A brief history, for those who are not longtime Dr. Strange readers: Vincent Stephens was one of two magical avatars created by Dr. Strange a few years back when Strange needed to hide out and recuperate while preparing to defeat a particular enemy but couldn’t leave Earthly affairs alone for that time. Along with the berserker mystic known only as Strange, Vincent discovered his true nature and attempted to forestall his inevitable fate – namely, reabsorption into Dr. Strange himself – by any means necessary. Eventually in a climactic battle, though, Vincent Stephens ultimately failed to possess Dr. Strange and dissipated back into the magical energy that was all he ever truly was, and that was the end of Vincent.
Go on, pull the other one!
Energy can’t be created or destroyed – that applies to magical energy just as it does to regular old-fashioned energy. Vincent’s energy has been disparate, true, but it’s also been lurking in the background all this time. All it takes to collect it together is someone with some patience and an agenda. You know what just about anybody who wants to hurt Dr. Strange has? Patience and an agenda.
(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.)
When Vincent comes back, he’s obviously pissed at Strange, but truth be told – now his energy form is stable. Vincent Stephens is a realist – if he goes after Strange, he’ll get his ass kicked and he’ll probably get banished or re-dissipated (or worse, reabsorbed into Strange’s magical field). Vincent has absolutely no interest in going after his original creator. Which is of course why his Mysterious Benefactor demands that he do so, threatening to untie the magical knot that holds Vincent’s form together.
So Vincent goes about doing the only thing he realistically can do – which is use his uncanny similarity to Stephen Strange to ruin the good doctor’s reputation. Vincent knows some magic, after all – not much, but some – and he does have the ability to possess people. All of that can, in a pinch, mimic Stephen Strange fairly effectively. So one day, after a bit of a journey off the plane, Doc finds out that the Avengers are pissed at him and he has no idea why. The X-Men aren’t returning his phone calls and the Fantastic Four are clearly not comfortable having him around.
And that’s just stage one of Vincent’s plan – stage two calls for full public outrage at Stephen Strange, and Vincent is just the magical being to make that happen…
Top comment: 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. — Dan
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“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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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…)
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]!”
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.
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.
Interestingly, 177 Bleeker Street seems to be a a tattoo parlor
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.
“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.”
Matt: And here I thought Reed was the dick!
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.
Clearly it’s Wong.
Well, he did take over for Dr. Strange in the Howard the Duck Treasury Edition.
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.
I’m with the Wong theory.
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?
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.
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)
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!
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?
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.)
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.
Ooh, ooh, I know! It was Tarot!
“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.
“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.
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?
Magic magic magic
ba-ba-ba-a-a-bies!
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