[REPOST] Magic Died With Stephen Strange

Hello people of MA!! Its Steph here to being you yet again MORE Doctor Strange content you didnt need nor want NOR ask for!!

In this blog I will detail about just what it is about the 2019 series that I am not too keen on. Hope you enjoy what this blog contains as well as if you have any questions or quandaries let me know!! I'll be happy to respond!

It was the mere year of 2015, Marvel comics had just released the first issue of the brand new launch and retelling of the good doctor's story but with much more grime and dark style to it. Non that has been seen before for the doctor, spectacular writer Jason Aaron and phenomenal artist Chris Blacho had teamed up for this new take on the Sorcerer Supreme. This series lasted from 2015 to 2018, quite a long run for something new.

But the streak of dark storytelling took an abrupt halt, after Doctor Strange issue number 390. We got some comedy from spiderman, a sweet wrap up with Zelma, and a touching scene of the doctor walking through the sanctum halls and into his room. Where he finally lay rest with an easy smile for the first time in a long time. Everything was at peace and it felt right. After bringing back magic, fending off Nightmare, Doramamu, Mr. Misery, Satana, all in the same week. After taking back the title of Sorcerer Supreme and beating Mephisto with an improvised team of Midnight Sons, it all felt right. The doctor deserved a rest, and everything fell neatly in line.

But after that, all was not right, as if by demand the magic on Earth vanished once more. Thats right, after all the heartache, triumphs a torment and sacrifice. The doctor's deeds meant nothing, why is this? Because the series had yet another reboot but kept the continuity of the 2015 series, but kept it poorly. It started, fun and interesting, Issues 1-5 we had a fun take. Sorcerer Supreme of the galaxy, with the advice of Tony Stark, Strange looked up. Perhaps there was an answer in the galaxy waiting for him. As the story progressed the doctor got wrapped up in all kinds of things. He was captured and enslaved by an alien race, experimented on by them. He met with another fugitive, this individual went by the name of Kanna. She was an intergalactic ar-CANE-ologist. Like an archeologist but for the artifacts of various practices of the arts. Kanna helps break out Stephen and they go about the galaxy collecting various magical items, even trading some off to further their expedition. I'd go on further but these issues were fine as well as the ones featuring his past student Casey who had been led astray.

Where we start to see it go downhill is right on issue number 12 of the rebooted series. The doctor gets cocky and questions how repetitive everything is that he does. I don't blame him for feeling like he has fallen into a loop. Dormammu, Nightmare, Mephisto and various arcane/Occult/ethereal beings have crossed his path on a daily to wreak havoc. Its all a pattern to him and he has taken notice of this. But the bold action to think that every situation is the same lead him down the road to becoming the herald of Galactus. Becoming the herald of Galactus was an immense sacrifice on his part, something the doctor does without question.

but I can hear you saying over the vast barriers of the internet, "if you are giving most of the series praised, then what's so bad about it Steph?"

well rest your little head weary traveler, the junction is just up ahead. We will be making various stops to get my grief and irritations over with.

When you think of arcane forces the first thing that comes to mind is not the magical IRS. However in this series that is exactly what we receive. Granted, I am always curious, I question and analyze everything I see in the doctor strange universe. My biggest question has always been, who issues the cost? who is high enough to cause such a thing? I had come to two different conclusions in my research on this topic... The greater force was something much much bigger this universe has never seen before. Comparing it to deities as large as H.p Lovecraft's Cthulu. Or maybe it was the cause of elder gods at work. A man like Stephen Strange would not be unfamiliar with these deities, the existent of a Necronomicon as well as references to these creatures have been made by the doctor himself so it is not out of question. My second idea is that the entities he draws power from would be the one to send the bill right? depending on what and how much power you draw from them or their home planet leaves them to decide the cost? makes sense right?

Well, what ended up happening is that there was indeed a magical IRS... My theories ended up the closest being the latter. When this was revealed I was extremely underwhelmed. It just... didn't feel like it belonged in the universe at all, let alone one as shrouded in mystery as the good doctors. Could you imagine spending years studying arcane and occult forces only for it to be revealed that a random entity has a firm dedicated to filing down all magicians in the realm and making sure they pay their bill? Could you imagine having to phone these creatures in and ask for a representative cause you fit someone else bill and now you're paying for it? There is supposed to be a sense of mystery to magic, one that is supposed to make people below its might quiver in their boots. But the "Magical IRS" just makes it seem all too, average...

You're not going to scare me with magical tax fraud...

Clea, a character that is far much more than just an ex-wife to Doctor Strange. Clea was been the good doctor's love interest ever since her introduction. Even after their falling out the doctor still itted his longing for the woman. Their love was something profound and strong, an unbreakable bond that nearly nothing can get in between. In Damnation Mephisto knew of this, using Clea as leeway to pry at the doctors' mind so that he would play into his hands.

In Doctor Strange annual 1 in the 2015 run, Clea reconnects with Stephen to touch base. See how he is doing and how the earth is after the attacks from the Empurikil. In this issue, we see the bond between them had never been severed in the first place. Even if they are worlds apart and are tasked with their duties, they still have a longing for each other. However in the life of the sorcerer supreme, all is not so easy, and with this current runs writer, he makes that apparent. Now this twist was something I was not expecting. I will give the writer that much praise for that, but when it comes down to it. With all the history these two have it just wasn't the right way to say a true 'goodbye' for this side character. Dare I even call Clea a side character when she was so much more to the development of Doctor Strange.

In the 2018/2019 run of Doctor Strange, we see him make yet another immense sacrifice for the greater good. However, instead of him paying the price, it is someone else. Making a deal with Marvel's version of the devil isn't always wise. best to count your fingers before shaking on anything. Stephen knows every action he does has a cost, he is fully aware of this fact. But when Mephisto revealed to him that the only way to fulfill his debt to him was a soul. The doctor seemed fully ready to oblige his own. But instead, Mephisto requested that of Cleas, a soul that means nothing to the devil aside from making sheer torment for the individual. Mephisto knows how much Clea means to the doctor, we saw this in the Damnation arc. Stephen, taken aback by this cost, obligated anyway. Knowing that if he fought back the cost for him would only be greater...

While Clea's, what looks like, a permanent leave isn't what upsets me most, its how the writer handles the doctors reacting to it. How he acts after the fact is what bothers me more than her sudden, and poor choice of 'scrapping' Clea. Issue 18 of this series was comedic relief for what issue 17 had given us. We can see in this issue Stephen using his work as a way to distract himself. He is more bark and snaps than he is usually, the humble sorcerer in a sort of blind grief as he took care of business and nothing else. This makes sense... for when Clea first had left him he acted rash. Even collapsing onto the sanctum staircase when she said her goodbyes. But issue 19, the most recent release almost seems like nothing ever happened. When he is told of a price yet again he doesn't even think about what he had JUST paid for not long ago. Keep in mind he re what he had to do to Clea, while she forgot everything.

Stephen is a rather emotion-based character, while his will is strong and his intelligence higher than most. It's his mercy card and relationships that kill him. The oath he swore as a doctor is a drive of this mercy card as well. Keep the Hippocratic oath in mind, it will be important for my next topic.

It wasn't just a mere car crash that set the doctor on his path that he walks today. After Donna's death, his sister, Stephen had become lost in his work. Obsessed with it in a sense to the point he paid no mind to the outside world. Of course, he graduated top of his class and soon enough was called back home. Notified of the ill news of his mother. soon enough she succumbed to death, Stephens father followed after and then Victor.

As you all know Stephen had become one of the nation's most advanced surgeons, specialized in Nerosrrugery, in his time. He was at the forefront of modern-day medicine and was driving this world toward the future.

When becoming a doctor of any kind, people must swear upon the Hippocratic oath which states.

" I swear by Apollo Physician, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture.

To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him; to consider his family as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture; to impart precept, oral instruction, and all other instruction to my own sons, the sons of my teacher, and to indentured pupils who have taken the physician’s oath, but to nobody else.

I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing. Neither will I ister a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein.

Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it is what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.

Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and my art; but if I break it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me."

The biggest factor that Stephen kept with him is that he will do no harm, will not play god, and will do all in his power for the patient. Putting him above all else, for the patient comes first. Always.

The doctor's accident is what makes him who he is, he and the ancient one even stating that there was no possible way to fix his hands. It was a grueling struggle for him to accept this fact. It took years to cope with it, the sorcerer he learned being the best thing he had come across to help with the constant pain. But he learned to deal with it, the accident that cost him his hands and humbled the man. It gave him a reminder of who he once was and the oaths he has sworn. While he may not be able to practice anymore, he still kept onto that oath.

But issue 19 threw all of that out of the window. As if by convenience Stephen KNEW he could suddenly fix his hands in order to save the life of a child. He did not use a spell to steady his hands as he has many times in the comics. He did not let fate take what it rightfully had its clutches on. He played god. He knew the time the child had left, mere minutes. He knew if he sought this spell it would take that precious time. But what did he end up doing? What did our wise sorcerer end up doing in this time-sensitive and costly manner?

he sought after the spell. Knowing its cost in comparison to a simple and temporary hand steadying spell he has used in the past. Not only does he know how devastating the cost could be but he of all magicians should know that will a spell as powerful as this it can all go wrong very very fast.

Does the good doctor not what happened when possessing the powers of the demon Zom?

Does our doctor not recall the events taken place in New Avengers 2013 during the planets incursion?

Even most recent, does he not what happened to him when using a mere black magic spell like that of the alantian black magic?

The cost so far as we have seen is that his previous hands had deconstructed themselves. Putting the doctor through sheer agony as they did so. But they later reconstructed themselves. This spell costing and stalling more time... costing more than just what we have seen. After that ordeal is all said and done he saves the boy, helps banish a spirit and all is well.

But is it?

Stephen Strange always has and always was for the people, but when his services as a surgeon began to outweigh his good of heart, karma paid a visit. It is through the struggles he has had to face with his hands that made him grow. He found himself again and was back to how he always was. A selfless man, willing to put all others above himself. But with his hands restored its almost as if that physical reminder of who he once was, wasn't even there in the first place. Scraping away one of THEE biggest features and character developments of the doctor to this date. I fear that with this now hot on the gun version of our doctor with nothing holding him back anymore. I fear we may be losing what makes the doctor strange more than just a 'superhero'. To quote a DoctorOfMagic on Tumblr:

"But now that an opportunity emerged to reconcile his two different lives, he took it with the 'excuse' that kids' life was more important than any dark magic. He was aware it could have gone wrong, yet he did it anyway."

Waid has written for the Doctor Strange title before. Back in 2010, he had done his won arc where he as introduced to us Casey Kimmot /who was also in this 2019 run/. As an avid Doctor Strange fan 2010 wasn't the best but it still provided that mysterious and existential dread that this character should be set in. The world of Doctor Strange is like nonother seen before. We cannot merely explain why things are the way that they are, it is ever-changing and there is a sting of horror and fear that comes along with that. A fear of the unknown shall I say.

But with the 2019 series, we just don't get that. issues 1-5 delivered exceptionally on that front. Space is vast and not all explored, much like the mystic realms and multi-dimensions out there. The dark is a scary place and thats where a lot if not all Doctor Strange titles derive from. Monsters and demons, trying to explain what cannot be explained. Knowing that there are things above us that even we do not know of. Things above what is called a god. I don't think we have lost our doctor yet, there is still hope. But the things that made him different and a more understanding character are fading to the back.

After all this ridicule its best to ask, well Steph what would you say the direction they go in? Better not say New Avengers 2013 Steph thats too predictable! Well no need to fret, what I have in mind is far from it.

Bring back the Midnight Sons and pick up where we left off after Damnation ended. Thats right, pick off where Damnation ended. After the end of Damnation, we were left with Stephen talking about forming a group of mystics all around the world. What he had in mind was a way to protect and prevent events like the Empurikil and Hell on Earth from ever happening again. To keep all these magicians in the loop of everyday occurrences on a physical and mystical level. They do protect the very reality of the 616 universes daily after all. The Midnight Sons have long since been forgotten and I think it would be amazing to bring them back better than ever. This would stay true to the dark nature of Stephens's world and show how dangerous the mystic world can truly be.