The Mystic Hands of Doctor Strange - "The Cure"

[arbre_rieur]

"It’s quite a hefty one, being 22 pages and totally inspired by my reading around 1970s German Terrorist groups. Luke Haines ruined me." -- Kieron Gillen







Dr. Strange's astral form homes on the source of people's strange behavior...







"...your madness."







"Done."

Comments

[drtechnobabel]

Got to admit, this is a really cool short story. It's got that old gothic horror feel to it, and it doesn't hurt that the plot seems like something from the guy who does 'I Should Write Dr. Strange'. I'd actually be interested in seeing more one-shots like this, both with Dr. Strange and with other characters.

[silverhammerman]

That's actually exactly what I was going to say, this feels a lot like MightyGodKing/Christopher Bird's take on the character. Which is a very very good thing in my book.

[burkeonthesly]

Thirded. The whole time I was reading this, it felt like either Christopher Bird, or someone cribbing his notes. Which is, by no means, a bad thing.

[icon_uk]

Interesting, though I wonder about the need to specify the story is set nearly 40 years ago.... (And oh SHIT do I feel old, since I can recall what I was doing around then)

[drtechnobabel]

I'm guessing it's so he can tell the story without having to worry about the stuff Dr. Strange is currently doing in the comics. As for why the 70s specifically, that's probably because as Gillen said in the quote, he was inspired in the plot by German terrorist groups of that time period, so he probably wanted to have his villain be inspired by having seen on the news recently, rather than having him dig through 40 year old newspapers.

[skjam]

And also so he could use the continuity from that one 1970s story where the entire universe was destroyed and recreated.

[bruinsfan]

I always wondered how that particular recreation of Earth's history resulted in a Clea with all the same memories as before, since its one difference was not having a counterpart to Dr. Strange himself.

[burkeonthesly]

On top of everyone else's speculations, I'd guess it has something to do with the climate of mental health facilities in the '70s. They were mostly pretty bad, until "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" turned public sentiment against them, at which point they were mostly pretty closed.

[philippos42]

It's all in grayscale? Huh.

[deceptioncat]

I have to say I was skeptic of the grayscale look at first, but it seems to work really well for this.

[q99]

Ah, well done Mephisto :)

[crinos]

Was I the only one who saw the Reference to Doctor Faustus and initially thought she was talking about the Captain America Villain?

[spidermanwashere]

I guess even the Sorcerer Supreme has to grocery shop every now and then.

[drtechnobabel]

I know I already commented on this comic, but holy shit I just noticed how Mephisto's hair curls are almost identical to the curls on Dr. Strange's cape, only facing inwards instead of outwards, and how Mephisto's van dyke is missing the mustache part. The artist is a freaking genius.

[leoboiko]

Stephan's strategy here is pretty Constantinesque.

Is it Just me?

[blue_bolt]

How has no one else commented on Wong's "I note the smallest things about you. The set of your august brow. The tightness of your lips."

It seems to be ripped from fanfic XD

Re: Is it Just me?

[leoboiko]

Especially with the whole "master" thing…

Re: Is it Just me?

[silverhammerman]

It is delightfully fanfic-y. Actually thinking about it now I'm almost surprised that casting Wong as Doctor Strange's long suffering romantic partner isn't a more prevalent idea. It's certainly less strange than the outdated manservant stuff.

[halloweenjack]

It's a decent story, but I wish that Gillen had made it more of a straight-up 70s Marvel B&W magazine homage. Sometimes it seems like Gillen can't not be arch to one degree or another.