While Karen and Doug are on vacation in January, our readers have been entrusted with carrying on the daily conversations. Today's Face-Off is a do-it-yourselfer. As we've done in the past, the first commenter gets to pick today's topic of conversation.
Generally speaking, Face-Off is for two singers, two comic characters, bands, films, etc. to go up against each other. For example, recently we had a post that asked readers to choose between Captain America's two main partners: Bucky Barnes and the Falcon. Another asked who would hold onto their most iconic role the longest in the minds of comics fans -- Christopher Reeve or Lynda Carter?
Thanks for holding it down for us!
I've noticed that a certain master of the mystic arts/sorcerer supreme doesn't get discussed much here, so I thought it would be interesting to rectify that by asking who's the better Dr. Strange writer: Steve Englehart or Roger Stern?
ReplyDeleteI'd normally go with Stern, since I love his writing, but in this particular case I'd say Englehart. His stuff was weird enough to be a perfect fit for Doc Strange (due in part to Englehart's use of--ahem--mind-altering substances at the time). Of course, the Brunner and Colan art didn't hurt either.
ReplyDeleteMike W.
Excellent question, Edo; and a difficult one. Both had great runs featuring some classic stories. For instance,Englehart had the Sise-Neg/Genesis story in Marvel Premiere and the Silver Dagger saga. Stern wrote the wonderful time-spanning Morganna Blessing series. Both writers displayed a solid understanding of the Doctor's character and worked to expand him.Unfortunately I haven't read all of Stern's tenure on the book, so I can't really give a fair judgement. As for a purely personal choice, I'd give a razor's edge victory to Mr. Englehart, if only for the Dracula story. That said, I must pick up the rest of those Stern issues...
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ReplyDeleteHmm, I really started digging into Doc Strange this last year. I picked up most of the Strange Tales issues (when sharing with Nick Fury) the Masterworks Volume 5 which documented his return to his own title, and other appearances..
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I'd go with Lee as best writer overall, REALLY making Strange a 'strange' character, a bit aloof and seemingly detached from his earthly surroundings. The mix of these stories with Ditko's rough art really set the eerie tone early on. I liked the Thomas/Colan years quite a bit, just magnificent visuals on scary dimensions that the Kirby FF years only gave us a glimpse of.
I was anticipating liking Englehart/Brunners '70s take on Strange, but while it was majestic on a certain level, I didn't like the charactersation initially, the plots becoming more a 'monster-of-the-week' title.. The Defenders setting seemed more befitting of this Strange phase/persona.
[Incidentally, I'm reading a lot about it now in the new Untold Story book..].
But..... as for today's question, I'd say Englehart primarily for both Mike W.'s rationale, but Steve E's explanation of how he.. 'grew into' writing Strange properly. As Steve confessed in the Masterworks edition, he didn't know how to write Strange at first; he just used him as a superhero who shot beams out of his hands. But when Steve delved more into mysticism (and the hallucingenics..), he started bringing Strange back to his Ditko scheme more. To be honest, I haven't read much of Stern's tenure yet. I'm still enjoying the Silver/early Bronze years.
And now to answer my own question: I'll go with Stern, for a few reasons. First, and most to the point, I've read more of his work on Dr. Strange; and second, I just like the way Stern, in his own quiet yet inimitable way, took a title that was kind of floundering at the time and turned it into a top-notch series (obviously, the fantastic art by Marshall Rogers and then Paul Smith didn't hurt). Just as he did with Spider-man and Avengers, he produced consistently enjoyable stories coupled with great character development.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I really would like to read more of the Engelhart material, especially the Sise-neg story - I'm really going to have to get those Essentials...
Very good question, Edo. For whatever reason, it's always seemed to me that Dr. Strange was a tough character for writers to get right, following the brilliant Ditko/Lee original run. But both Stern and Englehart get the good Doctor right. In fact, they may be the only two writers post Lee/Ditko who do.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said, both writers were fortunate to work with talented artists who also "got" Dr. Strange. But if I had to pick, I'd go with Stern, simply because I loved the Dr. Strange vs. Dracula storyline. But the Englehart/Brunner stuff was great, too.
For a quick Dr. Strange fix. Marvel Premiere 3-12.
ReplyDeletehttp://marvelheroes.blogspot.com/2005/04/1-dr-strange-this-world-gone-mad.html
Great question Edo.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the Stern run happened after my time. I need to collect another 4 issues of Doc Strange v2 and then read the lot.
I have to give Lee big credit for developing Strange’s original friends and enemies (I’m assuming it was him...Eternity was definitely Ditko) and Ditko huge credit for the visual worlds he created. I think when most artists create a fantasy world; you can see the start point. They always start from the world, physics and rules we know and then add to or subtract from it. Ditko seemed to be able to say ‘well, why would an alien dimension be ANYTHING like ours?’ and just disregard everything from gravity to weather to which way up the horizon was.
Where Bruce talks about the Doc Strange versus Dracula storyline, this is the Darkhold story from #60-62 I take it? Doc vs Drac to me is the Englehart crossover from Doc #14 and Drac #44. I can’t imagine the Darkhold story beats the Englehart one for art, so the story must be bloody fantastic!
Richard
The earliest Dr. Strange stories I recall reading were in the Defenders and Marvel Premiere, in both instances after Englehart had taken over the writing, and in the solo series with some fantastic art and co-plotting by Frank Brunner. It wasn't until much later that I caught any of the Ditko stories, initially in Strange Tales reprints. Great stuff, especially the truly novel-length story involving Dormammu, Baron Mordo and Eternity, among many others. Having read the 1st Essential Dr. Strange, which includes the entire Strange Tales run, once Ditko left the series it really went downhill -- Bill Everett did a decent job on the art, but Stan seemed to have no idea how to write a good Dr. Strange story without Ditko doing the heavy plotting. Even the dialogue seemed out of whack for the first several post-Ditko issues. Roy Thomas was a bit better but even he wrote some tales where Dr. Strange behaved, IMO, completely out of character. Aside from Ditko & Englehart, Stern wrote some of the best Dr. Strange tales! I can't really pick one over the other when it comes to Englehart & Stern, but I'll just say they each seemed to really understand the character and told some great stories, abetted by a few stellar artists.
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