Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday Night Fights--Bend Sinister Style!!

This week we turn to a sadly forgotten classic from the 1980s, as a hero gets smacked down hard.

Dilby the lackey scientist has "breached the interface between science and magic," and, at the bidding of his mysterious masters, uses this ability to create a super-scientific-mystical robot.

So when Doctor Strange receives an unexpected mummy in the mail...


...you know there's gonna be trouble.

Wong tries to help...

...but the manservant gets served!

Doc Strange's best spells aren't working, as the robot keeps advancing...




...and kills him!!


Now that's Villains Victorious Of course, Strange cheats with his astral form at the end...but that's still a first class beatdown. Even Spacebooger would be hard pressed to stop that robot...

Oh, and Dilby's mysterious masters? Check out their video conference...FROM HELL:

Wha???? Yeah, that's right. Doctor Doom & Dormammu team-up and use a lackey to kill Doctor Strange in a story by Denny O'Neill (huh?), Frank Miller (wha??) and Tom Palmer (holy moly!) in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 (1980). Yeah, I said Spider-Man...that's right, this story gives us Doom and Dormammu teaming up to destroy the universe and put down Strange...and that's just in the first 12 pages, before Spidey even shows up!!!! That's how we rolled back in the 1980s...nowadays, they'd stretch this sucker out to a 6-issue mini-series so they could do a trade...and hey, look...actual colors in a Marvel comic (courtesy of Ben Sean).


4 comments:

Mark Engblom said...

Gotta love Doom's extended pinky as he sips his tea.

I also think it's great that wrapping the robot up like a mummy gave pause to Strange and Wong....as if getting a mummy shipped to them was still within the realm of possibility for Earth's Sorcerer Supreme (which it may have been). Also, was it just me, or did the robot bear a striking resemblance to the Mindless Ones, the cyclopean bruisers who lived in Dormammu's Dark Dimension?

snell said...

I'm sure even Strange's junk mail was mysterious and fascinating, so a mummy probably wasn't too crazy for the Sorceror Supreme to receive. Hell, he was probably in an early version of Netflix, except it delivered mystical artifacts instead of movies.

Yes, the robot did sort of look like the Mindless Ones...and since Dilby "constructed" his robot while he has hangin' in the Dark Dimension, that was probably intentional.

Anonymous said...

This was the great annual that had Peter waiting outside CBGBs; the great Punk Rock club that is no longer with us. GREAT ANNUAL.

Alan aka jettblackberryx

Anonymous said...

Add to it that the band Shrapnel was real and was fronted by Dave Wyndorf, now of Monster Magnet. Dave is a huge comics fan - mentions MODOK and Jack Kirby in a couple of songs.