At Long Last: Marvel Knights #7 (Spoilers)

As any regular reader of this weblog might guess, I am pretty hard to please, especially when comic books and Doctor Strange is concerned.

Well, I liked this issue. The art and the pacing is crisper than in past issues, the dialogue is a little better. Too many people in the book for good characterization. Moon Knight in particular is this month's phoned-in hero.

• The portrayal of Doc was excellent. Aloof, cerebral, confident, competent. And they got the costume right.
• One gets the sense that Doc doesn't know Cloak already in this story. Bad. Doc knows Cloak. #78, first series, August 01986. And Doc immediately recognizes him as Cloak of Cloak and Dagger at the start of that story.
• Going over Cloak and Dagger's origin was a necessary step. But why no reference to Peter Parker #64? Just like with the previous item: history and continuity lost.
• Doc sets it up that he can follow one of Dagger's daggers to find Cloak. A creative use of his powers. But except for a shield and an energy blast, that's all he does. The book is kind of crowded, though.
• There is a tribute panel to Steve Ditko. Amen.
• Doc competently, and easily, keeps Cloak in check, as it should be. Cloak is different and more powerful now, but still he should be no match. Solving the problem and getting all the people back to our dimension should be what tests Doc here, not power.
• Black Widow exclaims in Russian at one point, "Chort Poberi!" My friends Julia and Gene would be proud.

Posted 29 November 02000 - Permalink

Today's Fandom:

• Stan Lee stock tanking.
• Marvel launching a nationwide ISP. Full service under $20 a month. For $5 a month you can participate if you're already happily online. Get email branded with Marvel characters, like you@x-men.com. Doctor Strange must be one of the characters available for email. www.doctorstrange.com forwards to Marvel.

Posted 28 November 02000 - Permalink

A first look at Marvel Knights #7 guest-starring Doc! [Comics Continuum]

Posted 27 November 02000 - Permalink

Nothing more on Doc's upcoming appearances right now at Marvel:

• Spider-Man: Lifeline #1 (of 3)
• Spider-Man: Lifeline #2 (of 3)
• Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Magazine #3 (of 12)

Posted 24 November 02000 - Permalink

Larsen pencils of Defenders #1 first page and cover of #3 [Comics Continuum]

Posted 23 November 02000 - Permalink

There's a Marvel Movie Update on today's Comics Continuum, but while movies about the Hulk, Inhumans, Deathlok, Shang-Chi, Punisher and Black Panther are mentioned- no Doctor Strange.

Posted 22 November 02000 - Permalink

I'm home for Thanksgiving at my parents' house using their 56K modem connection and, being used to DSL, it seems so slow! I also realized that my graphics-intensive website here comes up pretty slow. There are changes I can make to try to ease the wait when I get back from vacation. It seems all the graphics-intensive comic-book websites I surf for news items also load slow as well. So any comic book audience I have either has fast connections, or all the sites they surf load slow and they're used to it. I think that my duty as a Doc news weblog is to surf for Doc news, and spare any of my readers the slow sites unless there is something about Doc there to see.

Okay, this site comes up much faster once my images are in the cache. Hmmm, guess my parents never visit my site...

Posted 22 November 02000 - Permalink

Not to get too personal on this site, but I wanted to say that a couple days ago was five months with my trusty sidekick Charisse and I'm very happy. She's a great chick- funny, understanding, and a hottie too. She buys me Doc stuff on eBay, and she's very helpful at comic book conventions (as long as she's not calling action figures dolls). ;)

Posted 21 November 02000 - Permalink

The Defenders article in this week's Comics Buyer's Guide #1411 has really increased my psychage for the upcoming series!

Posted 17 November 02000 - Permalink

Both Michael Ansara, who played the Ancient One in the 01978 Dr. Strange TV movie, and Clyde Kusatsu, who played Wong, have had solid careers including:

• histories with Star Trek,
• appearances in Babylon 5,
• recent paychecks from Batman/Batman Beyond animation.

Posted 17 November 02000 - Permalink

Marvel good news: Publishing grew 5% in 3Q 02000, over $11 million in sales, mainly due to Ultimate Spider-Man success. The bad news: Marvel's 3Q 02000 overall loss is at $13 million, 20 people laid off, running out of operating capital, and bad loans due. Can't be good.

Comicon.com Splash has done an excellent job getting all over this story. I can't find if they archive their daily news, though. Too bad- daily links die fast then.

Marvel Enterprises Reports Q3 02000 Results [Yahoo Biz (Dead) via Splash]

Posted 17 November 02000 - Permalink

The Eye of Agamotto is the perfect image for seeking out the truth and shedding light on things, and thus perfect for Dr. Strange news. But such a perfect image means it's frequently used. So, I'm going to try out how renaming this weblog The Orb of Agamotto feels. New slogan: Scouring the Earth for mystical news. Alternate slogan: Smokin' with the Caterpillar (who turned out to be Agamotto himself).

A weblog, evolving before your eyes. Err.. orbs.

Posted 17 November 02000 - Permalink

Marvel History: The Dark Side action figures in February include Dormammu and astral form Dr. Strange! [Comics Continuum]

Posted 17 November 02000 - Permalink

Do-It-Yourself Star Wars [Salon via Ghost In the Machine]
LucasFilm = gets it; DC Comics = doesn't get it.

Posted 17 November 02000 - Permalink

Marvel Masterworks alive again, new DD (any Doc?) [Comic Wire]

Marvel burns 9 million $US in Q3 [today's Splash]

Comic Book FAQ re: CGC slabbing [via eBay]

Posted 16 November 02000 - Permalink

Even more Doctor Strange in February!
Today's Comics Continuum has Marvel solicitations for February, including many teasers for Doc fans.

First, an interesting item and image about Defenders #2. Sounds like what brings the non-team together is a secret that causes infighting when revealed. I'm so curious about what Busiek has come up with to keep the characters together logically in a group.

Doc will also appear in Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comic Magazine #3, although I don't know yet in what capacity.

Doc also graces the cover of Spider-Man: Lifeline #2- but again, not much info here on Doc's role. I wish I had time for more research. Somebody email me a bone about these comics!

Posted 15 November 02000 - Permalink

I am very saddened that the premier Dr. Strange website has decided to disable right mouse click. This action (and the accompanying ridiculous demanding-permission alert box) stops nothing, is a poor decision of web site design and usability (on an otherwise wonderful site), and really displays a misunderstanding about the nature of the Internet, in my humble opinion. I want better Doc fansites!

Disabling right mouse click: Things to Avoid #10 [Vortex HTML tutorial]
Also several ways how to defeat it.

Usenet search: "disable right click" on alt.html [Deja.com (Works on Google now)]

No right click [Tips for Newbies]

I was going to link to some nice and original content that I enjoyed on the website in question. But instead, I must deliver those goods from another source. Here are the relevant (and higher quality, I might add) comic book cover scans from that wonderful resource, The Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index:

• Dr. Strange #183
• Sub-Mariner #22
• Hulk #126

If you go to Lone Star Comics and search for Marvel Feature, you can get a nice scan of #1.

Posted 14 November 02000 - Permalink

Great article about Simonson's Thor, which I loved [Fandom]

Weinberg writing neat Darkside concept for Marvel [Comics Continuum]

Posted 13 November 02000 - Permalink

Another mention of P. Craig Russell working on an Ultimate Spider-Man/Doctor Strange team-up [Continuum]. Sounds a long way off.

Posted 2 November 02000 - Permalink

Dormammu Watch: Magik Mini-Series

I have to do a Dormammu Watch because there is no Doc to watch. Check out the new "interpretation" in this series. It sucks. Compare this Dormy with the one in my current page header- there is no comparison. I have all kinds of problems with Dormammu in this series so far.

1. A burning red skull. Boring. He looks like the Red Skull. Or Ghost Rider. Or a dead horse.
2. He's way too aloof and mysterious in this story. Dormammu is Type-A all the way, hyper cocky bluster.
3. I am totally against the Vertigo-ization of the Marvel Universe. Call me a purist, but I want my Dark Dimension flourescent-colored!
4. It's too soon after the Hellcat mini-series to have another Mephisto-Dormammu-Underworld situation.
5. I realize that over the years, Dormy has been able to gain more and more control over the Mindless Ones, but now he has servitors? When did this happen? The Mindless Ones are supposed to be as much a bane to his existence as Doctor Strange (after he released them to his ultimate advantage, of course).
6. Where's Doc?

Posted 1 November 02000 - Permalink