(What I hope is my final bar exam is today, so…)
Many people suspect that death is not the end of things, and some of them are right. Others aren’t. Death, in the Marvel Universe at least, is a capricious thing. Most everything never comes back: the spandex set has gotten so used to the idea of resurrection that they often fail to realize how many of them never come back. (Go look at the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe’s Book of the Dead sometime. I did the math: about three-quarters of them have never been resurrected.) And that’s just costumes. The regular joes of the MU know that dead is dead.
Of course, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes, if you listen very carefully, you can hear the dead. Not with your ears, of course. But you hear them nonetheless. If you’ve got the right sort of training, you might be able to make out, on occasion, what they’re saying. If you tried hard enough, that is. And if you have that training, and you are the sort of person who discovered – relatively later in life than one might expect – that you in fact possess a deep wellspring of compassion, then you might try hard enough. And because you had that compassion, you might take action when you realized that they weren’t so much speaking as crying.
What Stephen Strange heard was weeping – fearful weeping. And so he put himself into a state of living death, because how else are you going to visit the nether realms? And he found a professional super-criminal, dead and gone, trapped in a box of their own making: a trial (this particular super-criminal had been through many trials when they were alive) of their entire life. It’s grounded in real-world details – a judge, a jury, bailiffs, a set of scales – but it’s all ever so wrong, and because this person is already scared every detail serves to reinforce their fear. The judge’s eyes don’t appear to exist. The jury is at times twelve people and then one person with twelve faces. Sometimes there are walls, sometimes not. Sometimes there isn’t a floor except for the faces of people the criminal sort of remembers. They’re not friendly faces.
Now, Dr. Strange knows better than most people that we can and usually do influence our own afterlives, but he also knows that just telling someone that doesn’t work – the delusion of our souls is too strong just for one to say “well, no, actually this isn’t happening.” That doesn’t work. You need to guide them through it on their own. So Dr. Strange takes up the role of this super-criminal’s defense attorney in the last trial of their existence. It’s as good an opening as he can manage: by representing the lost soul, he can subtly remind them of why they don’t deserve to be here. He can give them peace, which is, for them, the only gift that endures.
Of course, this is the Marvel Universe, which means there’s a problem: the prosecutor. You see, the prosecutor isn’t a delusion. He’s quite real. He knows when opportunities like this pop up, and he’s always ready to capitalize. He wants this criminal’s soul for reasons of his own – there are always reasons when you’re dealing with this sort of being. He wants the guilty verdict: he wants that super-criminal to want to be punished, unendingly and forever, and to choose it themselves. And he’s not entirely happy that Stephen Strange has come along to muck things up. But fine, he thinks, let the Sorcerer Supreme flail about; Strange doesn’t know the tricks of the courtroom of the soul, but the prosecutor does.
Because Mephisto has done this many, many times before. And his record is perfect.
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…I guess some closure for Stilt-Man *is* due after Fraction’s carefully orchestrated kick to the teeth. Alternatively, while I’m thinking of villian deaths that were too successfull at making me hate the hero in question forever – Crazy Eight?
Dude, good luck on the exam!
Am I wrong to think that this would be a good place for a cameo appearance by El Tyrano Magnifico?
Ah…now THAT’S something Mephisto would do.
So if Stephen Strange is Phoenix Wright…is there a Maya analogue. And is she a medium…for the living? My head hurts…
But this definitely needs an entire page in the comic devoted to Dr. Strange shouting “OBJECTION!”
Go look at the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe’s Book of the Dead sometime. I did the math: about three-quarters of them have never been resurrected
True, but how many of those guys were killed by Scourge?
We all know that it’s Strange only turned undead to spend some time with Deadgirl (watch out Stephen, Mephisto wants your love!), and the trial thing just sort of happened.
I just can’t help but think that if you’re going to use a Death Cab song when talking about Dr. Strange it should be Crooked Teeth.
“And the skyline looked like crooked teeth in the mouth of the man who was devouring us both.”
And then Dr. Strange defeats the giant skyline-devouring monster using magic.
And let’s not forget the possibility of Stephen getting popped for Contempt of Court – Mephisto would just love to get his hands on that kind of two-fer.
One small comment: before you named Mephisto, I knew it would be Mephisto. Whether that’s an obvious cliche that weakens the story, or a poetic flourish that makes it stronger, I’m not sure. But it’s exactly the kind of thing Mephisto would do and it’s not a surprise even if you keep him secret until the third act.
I’m kind of curious what the story would be like if the prosecutor were someone else. I’m not sure it would be better (and it could easily be much worse), but it might get more mileage with a different challenger for Strange.
(love the “contempt of court” idea of Prodigal’s BTW)
I was also thinking that maybe someone else from Marvel’s demonic pantheon might be a more inspired choice (say, Satannish or Blackheart), but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a demonic courtroom is really only in Mephisto’s wheelhouse, and that he is most definitely the best choice, even if he’s also the most obvious. Obvious isn’t always bad.
Sometimes the obvious choice is obvious because it’s the right choice. I like Mephisto for this. It seems like it’s been a while since he’s been used for something he ought to be used for (or maybe I’m still just annoyed that he didn’t immediately arrange for Aunt May to be hit by a bus after bringing her back).
I think this brings up the question of how many cases Strange would be trying at the same time. Sure, you could focus on one, but I like the idea that Strange isn’t just trying to save one random villain from surrendering their soul, but everyone that Mephisto is currently trying this on, so part of the challenge is that Strange can’t just know the facts of one case; he can’t delve deeply into Stilt Man’s life and pull up the good things he did, the restraint he showed at times to harming others. He has to look up dozens, maybe even hundreds of cases, keep them all separate, and basically duel Mephisto on multiple planes at the same time.
Of course, that might make the story too muddled and confusing, but it would make the challenge higher. Maybe that would work better as something Mephisto tries if Strange wins a case.
Good luck with the exam!
The Living Tribunal is the judge, and the In-Betweener is the baliff. 🙂
MGK, I’m gonna quote Fry here and say “JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!” I can hear Rod Serling salivating in his grave over this idea.
You read Anathem recnently, right?
He could call up the Defenders for this. Get Bruce to give Jen a call. Have the Silver Surfer as second chair
Now I’m getting visions of the FIRST trial Mephisto ever lost in the theme of Phoenix Wright, with Mephisto losing with all the grace of one of those guilty witnesses that always pops up behind the stand:
Mephisto clutches his head with beads of sweat flowing down his face while looking increasingly unhinged upon hearing Doom’s final retort in freeing his mother’s soul. Finally, he starts tearing up the landscape, various nearby demons and bits of his body and face, all while screaming “DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!” at the top of his lungs while montages of all the tortures he inflicted flicker across the background, as well as the events that led up to this final moment, before finally passing out from lack of breath and the indignity of defeat.
Sounds like a fun trial.
Number 1 – This totally means we get a Dead Girl cameo, right?
Number 2 – Is the Phoenix Wright picture meant to have some hints of the ‘new’ ‘cooler’ Doctor Strange?
Number 3 – How do you explain Strange defending *this* case, while turning a blind eye to every other ‘case’? (And does there just happen to be any evil supervillain lawyers who could do a face turn and take over as ‘Defender of the Damned’?
DeBT just brought in the Wild Card. Get Doom involved as an assistant. With his hidden motives, it would really keep Dr. Strange wondering who was up to what. And, of course, Doom has his own motives for assisting…
For me the reveal of Mephisto as the prosecutor would be at the end of the first issue. For me I’m a lot more interested in who the dead villian is. While he could be Stilt-Man (because S-M is the posterboy for loser villians in Marvel comics) that might not be the guy MGK has in mind. If for no other reason then there has been more then one Stilt-Man. Here’s to hoping that MGK will get the chance to write this story and we won’t have to be left wondering.
I thought Mephisto only did divorces these days.
PS: Poor Stilt Man. He was one of the few villains who had the sense to retire when Daredevil went crazy during the Bendis run and then they brought him back (even though they’d already replaced him) just so he could be canon-fodder in a terrible Punisher story. A guy with a perfect win record against Spider-Man deserves better.
Best of luck on the exam!
And I find myself constantly anticipating the next “Why I Should Write…”, trying to imagine the direction the next one will take based upon the course of the last. And every time, you blow me out of the water with something like this. Granted, like many others, I saw Mephisto coming–but like them, I say it’s not a bad thing. He’s the natural choice, and having that inkling of dread building throughout the issue, only to be confirmed when he makes his appearance, is a kind of delicious I have missed.
Not sure whether I’d like to see Silver Surfer or Doctor Doom as second chair more.
Oh please oh please oh please let Mephisto just flip when he loses, inflicting some minor damage on himself in the process.
Also, since someone must and nobody has yet: OBJECTION!
Overrulled. There was nothing to object about.
Also, for a lawyer game, there’s precious few scenes where the judge will say “sustained” either.
MGK is being very coy with the pronoun of the thief, which makes me think it’s a woman. Any significant dead female criminals in the MU?
And does Mephisto really have a perfect record? Hell, he was smacked around by Black Panther. (Unless you mean perfect in the courtroom, but even so…)
As long as Mephisto is wearing a three-piece suit, I’m sold.
@clay
Copycat, which means that Deadpool would probably show up.
Maybe the gimmick *is* that he’s defending every soul that Mephisto is prosecuting- this is just the one he *wins*…