It’s common knowledge that magic, generally speaking, needs intent to function. Magical spells are complex tools, and the driving will of the caster is akin to the torque applied when you use a screwdriver. Just as merely putting the screwdriver against the screw is not enough to twist it, so is merely saying “enogh morlincck ptg’aah” enough to appeal to the Seven-Handed Sloghee of Ptu for a magical zappy bolt. Without the will, the word is meaningless. Everybody knows this, and it is always the case.
Except, of course, when it isn’t. Not every spell is like a screwdriver. A small few are more like a .45 automatic; the culmination of lifetimes’ worth of refinement of work, resulting in magical expression so innate that intent becomes meaningless. And just like the .45, if you gave them to a baby, the baby could blow his head off. Or yours, for that matter. That’s why nobody ever uses them: the entire point of magic is that you have the power, not Joe Shitbag down the street. (Sorcerers tend to get in a huff when the peons get magical power without a lifetime of study. It smacks of cheating.)
It begins when a teenaged girl burns up in a pyroclasm outside of Houston. She had thought she was a mutant, even told her parents of her intent to go to San Francisco and join the X-Men so she could use her powers of fire and flame to help people. Her parents weren’t wild about it, but accepted her choice – until the aforementioned fiery death. But Hank McCoy knows a mutant when he sees one – and when he doesn’t – and puts two and two together, and calls Reed Richards. And Reed Richards eliminates everything Hank didn’t, and that’s when he calls Stephen Strange.
A bit of investigation leads the Doc to a tattoo parlour, where he discovers in the sample book a series of glyphs no tattoo artist should have, much less ink. The glyphs are old magic, very powerful and very dangerous – spells meant only for combat with massively dangerous consequences. The girl had a glyph that combined seven separate fire-wielding magics into a single rune stencilled onto her back. (The tattoo artist explained that it meant “warrior” in Sanskrit. He was not correct about this.) She only lived another six months after getting the tattoo; it was amazing she managed six days given that she didn’t know the limits of her power.
But she’s dead now, and tragic as that might be, she can’t hurt anybody at this point. But the other tattoos the artist unknowingly empowered other cool-seekers with can. So Strange and his coterie have to find those other young people and get them to remove their tattoos. Not easy, but not impossible. Right?
Except that they’re not just looking for one or two people who might explode, but specifically a group of five people with a multi-part spell tattooed on their backs. If those five people ever ended up within, say, twenty feet of one another, the spell activates. That the designers of these magic glyphs – who were willing to give people power to turn themselves into walking bombs – actually took the time to put in a failsafe that meant requiring five individuals to work in concert, you can get an idea of how dangerous the resulting spell is. (Hint: think in terms of hemispheres being removed.)
Except that the tattoos were designed to not only give great power, but also avoid detection. (These were designed for an ancient civilization’s warrior elite, after all.) So the usual scrying spells won’t work, and that means Strange and his band have to do things the old-fashioned way: with footwork and deduction. Although none of them are stupid, this is not exactly their forte.
And except that somebody gave the tattoo artist that book of glyphs – and they have a vested interest in making sure that the fivepart charm fires off.
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I’d say that this also showcases how lacking Marvel’s line-up is in actual detectives. I can think of Dakota North and then..what? Moon Knight? Is he any good at detective work?
Madrox, Siryn and Monet from X Factor are all pretty good.
Everyone has to do detective work at some point. Isn’t Tony Stark in a constant corporate espionage conflict?
Well shit, this would also make a pretty awesome Dresden Files RPG campaign setup.
Yep, I smell an X-Factor crossover.
You’ve got my vote. I have a sneaking suspicion that this material will turn up in a Mage: The Awakening game.
This vaguely reminds me of the sub-par JMS Spider-Man arc involving a character named “The Shade”. He similarly stole his magical powers by cheating, and expressed them through a tattoo.
Something similar was done during one of the failed iterations of the Young X-Men book – only it wasn’t magic, but there was a mutant tattoo artist who could give people the powers of his tattoos. The really interesting part of the story was when he gave someone a Phoenix tattoo – but rather than go with it, the books walked backwards from the implication and never did anything with it before the book was canceled.
This sounds more like a job for Hannibal King, Vampire Private Investigator, than X-Factor.
Just echoing what Tim O’Neil said… yeah, this was sorta done already. Read the history of the character “Ink”. It isn’t mystical in nature, but the whole ‘tattoos giving powers somehow’ thing was pretty heavily featured there before they cancelled the book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_%28comics%29
–Rawr
Tattoos giving power is also pretty heavily featured in a lot of world mythology–which is part of what makes it appropriate for Strange.
Plus, if one creator doing something means nobody else should ever bother with anything vaguely like that again, comics should just cease publication. No more strong guys. No more flying. No more alien invasions. No more mind-controlled heroes. No more villains turning their lives around. No more heroes winning. No more villains winning. No more coming back from the dead. Okay, so that last one sounds like a good idea….
The only thing I don’t care for is the explode-y parts of the story. We already have supers and mutants who can blow stuff up. Hell, we have bombs in the real world that can do that. I prefer magic to do things that science doesn’t usually cover. Turn the moon into a living monster. Put screaming demon voices in the minds of every person in North America. Make all roads *literally* lead to Rome. Blowing up the hemisphere? Kinda boring.
Agreed here.
It also might make for some interesting build up, as two or three components together could make a minor effect that alerts the heroes to their wereabouts while more tangibly spelling out the implications of failure.
It also gives a more generous allowance for failure, since no one honestly thinks a comic book writer is going to blow up North America. Releasing a plague of killer locusts across the Corn Belt? Or turning Lake Michigan into a giant vat of acid? Or summoning the fourteenth tentacle of the Elder God of K’Thaluga’woga’hmdigity? Crazy things have happened.
the whole ‘tattoos giving powers somehow’ thing was pretty heavily featured there before they cancelled the book.
I’d say the whole “tattoos giving powers somehow” thing was pretty heavily featured there leading to them canceling the book.
“If those five people ever ended up within, say, twenty feet of one another, the spell activates.”
You really *really* have to hope that they don’t go to the same Hatebreed concert.
I would like to clarify to say that just because someone did a similar story doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done – oftentimes the best stories can come about as a result of trying to fix an older, not-so-successful version. Like I say, it was an interesting idea that they did very little with, so there’s still a lot of room for a really good magic tattoo story.
I’m waiting for one of those 5 to have another tattoo on their bicep that they think means “Love, Strength, Peace” but really means “I like turtles.”
I would totally read this.
And FifthSurprise: I would also get a tattoo that says “I Like Turtles”. Turtles are pretty cool.
“And except that somebody gave the tattoo artist that book of glyphs – and they have a vested interest in making sure that the fivepart charm fires off.”
So it isn’t an accidental apocalypse at all, and it was totally intended by people who knew exactly what they were doing?
Young X-Men was cancelled?? Nobody ever informs me of these things. (I only ever got one issue anyway. I didn’t like the tattoo idea. It’s clearly a mystical power, not a plausible genetic one, but I’m not sure anyone at Marvel has any idea what mutations are actually like anyway.)
I’m still not sure if you should really be the one to write Doctor Strange. I’d still prefer to do it myself, but this is a really good story idea.
I still haven’t decided yet if Mark Waid should write Doctor Strange. I’ve only read the one issue, with the weird baseball story. It’s not that great, but it’s not horrible either.
So would Strange know what the effect of the spell would be? Or would he just be able to recognize the spell’s magnitude, and be glad to never learn its intended effect?
Also, how would the person with this vested interest make sure 5 people got the right tattoos, so the spell to go off? If all the people got parts 1 through 4 of the glyph, but no one liked the design for 5, they might start kicking themselves about missing that.
Of course, you could go with the idea that the designs are one time uses, so eventually, all five would be used, just because 1 through 4 would have disappeared.
I really, really want this to happen. Even if it’s fanfic. I will make it the first fanfic I ever read.
If you’ve got a book full of magic glyphs that can blow up the world, I’m sure you can manage a simple “Hey, maybe purple giraffe surrounded by umlats and swirlygigs is the tattoo for me” suggestion spell.
In response to any questions as to “why all the convoluted nature of the doomsday plot”: Nylarhotep.
A suggestion spell would make sense, but that might leave a magical trail where the glyph itself would not.
I love these ideas and “why should I write” and stuff, but I just hate Dr. Strange so fucking much. So when I read these posts I just imagine you’re talking about Hellblazer or some independent creator*-owned comic.
* That’s you, of course.
I think you need to bring in a specialist. What’s the Earth-712 Squadron Supreme analog for Detective Chimp? Simian Shamus? Pinkerton Primate? Cause I think that would be awesome.
It’s common knowledge that magic, generally speaking, needs intent to function. Magical spells are complex tools, and the driving will of the caster is akin to the torque applied when you use a screwdriver. Just as merely putting the screwdriver against the screw is not enough to twist it, so is merely saying “enogh morlincck ptg’aah” enough to appeal to the Seven-Handed Sloghee of Ptu for a magical zappy bolt. Without the will, the word is meaningless. Everybody knows this, and it is always the case.
SHAZAM
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I’m waiting for one of those 5 to have another tattoo on their bicep that they think means “Love, Strength, Peace” but really means “I like turtles.”
Here’s a thought: one of the people tattooed by our accidental mystical tattoo artist has a tattoo that says just that, or maybe “Turtles like me”. Anyhow, the result of this tattoo is that turtles worship him/her as their god. After all the fuss with the tattoos of death is resolved, this person still has the turtle tattoo, and has to figure out what to do with all those adoring turtles who follow her/him everywhere.