Hey, you read World War Hulk, right? Wasn’t it cool when the Hulk called out Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Strange?
But here’s the thing. Tony Stark is an international celebrity and Important Person in the eyes of the public. Mr. Fantastic is similarly one of the most famous people in the world and also Very Important. Neither of them can go anywhere as themselves without being mobbed by onlookers who want an autograph or a lay or occasionally to kill them. In the Marvel Universe, Thor and Captain Marvel are both the centrepieces of cultish sects that worship them. And then there’s Dr. Strange, who has awesome magical power that at times has actually been divinely inspired for reals.
But Dr. Strange doesn’t have his own cult. He doesn’t make the cover of Time or People or even The National Enquirer. His name’s not unknown – heck, he was a famous surgeon once, now he’s mostly retired, does consulting work on surgical techniques and their integration with Eastern medicine – but he’s not famous. He walks around downtown New York all the time. Unbothered. He actually runs errands sometimes. (Mostly Wong does it, but Stephen likes to get out for a walk every now and then.)
How does he do that, when he participates in Big Superhero Shit every so often? How is it that, after being called out by the Hulk on worldwide television, nobody afterwards said or thought “huh, maybe this Dr. Strange guy is somebody I should pay attention to?” How does he keep going back to obscurity?
The answer’s pretty simple: it’s because the Doc wants it that way. Magic’s good for a lot of things, after all, and one of them is hiding. Not even “hiding in plain sight” hiding: no stage magic for Stephen Strange (who, if we’re being honest, can never remember which is the turn and which is the pledge and which is the prestige, and still doesn’t quite understand how the linking rings work). This was one of the first bargains Strange made during his magical career (he figured out how badly he needed it in the first two weeks after the followers started camping outside his door). Ikonn, the master of illusion and disguise, was more than willing to give it to him for a favour.
Strange paid that favour (he doesn’t talk about it nowadays) and has had the power ever since. It just makes him forgettable. You’d just gloss over him, or mentions of him. When the Hulk was screaming on national television, people were so goggled by him screaming for the heads of Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic that they just didn’t realize he also said “and Dr. Strange.”
It’s not universal. People who are determined to know of him can get around it easily enough, but Strange doesn’t worry about them. (At least two-thirds of them are people he should meet anyway, he figures.) People who are used to a weirder life than average – like much of the super-community – tend to ignore the effect of it as well, and although that has drawbacks, for the most part it tends to be a bit of a bonus.
(It used to be that supervillains drinking at the Bar With No Name would convince one of the newbie supervillains to attack the Sanctum Sanctorum so they could have a bit of a laugh at the noob’s expense. This happened a few times until the Doc figured out what was going on, and then he paid an entirely polite and well-mannered visit to the Bar. It doesn’t happen any more.)
Until one day, when something Stephen is reading about recombinant DNA therapy piques his intellectual curiosity, and hasn’t it been a while since Hank came over for tea? So he phones up Hank McCoy…
…and Hank has no idea who he is at first. It takes three minutes of conversation (Hank’s gregarious, after all, and has been known to talk the ear off of people who dialed the wrong number) for Strange to remind Hank that they have been friends for years.
It starts getting worse from there. After a little while, the Avengers are looking at him funny when he comes over. Then they start acting like he’s a civilian. Then Nick Fury – an obsessive secret keeper if ever there was one – doesn’t know who he is any more. Night Nurse starts hedging on his name from time to time. Wong, thankfully, can fall back on “Master,” although it’s clear in his tone that he’s not quite sure all the time why he’s using the honorific.
Something’s gone wrong. But what? And how does he fix it? Because when Stephen Strange looks in the mirror, now, he’s starting to wonder if he recognizes the man staring back at him…
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34 users responded in this post
Yes.
This would explain why Marvel (and DC) aren’t returning your calls, wouldn’t it?
/would still buy your stuff before what they’re writing
These posts delight me with their titillation and promise of ultimately fantastic plot resolution, then proceed to infuriate me with the realization that these stories will never come fully to fruition.
The Ubremarkable Stephen Strange bears a passing resemblance to the Remarkable Alan Moore. This bears pondering.
Ooo. That’s very good.
I like this idea, but a question.
Many, many, many years ago (during his masked “super-hero” phase), Steven blurted out his identity in front of an entire crowd of people, while fighting Nightmare. Eternity, who owed Strange a solid at that point in time, fixed him up with the new secret id of Doctor Steven Sanders (who had Strange’s history, more or less).
How come Ikon’s spell didn’t work then? Is it because Strange himself was doing the revealing?
Mmmm. Tasty…
I always figured if Dr. Strange just wants to be Steven Strange, Man About Town for a day, he can take off his cape and nobody will be able to tell it’s him.
Take off the cape? Why? He can just cloud men’s minds and make them think he’s wearing a stylin’ pimp coat!
It has a flavor of Spectreference in favor of Wally in the Flash – which is a good thing.
I like it. Needs a bit more of a hook, but it sounds like a plot thread that overlaps well with another, like a murder mystery or a rising cult.
I like the fact that this could easily be a long running plot thread that’s not clearly linked to others happening on top of it-you could have 4 or 5 story arcs that conclude before this problem becomes big enough for Strange to focus his attention on it.
I understand when people say they “hate continuity,” because it is so often an albatross around the necks of fans and pros alike, but this is a great example of the unique benefits of decades and decades of shared universe business left to simmer. Because this idea is born from looking at a potential problem or inconsistency (Dr. Strange is an Important Dude, but nobody seems to know who he is) and discovering that there’s a way to address this that would make for an entertaining story. I feel like nobody should ever embark on a continuity fix *unless* you can get a cool story out of it.
In other words: Neat!
I also have to admit-before I read the body of the post, I thought the title referred to how long it’s been since you last did a WISWDS post.
This is interesting, you could tie it in with some real science to give Ikon’s spell some kind of real-world spillover:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia
Reminds me a lot of the Arcane background in the old World of Darkness version of Mage, which is awesome. I’d love to see more modern fantasy anything that evokes Mage.
I love the comic posts.
I really do love these posts, and I would really love to see you write Doc and the Legion.
I’m going to confess to heretical beliefs here, though–I’m actually enjoying both the No-Longer-Sorcerer-Supreme Doctor Strange, and the Oh-Crap-How-Did-I-Get-On-The-A-List antics of Doctor Brother Voodoo. Some of the best Strange stories ever were the ones BEFORE he assumed the Ancient One’s mantle–it’s really not an essential part of his character.
Really, the Big Impressive Title gets in the way of telling any story that’s not ABOUT the Big Impressive Title. The Doctor Voodoo series is exactly that: someone getting his footing after a gigantic, unexpected promotion. It’s interesting because we get to see him adjusting to his new responsibilities.
Now that Stephen’s no longer saddled with the Big Hat, writers can start telling stories about the Master of the Mystic Arts again.
“So, Brother Voodoo…”
“It’s *Dr.* Voodoo. I didn’t spend six years in Voodoo Medical School to be called “brother,” thank you very much.”
I always figured if Dr. Strange just wants to be Steven Strange, Man About Town for a day, he can take off his cape and nobody will be able to tell it’s him.
That’s what I figured. Seriously, who’d recognize the Pope on the street if he were in a business suit, or polo shirt and jeans?
I would pretend not to know a guy with stink line miasma and flies buzzing round him too.
What about the times Dr Strange has been called in as a well-known expert on magic for trials? Most recently, Daredevil’s Trial of the White Tiger.
“He walks around downtown New York all the time. Unbothered.”
this is a New York thing, though. there are so many celebrities, and it’s impolite to stare or talk to them. they mostly get treated like normal people. especially when he’s living in the Village, where most people are still obsessed with apartments that Bob Dylan MIGHT have lived in (that’s a potential plot thread…)
and every place has local celebrities. i lived in the same town as Paul Newman and, again, mostly ignored
sorry, don’t want to namedrop or anything. but famous people can be ignored. hell i reckon that’s why so many superheroes live in New York… it becomes part of the background
i like this idea, though i swear i’ve heard it before. i just can’t remember where….
Everybody! Write to Quesada and DEMAND that he let him write this story!!
Reiterating what everyone else said, well done.
Also, great pic of Alan Moore you used there at the beginning.
DC
He is merely a gifted surgeon, and nothing more!
To be “that guy,” for a moment, there was a period in the late 80s were Dr Strange WAS famous, after a former flame, thinking he was dead, published a tell-all book. But considering it was also during the period where he gave away all his magical protection to keep an alien from stealing it, I guess it would be pretty hand-waveable, if it came up, that the Ikonn protection was part of what he gave up.
“So, Brother Voodoo…”
“It’s *Dr.* Voodoo. I didn’t spend six years in Voodoo Medical School to be called “brother,” thank you very much.”
————————
I always thought calling him “Brother Voodoo” would be akin to calling a superhero reverend “Father Christianity”
I know BV was an actual psychiatrist, but did he decide that was more important than the religious title when he took up the Sorcerer Supreme mantle?
I really want to know what issue Strange looked like that, because I have to own it if I don’t already.
Person of Consequence: I could go into detail about all of that, as I’ve been reading a lot of old Doctor Strange comics from that era, but I think I’ll leave it at: Yeah.
I wouldn’t even let on to knowing this type of information if I were you.
Evil Midnight Lurker said on April 1st, 2010 at 3:58 am
He is merely a gifted surgeon, and nothing more!
Oh my god I love you forever.
Wait a second… I know yesterday was April Fool’s Day and all… but did Anna Paquin just come out and say she’s bisexual?! Srsly?
Stephen Strange: He Comes As No Surprise!
Two points:
1) I’m pretty sure its been thrown out the window since then but I always liked the Silver Age explanation that people can’t even FIND the Sanctum Sanctorum unless they absolutely NEED the aid of the Sorcerer Supreme.
2) Even if he were unknown Strange would still be mobbed by people when he goes out. “Hey, aren’t you Vincent Price?” 😉