And MCU synergy continues its hungry conquest

[superboyprime]

Why look who's returned to Doctor Strange's life. What a coincidence that it's just in time for a certain movie, huh?

Comments

[tigerkaya]

He returned to life during the JMS run of Spider-man and x-factor.

[janegray]

Whenever I see a scene where a villains murders a random innocent defenceless civilian, I'm reminded of that Tumblr post.

vampires always like “i could kill you if I wanted” like? yeah? so could another human being. so could a dog. so could a dedicated duck. you arent special

Which isn't to say that murdering random innocent defenceless civilians is not a horrible thing. But it only shows that the villain is question is morally repugnant (which we kind of already expect, despite Fandom's tendency to woobiefy villains), it doesn't really show that they are any more dangerous than the countless random thugs that stab, shoot and beat people to death every single day all over the world.

A good villain introduction would have them take down other villains, heroes, or some calamity.

[tcampbell1000]

I think it's the EASE of doing so that makes vampires a little more special.

[janegray]

I see your point. But the problem is that, when it comes down to it, killing an unarmed civilian (especially when they don't know what is going on so that you are effectively ambushing them. And especially when, as in the pages here, the civilian is a young girl who looks like she weighs 100 pounds) really takes very little effort.

It only takes, like, a blunt object to the head. Frankly, the biggest obstacle to killing somebody is getting over the normal healthy human aversion to horrific deeds.

So even if supernatural foes like Mordo there can kill a small young unaware girl with ease, I'm about as impressed at that as I am at HP wizards who enchant their quills to write on paper. It looks neat, but I can get exactly the same result with a pen and a little bit of effort.

A much more effective scene would be like Magneto in Age of Apocalypse. He takes down a whole squad of trained combatants in a couple of seconds who were fully alert and aiming their weapons at him.

[malitia]

Well, at least here she doesn't die to establish the villains' evilness that much... she is killed to establish the master-slave relationship between Dormamu and Mordo.

[janegray]

Ah, thank you for the info. That context does improve the scene.

[malitia]

The scans leave out that she dies when Dormamu bursts from the fireplace EDIT uses her body as a vessel to threaten and abuse Mordo (while implying that Mordo had "plans" with her but Dormamu doesn't appreciate any delays).

Edit: Sorry... the art on this series isn't that easy to decipher sometimes. ^^;

[speedingtortoise]

Dedicated duck is the most lethal of all the villains in the Marvel universe.

[janegray]

Pfft. Dedicated Duck shall forever be second best to Just Because Swan.

[scorntx]

Never mess with a swam. They can break a man's arm, and blow up a house!

[icon_uk]

Wanna bet? Alan Moore begs to differ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJO2Tjp3hQ0

[scorntx]

Just amazed Mordo didn't turn out to have a son, who just happened to look exactly like Chiwetel Ejiofor, and was also highly skilled in magic, and then suffers a series of maladies that make him want to ruin Strange's life, while everyone treats him as being exactly like Mordo Senior, who probably winds up banished to Mars forever.

... also, didn't he have cancer? The kind from which you do not get better?

[bruinsfan]

He actually died in the mid 90s after repenting and (briefly) turning over a new leaf. But apparently some time travel shenanigans in a Spider-Man story pulled an alternate version of him forward from a point where he was still evil and wasn't yet wasted away by magic cancer. That was shown to still be a problem for him in a later X-Factor appearance, but Dr. Strange seems to have been changed more by the Secret Wars reboot than most characters, so who knows what the backstory on this Mordo is...

Interestingly, back in that 90s storyline by J. M. DeMatteis Mordo was revealed to have a daughter who was following in her dad's villainous footsteps.

[laughing_tree]

I hear a lot of comments like this, about Secret Wars leaving character histories up in the air. Where does it come from? I haven't seen any sign of continuity changes aside from the ones specifically brought about by the Molecule Man and the Black Panther at the end of the mini-series (bringing Ultimate characters into regular Marvel and the Wakandan space program, respectively). Even the incursions still seem to have happened, as everyone remembers that stuff.

[bruinsfan]

Dr. Strange appears much younger than he did pre-reboot, flashback sequences to his time studying under the Ancient One have a very different tone from ones back in the classic Marvel days, Wong is presented more as a knowledgeable and powerful assistant rather than a manservant, and both the way magic exacts a price from its users and the characterization of the wider magical community is substantially different from the previous status quo. There's a lot of evidence that much of what we know about Strange's history has been changed or is up in the air.

[laughing_tree]

I'd file all that under artistic license. None of it explicitly contradicts anything.

[bruinsfan]

Well, except for erasing specific identifying features the character has had since 1963, having the use of magic make him bleed from the eyes and alter his biology to make human food unpalatable rather than just tire him out as it has for 52 years, and Wong suddenly being able to affect the Sorcerer Supreme with spells (to transfer the aforementioned negative effects to willing volunteers) without him realizing it. I'd say that's a lot more change than just artistic license accounts for.

[laughing_tree]

None of those are the sorts of changes writers and artists haven't also made to characters when there wasn't a continuity reboot in place. I stand by my opinion.

Just to use one example: Wasn't it Brian K. Vaughan's Strange mini-series that interpreted magic as only being capable of what technology isn't? So that whenever technology achieves the ability to do something, magic then loses the ability to do the same? That's not something that had any precedent. Doesn't mean the story's a different continuity; just means the creators are applying their own spin.

[shakalooloo]

Mordo's whole entrance, having people obey his words, seems a lot more MCU Killgrave to me.

[malitia]

Well... Killgrave if he had a boss who doesn't even let people eat dinner (and possibly more sinister things) in peace...

These scans very conveniently cut out Dormamu is all I'm saying.

[tcampbell1000]

Dunno if it qualifies as all THAT much synergy for one of Dr. Strange's best-known villains to return, more or less indistinguishable from the way he's always been in the comics, once you adjust for Aaron and Bachalo's styles.

End-credits movie Mordo is a vastly superior character, a disillusioned idealist who feels the problem with the world is too much magic and is willing to cause suffering for his environmental cause. Comics Baron Mordo is usually a psychopathic thug who wants power, world domination and to defeat Strange, and that's about it. J.M. DeMatteis tried something marginally more interesting with a cancer-stricken, repentant Mordo in the Nineties, but Strange has so few recurring villains that I don't really see that version having legs, even if he weren't basically defined by, you know, dying.

I wouldn't be too upset if Marvel pulled another "Nick Fury Jr." here and ended the story with a brand-new, Chiwetel Ejiofor-faced Mordo with more interesting motives.

[thehood]

That's true and yeah, it sure wouldn't hurt if he had a better motivation like the film version.

[thanekos]

Bachalo's Mordo looks like he somehow makes money on the side as a Roger Delgado impersonator.

[cygnia]

If Strange now busts out the Venusian Aikido...

[icon_uk]

Mordo would sell his soul... if someone didn't already own it... for a sliver of Roger Delgado's sinister genius.

[thehood]

Mordo came back to life already, not mention that Mordo comes back from the dead a lot, so i'm not sure what the issue here is

Especially since comic Mordo is still vastly different from the film version.