It seems that Marvel will be, on an irregular basis, be publishing "lost" stories that never made it into print before, under the "From The Marvel Vault" logo.
This particular story comes from back in 1998, when Roger Stern was writing a new mag called Marvel Universe. It was meant to be an anthology series, "an ongoing monthly series that would explore the farthest corners of Marvel's vast realities" (Stern's own description, from the intro to this particular Doctor Strange story).
A fun idea, but the book only lasted 7 issues, because, as Stern notes, "the series didn't find its audience." Of course, that failure to find an audience may in part be because of some odd and not-likely-to-be-popular storyline choices: the first three issues were an Invaders arc. The next (and final) arc was a four-parter featuring Ulysses Bloodstone and Doctor Druid in the 1950s fighting Atlas-era monsters, Deviants, and some of the Mole Man's creatures. Talk about picking stories with limited appeal...(and come on Roger, after inflicting Doctor Druid on us in the Avengers, you bring him back for more??? What's the deal??)
Anyway, this particular story was to have been issue number 8 of Marvel Universe, a one-off telling the story of how a younger Doctor Strange came into possession of his Greenwich Village abode. (Now, see, if you had done more stories like this one early on, the series might have caught on. I'm just sayin'...)
So, it's a fun enough story, entertaining and well done. But then we meet the story's big bad:
Uh-oh. We'd better cover this up, quick. Because according to Bendis, who is (for some reason) the reigning authority on magicks at Marvel:
That's right, Avengers #504 (2004) rewrote decades of Marvel history, insisting that there was no such thing as chaos magic. Sorry, Mistress Tyanon, you just don't exist. Poof!!Please don't tell notintheface about this post. It will just depress him further...
What a twist!
ReplyDeleteSo Bendis is in fact... Shyamalan who's been secretly writing comics over a decade!!!t
Bendis has got to be the worst person at Marvel to handle the mystical stuff. The fact that he's capable of actually quite good writing in some ways makes it worse, since it legitimizes the shit he pulls over and over again. As a Doctor Strange fan, it's hard not to feel like he's got it out for the character...
ReplyDeleteWound...reopening..
ReplyDeleteARRGH!!!! BENDISSSSSSS!!!!
I'm just bummed out that I overlooked this book and picked up Batman: Odyssey. At least I can fix that one.
Ach, we knew that Avengers story was tommyrot!
ReplyDeleteNot having read Doctor Strange in quite a while, I assume you're correct when you state that that Bendis panel contradicts decades of continuity. Still, the bigpiece of evidence you present is a story that did not actually become continuity until about five minutes ago (which made it kind of hard to blame Bendis for not having been aware of its existence when he wrote that panel six or seven years ago). What next, a quote from a fan-fiction story that proves that Bendis does Luke Cage all wrong?
ReplyDeleteMensh--you misread my post, as my point (perhaps poorly expressed) was to wonder why Marvel would pick this "lost" story to revive when it had been explicitly ruled a non-starter by Bendis, and featured a foe who couldn't exist, according to current continuity.
ReplyDeleteHence, I saw no need to present "evidence" that Bendis had contradicted many years of Doctor Strange lore, since that's not what I was trying to "prove." (and, since you "assume I'm correct," why go on to question my "evidence?")
If you want an encyclopedic list of Doctor Strange encountering/using Chaos magic, there are many better resources for you than my cow-town puppet-show of a blog for you to consult. For starters allow me to point out Marvel's own website, which notes the contradiction between Strange using chaos magic and later denying it existed and declares the matter "confusing." I could also refer you to the 1980's incarnation of Strange Tales, wherein Peter Gillis tells us Shuma-Gorath is a being of chaos magic, and Strange absorbs that chaos magic into himself to defeat the demon. Or the 1990's run of Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, in which he uses chaos magic in several issues. Not to mention frequent encounters with the In-Betweener and his co-creator, Lord Chaos.
Is that sufficiently "non-fanfic" for you?
And the reason he mentions my name is that I've complained for years about Bendis' treatment of the Scarlet Witch in "Disassembled". I can give examples over 30+ years of how Wanda's history has been tied to chaos magic. Back on the Busiek/Perez run of AVENGERS, Kurt Busiek gave us a great explanation of Wanda's powers and how they related to chaos magic, and he also made Wanda a stronger person and Avenger. Bendis flushed all that down the toilet in "Disassembled", and I've made no secret on other blogs (especially Snell's) how much this pissed me off. Hence my name in this post's title.
ReplyDeleteWell, you're entirely reasonable to rant about this, NIYF. Has Brian Bendis ever adressed these points?
ReplyDeleteMensh, I'm currently reading the entire run of Doctor Strange from the 80s onward. When the Vishanti removed Strange's access to their power he himself became user of chaos magic exclusively for like an entire year. This was in the early 90s. Bendis is just full of poop and doesn't bother to do his homework because he's lazy. Oh boy does he bring the rage.
ReplyDelete