange’s invocations of Cytorrak (or whomever) have given this entity a backdoor key into Strange’s consciousness/powers/whatever… they are just waiting for the right moment to use it… that’s why you’re supposed to be careful about invoking or summoning powerful benefactors.

5. Hmm, what if other entities or pantheons have been infiltrated and Cytorrak’s just the only one we know about because they didn’t hide the body well enough?

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mygif

So when do we get to read these things, MGK? Any of these posts trickling back to Quesada yet? And if not, what can I do to ensure that they do so?

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mygif

So when do we get to read these things, MGK? Any of these posts trickling back to Quesada yet? And if not, what can I do to ensure that they do so?

Fuck if I know. Send emails? Post links to the Bendis Board or Millarworld or something?

(This would be on my list of things I haven’t really worried about.)

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mygif

If you really want to get the real Strange in trouble, bring in a sex scandal. With another company’s character:

http://fullbodytransplant.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/vs-system-original-art-liz-sherman/

I’d buy THAT. So hot the whole world would know your name.

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mygif

Ooh, ooh, I know! It was Tarot!

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Andrew W. said on April 7th, 2009 at 11:44 pm

“I don’t think any distrust of Dr. Strange is based on ‘not getting along,’ but rather an acknowledgement that Strange deals in matters that most superheroes – who don’t know dick about magic – find kind of creepy. There’s an inherent amount of discomfort involved.”

Still, discomfort oughtn’t automatically translate into Professor X saying “Dr. Strange said my mom was fat! Whip his ass, my X-Men!!!”

And even science-tastic teams’ve had plenty of dealing with magic over the years. The X-Men and their stint in Asgard, for example. The Avengers were rubbing shoulders with several different gods and magical team members.

“But characters also have a bad habit of going totally ape-shit crazy or turning horribly evil or otherwise just having alternative motives that put them at odds with the rest of the superhero community at large. Secret Invasion, Civil War, the Marvel Zombies… they all had their share of ‘good’ guys acting not so good for their own reasons.”

This for me actually exacerbates the problem I raise – if you confront Dr. Strange and he doesn’t remember that time you claim he went and raped your dog, and you read his mind and confirm he doesn’t remember raping your dog (which most teams can do), then it just seems like even more reason to think, “oh, fuck! maybe there’s some skrulls still around!” or some other shapechanging trickster that exist in plenty.

And the New Avengers? They fucking OWE Strange. He Deus Ex Machina’d their ass out getting the fucked kicked out of them post Civil War.

And with the X-Men? The X-Men have Wolverine, who’s a New Avenger, so the cred he’s got for being a legit guy with the New Avengers transfers over.

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mygif

“Fuck if I know. Send emails? Post links to the Bendis Board or Millarworld or something?

(This would be on my list of things I haven’t really worried about.)”

Yet you tease. YOU TEASE.

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mygif

anyone remember that Batman: The Animated Series episode with the girl Robin falls for who turns out to be part of Clayface. So sad!

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. Kinda brings the whole “moral quandary” thing to light. I mean, what happens if Vincent has a girlfriend or fathers a child or gets a day job?

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mygif

Magic magic magic
ba-ba-ba-a-a-bies!

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[…] – the Undying King of Pallia and the High Ku Of Ku both find Stephen and demand he intercede on their respective behalves in the interdimensional war they’re currently fighting, both convinced that he’s promised to do so […]

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