That’s right, after having several Dr. Strange stories under our belt, today we get to the origin of our Strange hero. but before i dive into that, if your here looking for the Human Torch story of this issue, please click here for my review of that one.

Dr. Strange is not so unlike our other marvel hero’s , and in fact may have a lot in common with the now cancelled  Dr. Droom stories.   He was a normal man, a surgeon, with very normal motives. Then like most Marvel comic hero’s  a tragic event put him though is paces and lead him down the path that changed his life forever.

But I am not going to spoil the origin for you, it is good enough to be worth reading yourself, so I suggest that you pick it up in reprint, or read it on Marvel Unlimited

Story

Unlike most of the comic hero’s so far, we did not begin with the origin, instead letting Dr. Strange start off with his strange tales, and then working to the point when we will learn his background,  While it was only a few short stories, I do feel that this method worked out well for him, giving him a depth that he likely would not have had if it started with his origin.

You see, unlike  Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, ext. who’s origins do not include their nemesis in some way, Dr. Strange’s does.  Introducing us to Baron Mordo right in the origin.

Also it lets us see a hero whom was not always what he is now, that he had changed a lot from his origin to becoming the Dr. Strange we seen in the first few issues.

Artwork

I feel that the artwork was well done for this story, given the care that it needed, and painting us a different Stephen strange then we have seen before.  instead of the wise and mystical man we come to know, we see a rich and self-centered Dr,  and a man not much more than a bum, both the same man we know now, yet looking quite different, making the bit quite well done.

Character & Development

Perhaps nothing can be greater for character development then an origin story released after the series has begun. letting us look back and build upon the character in a retrospective way.

In this case, I feel it paid off, giving us a deep story despite the low page count.

Originality & Continuity

I won’t say that this is the same as the first Dr. Droom story, but they do have striking similarities, where I can’t help but feel that this one is at least inspired by those now forgotten tales.