By now, you’ve likely seen the promotions for the new “Dr. Strange” flick because Marvel Comics’ marketing is trés effective. And if you’re not an avid comics fan, you’re still likely familiar with Marvel’s Spider-Man, Hulk and maybe even Wolverine, but you may assume they’ve hit “the bottom of the barrel” with this Dr. Strange guy.
In reality, Dr. Strange has been a respected character in the comics for decades and is a great reflection of when he was created.
For this piece to be an article and not a dissertation, I need your consent for my oversimplifying complex matters when I say the 1960s was a decade when many Americans questioned and challenged convention. Previously, most Americans thought fighting in this country’s wars was a matter of patriotic duty, the government could be trusted and religious, cultural and family traditions were the country’s bedrock, and many of those beliefs were “turned on their heads” during the ‘60s as Americans questioned race relations, music influences, the Vietnam War, gender inequality, what we were doing to the environment, sexual norms and more. Ways of thinking or doing that had almost been automatic were now being reevaluated.
That also included the way comic book heroes were created. For example, DC Comics’ Superman and Batman were created in the late 1930s as all-around admirable characters. Clark Kent feigned cowardice, but only to maintain a secret identity to protect friends. But in the revolutionary 1960s, DC’s competition, Marvel Comics, changed that formula by creating heroes whose flaws weren’t fake. The Thing, created in 1961, was surly. In 1962, when a cop asked for Spider-Man’s help to stop a criminal, the teenager dismissively responded, “Sorry, pal! That’s your job!” Created in 1939, Bruce Wayne (Batman) acted like an aloof playboy, but in 1963, Tony Stark (Iron Man) actually was one. And in 1963, Dr. Stephen Strange’s world consisted of who could afford his high surgical service fees.
Probably because he was created by the same artist and writer duo who created Spider-Man (Steve Ditko and Stan Lee), Strange’s story is similar to the wall-crawler’s in that his selfishness is changed once he suffers a tragedy. When Western medicine, religion and technology fail to help him, Strange undergoes a spiritual quest to the Himalayas, that is, to properly meet his new challenges, Strange’s world view must expand with the times like those of most Americans. Once Strange humbles himself and is willing to learn from “the Ancient One,” he discovers the
power of magic and becomes a hero.
Superman was created in 1938 and based in Metropolis, but I propose he could’ve been created either 20 years earlier or later and still been based there. But Strange’s headquarters was in Greenwich Village, and that location was largely based on when he was created and what the Village symbolized. Without the influences of Dr. Timothy Leary and the rise of the drug culture, is it likely that readers would have understood that Strange’s meditations enabled him to travel via astral projection to other realms and realities, but in doing so he had to beware of and battle demons such as Nightmare in 1963? Could the “trippy” and quirky art style of the comic have worked a decade prior? Had Strange not been created during a time of nonconformity, would he have battled the hoards called the Mindless Ones in 1964? The universe-embodying character Eternity (1965) could have only been introduced to the comics during or after the Age of Aquarius, and the idea that Strange had to save Eternity reflects the burgeoning conservation/environmental movement. And keeping in mind that Strange was a superhero published in comics that were largely bought by kids and teens at the time, Marvel certainly couldn’t have gotten away with him not married to, but cohabiting with, an alluring “disciple” and lover named Clea had there not been a radical shift in America’s sexual norms. (And yeah, Strange and Clea had been “spiritually bonded as one” in a ceremony in another dimension, but that right there is some 60s stuff, too, and it doesn’t count as official, not even in the Village.)
Mind you, I’m not saying the Dr. Strange comics (using the vernacular of its time) “had it all together.” There were stereotypes aplenty in it: White guy travels to distant land, discovers and virtually immediately becomes the greater master of magic (in this case, but that’s just a variation of whatever skillset or art form the natives failed to be the best at in other stories) the world’s ever known. Strange had a faithful Asian “manservant” named Wong and an equally stereotypical (albeit presumably less offensive) wise Asian teacher named the Ancient One. And Black folks? I don’t recall any key ones (or even minor ones) in Strange’s circle during the 60s (or 70s, 80s and 90s). To help offset my last two points, when the Dr. Strange movie opens Nov. 4, 2016, it alters the comic’s dynamics by having Tilda Swinton portray the Ancient One and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Karl Mordo.
But what I’m most interested in seeing is how well the magic of the 60s fares onscreen more than 50 years later. Ya dig?
L.A. Williams is a former comic editor who runs AquaBabyBooks.com online bookstore.