The gods of Ancient Egypt have been mostly very quiet for practically the entirety of Marvel comics history. With the exception of Seth, the Egyptian god of death, they’ve almost entirely been content to sit back and let the other pantheons do the heavy lifting in the Marvel universe. Which, if you think about it, is really kind of in character for gods worshipped by a civilization which largely lived in a desert. You live in a desert, you learn not to exert yourself more than necessary.
Which makes it all the odder that Djehuty – typically known to modern-day sorts as Thoth, but Djehuty was never one to be horribly impressed with Greek nomenclature – should travel to Earth and calmly begin… influencing undirected pagan worshippers to worship of the Egyptian gods. He’s quite effective, in his way; choosing to engage potential worshippers one-by-one or coven-by-coven. What could have been a sales pitch instead becomes a debate or discussion with someone who comes across as the best teacher you never had when you were growing up.
He usually leaves these discussion sessions with a few new converts. The question that remains is why. After all, it’s pretty conclusive that gods in the Marvel universe don’t actually need worshippers in the Pratchettian “belief is the food of gods” mode. Nobody worships Thor, after all (certainly not enough people to justify his massive power levels, or else Elvis would be – wait, maybe there’s a story there… no, wait again, it’s a pretty bad one in this context).
If it was any other god, you would assume it was either an exercise in egotism or perhaps simply that they were taking an interest in humanity. But Djehuty isn’t a self-important sort of god, and although he doesn’t dislike humanity he’s not exactly known for being a great advocate of it either. (Although he’s always very polite about it. He’s that sort of god, you see.) Djehuty is more the sort of god to take an interest – or, knowing him, telling someone else to take an interest so he doesn’t have to waste the time – only when he feels it’s absolutely necessary.
So why does he feel that way? What is so dire that it motivates him to do this – and why could something so seemingly inconsequential be so important to such an old god?
For one thing, he’s not actually interested in worshippers either. When Strange confronts him for the first time, Djehuty is very clear about his indifference to whether people worship him or not. (Again: desert. Tends to make you laconic.) He’s getting some worshippers, sure, but that’s going to happen when you are a god manifesting yourself before a small segment of the teeming masses and having a nice chat. He doesn’t mind the worship, but that’s not the goal. Chatting with Strange, he reveals that the point of all these visits is to put information into people’s heads – disguised in the form of stories, but magical implementation nonetheless. And although he doesn’t admit it, Strange is pretty sure that Djehuty has a specific list of people he wants to visit.
And now it is worth remembering that the various pantheons tend to have their own individual characters. The Asgardians are mostly brawlers who like a straight-up fight. The Olympians are hedonists and partiers at heart. The Japanese pantheon is the home of many inscrutable, insincere plotters. And the Egyptians – well, the Egyptians are like those old guys sitting on storefront porches in New England, who like little more than to discuss the fastest way to McKutty or the Great Frog-Walloping of ’43 or how that storm on the horizon sure resembles that squall from forty years done by, the one that trashed the Widow Simons’ home, and maybe it’s time to be getting home to the storm shelter, eh?
And a little more investigation shows that the other Egyptian dieties have done exactly that, metaphorically speaking. There’s a storm coming. Djehuty, for reasons unknown, isn’t running and hiding; presumably he has some sort of plan, executed by unknowing agents he prepares in full. Or maybe the people he’s talking to aren’t the ones who do anything important; maybe his influence on them influences other people differently, and he’s doing the interpersonal version of a triple bank shot (with a skip) on a pool table.
Which begs the question: what is he preparing for?
Top comment: Khonshu is going to kick your ass. — PMMJ
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39 users responded in this post
This is why you fail, Chris. This is exactly why you fail.
1). By putting out these ideas in public, you reduce the likelihood of their ever being published by a significant percentage because we can just go through the archives and find three-quarters of the plot waiting for us and just work out the ending from there.
2). Additionally, no matter how good your ideas are, putting them on the internet just stagnates their growth because you’re effectively ‘submitting’ them; if you were to publish them, any changes made would confuse or anger the people who read them on the ‘net in the first place.
3). You have ALL THESE GREAT IDEAS for a character who recently lost his powers and is attempting to pass the mantle on to someone else. So far, all three of these ideas not only rely on him being fully-powered as normal, but also none of them actually rely on being specifically told as Dr. Strange stories.
I hate to see such creative talent wasted – why don’t you just find a decent artist, buy a domain name and write all of this as a webcomic, with your own characters, based on your own rules and limits, instead of just telling us what you’d do with a decades-old corporation mannequin – especially as any Editorial team would probably water down your ideas into lowest-common-denominator-pleasing, easy-read kid’s stuff, the same as most of what Matt Fraction Brian Bendis or Jeph Loeb are currently writing?
I was just going to say, why don’t you do a webcomic or, dare I say it, fanfic? You’ve got the ideas, and assuming you can write (and I personally think you can write very well) it could work.
In response:
1.) I give the pledge and on very rare occasions the turn, but never the prestige. (Which, if you will note, some commenters regularly complain about.) You aren’t getting three-quarters of anything, believe me – you get story hooks and character elements, told in a level of detail to be entertaining but not with so much detail that you can actually figure out what happens. So relying on web storage archives (which is what you’d have to rely on were I to get the gig, which – again – I would stress is not why I do these, but rather for fun-ness) wouldn’t even help you too much.
2.) I am not above a little fanservice here and there to gloss over such things. (See: Minoru, Nico.) Honestly, comics readers have low standards, and I would be willing to exploit that fact no end.
3.) One of said great ideas is explaining why New Avengers #51 is, in fact, total bullshit.
and
4.) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the idea some people have that this stuff is the sole focus of my creative output boggles me no end. I have my own shit that I work on when I have time. These little things are like popcorn. Fun, disposable, and butter-flavoured. (Well, not that last one.)
i agree with salieri. these beg the question “why, especially, does this have to be a dr. strange story?” you could scrape the serial numbers off and still have a really entertaining and engaging sandbox to play in without having to worry about continuity or copyright overhead.
Cool ideas.
..But… aren;t the Egyptian Gods all tied up in/with Moon Knight ? Or is that no longer the case ?
Moon Knight and Dr. STrange team up series– supernatural version of Moonlighting but with less flirting*– would be funky.
*And no singing either.
Okay, I’m sold. How do I start lobbying for Marvel to give you the job? I’m sick of Doctor Strange being shuffled off to the margins and treated like a wimp who can be disabled with any old punch to the head. I want awesomeness, dammit!
I apologise, having re-read my original message, over what seems like a harsh tone. I’ve just myself recently had it up to here with both of the big Two – most especially Marvel’s recent “Dark Darkyness, Which Concept Or Character Are We Going To Re-Use Instead Of Being Creative Next” – and realised that working towards writing my favourite corporate-owned characters is never going to be worth it, considering that it’d be incredibly limited by editorial control, incredibly dumbed-down for sales, and eventually retconned or ignored by the next creative team so that they can show how individual and unique they are. It’s sort of the same feeling as “If I Could Write A Film For Tim Burton To Direct” or “If I Could Get Kate Winslet To Star In My Movie”.
So, I’m personally just deciding to give up on that idea of breaking into corporate comics and do my stuff only.
Again, sorry if I sounded a little harsh or judgemental; I really admire the mind-boggling originality of a lot of your work, as well as the thought put into it.
I like these. I’m not at all caught up with DC, so most of the I Should Write The Legion posts didn’t catch my eye, but these are interesting.
Quibbles from someone anal-retentive: Seth in Egyptian mythology wasn’t really the god of death. Desert, storms, darkness, and chaos. He was very powerful and like a lot of gods who get demonized into being the bad guy, neither good nor evil. It always annoys me when comics pick a god to be capital-e Evil.
Also, there was a storyline in Captain America where Thor confessed to Cap that he wasn’t sure if he needed worship or would exist without it, but I think Asgardians have been explained more since then, and either way, he’s gotta be getting power from elsewhere.
Is Djehuty influencing people to worship him specifically, or Egyptian gods in general? There are a lot of interpretations of different gods.
Khonshu is going to kick your ass.
Dude. Salieri. STFU. These are great stories and they do a lot to get my own creative juices flowing. I’d love to see these fleshed out a bit more, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the highly entertaining.
I like this idea quite a bit – as others have said, this one in particular doesn’t need to be a Marvel story at all. It doesn’t even need the superhero stuff.
But since it is a Marvel story, a small point of established continuity – I’m pretty sure that there was at some point an agreement by the “gods” in the MU to stop gathering worshipers. I’m also pretty sure it involved the Celestials putting the smack-down on the gods, (which is how they explain why the gods don’t show up and have giant cults in the MU). I think it’s something that came up in Thor, possibly when Simonson was writing it, possibly Kirby. At the moment I can’t recall.
I can’t tell from the write-up here if you considered that element or not (Marvel may not even be holding it canon anymore – I haven’t been reading much Marvel of late). But something that would either cause Djehuty to either not worry about retribution from the Celestials or to know that it isn’t going to be an issue would definitely color the nature of the threat on the horizon.
From the look of things Apocalypse may be appearing in the Messiah War crossover, but given Pocy’s long life and association with time travel and alternate dimensions it could still be him.
Then there’s Rama-Tut, part of the Kang triplicates, coming from ancient Egypt ready to conquer the modern day with an army of loyal followers and superior technology. Maybe it’s just some plan he devised way back when that’s been sitting around waiting to go off.
Khonshu himself isn’t exactly depicted as the most stable or good natured as a lot of gods. Maybe Djehuty has been keeping an eye on Moon Knight and not liked what he’s seen, so he’s preparing something in case either MK or Khonshu do something terrible.
And all that is assuming it’s not some original creation or something unrelated to Marvel’s characters with Egyptian ties.
Personally MGK, I think these hooks are ten times better then if this was a series of fanfics or a webcomic, partly because it makes me hungry for more while giving me the opportunity to come up with my own ideas as to how it will form. I hope that some day you really will get the opportunity to write Legion or Strange (I’d prefer Strange as I’m a bigger Marvel fan then DC), but until then keep up the good work.
I’m really enjoying this series (as well as the Legion ones). Sometimes it’s just fun to throw ideas out there and see what people think of them.
I don’t mind the egyptian gods returning to the Marvel universe. But these plotlines do require certain questions to be asked:
1. Is Stephen Strange still the Sorcerer Supreme in these stories?
2. If not, would Dr Strange’s interactions with cosmic level entities interfere with the duties of the current Sorcerer(ess) Supreme?
3. If it did step on the toes of the current Sorcerer(ess) Supreme, would there be penalties for doing so?
All of these questions will be resolved by the end, I assure you.
This idea sounds particularly Gaminesque (“American Gods”) or Ellisonian (“Ideas as a virus!” in every third story he’s even done, but particularly New Maps of Hell arc from Justice League Elite) depending on how you’d spin it. It seems a bit more of a Hellblazer story to me, from the con game/detective angle, but I guess that plays into your ‘Dr. Strange as mystic Gregory House’ High Concept for your hypothetical run. I’d like to echo the request from the previous thread about who you’d see as your creative partner. I mean as long as your dreaming up these stories, what art style are the pictures in your head?
Chris… just, Christ. Stop. Right now. Listening?
Go back and change the title of your last three posts thusly-
“Why I should write Dirk Gently.”
That’s all I have to say.
You know, I’ve never actually read the Dirk Gently books? I tried back when I was in my teens and couldn’t get into them, and they’ve always been on my “I need to get around to them at some point” list and I never have.
Not traditional superheroic art, to be sure. At the very least, think something more along the lines of Chris Bachalo or Mark Buckingham, both of whom have done exemplary work on Doc in the past (Mark Buckingham’s run with Warren Ellis and then J.M. DeMatteis is one of my favorite Doc runs of all time).
Bachalo is good. I’m not familiar with Buckingham to really make a judgment. If you really wanted to go off the beaten path I’d say Scottie Young or Bill Templesmith would be perfect. To go in almost the opposite direction you could go with Chris Giarrusso, just for the strangeness factor (pun not intended).
Tom Mandrake would be a fine choice. Did you see his stuff back with Ostrander at the tail end of the FIrestorm series wwaayy back ?
I can’t wait untill you explain how you would Doc Strange away BND.
I’m not agreeing with the guy who says “FAIL” but I think there are probably a lot of great pitches out there in the comic industry that don’t always turn out to be really great stories. I’ll bet Chuck Austen pitched some great story ideas.
But hey, Mark Twain reference, so kudos for that.
I would push for a series opened by six or so issues of Dave McKean art – like they did in Immortal Iron Fist, where the first couple issues has really outstanding art. If Dr. Strange can dive down into the deep end of the pool of insanity, Dave McKean can definitely sketch the ells who undulate at the bottom.
I haven’t pick up a comic in years.
I would read this. I would really read this.
Ignore Salieri (he’s obviously just jealous and planning your death, so that he can go on to star in one of the later, really bad “Star Trek” movies.) Even if these ideas never get published (and I think you’re aware of the odds as much as we are), they’re fun mental exercises, the equivalent of doing a little work on the stationary bike every morning. You might not go anywhere, but it helps to strengthen your mental muscles.
“You know, I’ve never actually read the Dirk Gently books? I tried back when I was in my teens and couldn’t get into them, and they’ve always been on my “I need to get around to them at some point” list and I never have.”
I haven’t read Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul, but I have read Holistic Detective Agency and I’ll say this, it’s far more cerebral than the Hitchhiker’s series. You get the sense, it’s the kind of book that So Long And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless would have been if they weren’t bogged down by the need to pick up the loose ends of HHGTTG canon. The humor is more muted and there’s a lot of clever talking — nothing’s catchy, the way HHGTTG is.
I’m Egyptian so this is all wrong. No one in the Middle East is laconic.
If Thoth (and he’d call himself Thoth, he’d sell out to anyone with American Dollars and celebrate Christmas) was accurately portraying my people, he’d show up in a beat-up Fiat using the horn as an indicator, nearly crash into something, yell at people until loudness won the argument, ‘vote’ for President Mubarak, simultaneously bribe you and rip you off, then go to sleep.
Read the DG books, Chris! Bet you’ll like ’em.
And Bass: well, now I want to read a comic book that’s just set in Egypt.
I hate Brand New Secret Dark Days of Civil Invasion Messiah War as much as the next cynical internet nerd. But to say that you CAN’T write good stories when working for Marvel? C’mon! People who spout that need to go and apologize to Van Lente, Pak, Tobin, Parker, Abnett and Lanning…
I have to wonder… A lot of the gods in Marvel tend to become what popular culture makes of them. In other words, while they don’t need need worshipers for their power or existence, they may use them for the details, rather like politicians use polling for deciding on their “message”
Could Thoth by using the older name of Djehuty be looking to “remake” his image away from just the mouthpiece of Ra?
I’d like to throw Sam Kieth’s hat into the ring for the art on your hypothetical Doc Strange run.
….wow, I just actually thought about how awesome that would be….words fail me (this is rare, BTW)
That Sam Kieth idea’s a dandy, especially for any Shuma-Gorath business. Jeez!
@plok: You might be looking for G. Willow Wilson’s /Cairo/
njs:
Thanks for the tip!
As another Buckingham era fan…can we hope that you’d have the return of the overcoat of levitation look? I always thought that was awesome looking!
I can’t shake the impression of the Egyptian gods as a bunch of old Jews in Miami complaining about the heat 🙂
There was a really bad ARION:LORD OF ATLANTIS revival with the immortal principals as a bunch of old jews in Miami.
Then again, the concept did work a bit better a few months ago in CTHULHU TALES with the Elder Gods.
Everything goes better with Elder Gods.
I am a huge fan of the Overcoat of Levitation look for Doc, although the Marcos Martin version of his classic threads which wisely replaces the tights with pants and shirt is a close second.
Doc is late-forties to early-fifties. There is a time in one’s life to wear spandex, and there is a time in one’s life when you don’t want to wear spandex and instead want to wear proper grownup clothes. Doc is in the second category.
I don’t know much about Thoth Djehuty, but the way you describe him seems consistent with his portrayal as Rex Libris’s boss.
I know this is the necropostiest of necrocomments, but….
What if Captain America’s power is proportional to the power of belief in America?
WHOAH.