Biography of Doctor Strange, 1963-1964

The following is a biography of Doctor Strange from 1963 to 1964, in which Strange repeatedly fought off the malicious efforts of Baron Mordo and mystical beings like Nightmare and Dormammu.

Biography

Into Nightmare's realm

By mid-1963, Doctor Strange was established as a powerful and helpful figure living in Greenwich Village. A man came to him complaining of a recurring nightmare involving an unnerving creature in a cloak and chains. Strange endeavored to enter the man's dream and confront the figure; but first, Strange used astral projection to seek the advice from the far-away Ancient One, his trusted mentor in Tibet. The Ancient One warned Strange that his living days grew short, and advised him to depend on the magic amulet around his neck in case of danger. That night, Strange entered his patron's dream as promised and confronted the creature, who said that it was a manifestation of the evil the dreamer had done, and to inquire further with "Mr. Crang." Before Strange could follow up, he was confronted by Nightmare, the malevolent ruler of the Dream Dimension. At the same time, Strange's patron awoke from his dream, startled by the mention of Mr. Crang; the man pulled out a gun and aimed it at the still-entranced Strange. In that moment, Strange called out telepathically for helpto the Ancient One, who employed Strange's amulet from afar to freeze the man in place. The distraction allowed Strange's astral form to escape Nightmare's realm, returning to his body and disarming the man. The man confessed that Crang was the last of "many men [he'd] ruined in business" by robbing him. Feeling intense guilt, the man agreed to confess his crimes.

Baron Mordo emerges

Some time later, Doctor Strange attempted to contact the Ancient One through the amulet, but received no response. Fearing the worst, Strange traveled in spirit to Tibet, where he found the spirit of his archrival and fellow protege of the Ancient One, Baron Mordo, floating over the Ancient One's prone form. Strange and Mordo did battle, and were almost perfectly matched, until the Ancient One weakly told Strange to use his amulet. He did so, using the amulet to funnel a great deal of his energy into the Ancient One to save him. Strange was able to repel Mordo long enough for the Ancient One to recover, fending off the evil sorcerer for the moment. Later that year, Strange was baited to a castle in London by Baron Mordo claiming to be Clive Bentley, owner of the castle and an old acquaintance of Strange. Strange sent his spirit to the castle while his corporeal form traveled by plane. Arriving inside, Strange's spirit was trapped in a magical field by Mordo with a candle nearby. Mordo informed him that once the candle burned out, Strange would perish, and Mordo would be left as the world's greatest sorcerer. The Ancient One contacted him offering assistance, but Strange was determined to escape on his own. He sent a mental message to anyone in hearing distance, and the call was answered by Victoria Bentley, daughter of Clive who lived nearby. On Strange's command, she manually snuffed out the candle, freeing him from the trap. Mordo returned and recognized Victoria; he attempted to hypnotize Strange into killing her, realizing that she possessed a latent magical power. Strange's physical form arrived and reformed with his spirit, resisting Mordo's hypnosis and engaging him in mental combat. Strange deceived and surprised Mordo, giving him the upper hand and allowing him to defeat the stronger sorcerer, forcing him to retreat. Learning of her magical ability for the first time, Victoria asked Strange if she could be his disciple. He warned her that doing so would only make her a bigger target for Mordo, and that they must wait until he was no longer a threat.

Return to the Nightmare world

Back in Greenwich Village, Strange was contacted by the police, who informed him of several people who had been sleeping for an abnormal amount of time and could not be awoken. Examining one of the hospitalized victims, who had slept for over 40 hours, Strange confirmed that the man was under some sort of magical influence. He entered the Dream Dimension, deducing that Nightmare was responsible. Avoiding various magical traps, Strange soon confronted Nightmare himself, who had captured the spirits of the sleeping victims to bait Strange to his realm. Strange was able to secure a path to safety for the captives, but was forced to use the light power of his enchanted amulet to fend off Nightmare and his dark creatures. With that, Strange and the victims escaped the Dream Dimension.

Baron Mordo strikes back

After returning home one night, Doctor Strange suddenly found himself in a bizarre dimension, floating through the air. His entire house had been magically transported from its foundations in Greenwich Village. Strange sent his astral form to find the source of the spell back in his native dimension, and unsurprisingly found the culprit to be Baron Mordo. Mordo was cognizant of Strange's arrival, and trapped his spirit in a magical cylinder. Mordo declared that he was once again looking to usurp the Ancient One and become the world's most powerful sorcerer. As Mordo departed to carry out his plan, Strange discovered that the cylinder passed through the entirety of the Earth, but was weak enough at the other end for him to escape. Strange's spirit reached the Ancient One, who granted him a magical ring that would allow him to do battle with Mordo while in his spirit form. The two devised a plan to have Strange disguise himself as the Ancient One and catch Mordo by surprise. Mordo indeed soon arrived, claiming to desire penance for his wicked ways. As Mordo attempted to catch the "Ancient One" by surprise, it was in fact Strange who caught Mordo off guard, handily defeating him and sending him on his way. Strange's home was thus returned to its natural position, and the forces of good again prevailed.

Bavarian possessions

Strange later detected a mysterious dark force in the region of Bavaria. The people in a small village there informed him that some of their residents had been overtaken by "some dark power," possessing them. Strange investigated and found the culprits to be an alien race, apparently from another dimension, capable of spiritually invading a person's body and taking control of them. Strange's dominion over his own ethereal form made him resistant to their advances, and this advantage allowed him to fight them back and banish them from Earth, casting a spell to prevent their return.

The Purple Dimension and the House of Shadows

Strange soon came into the possession of a mystical purple gem, but was unable to gather its exact function. One night, the gem was robbed from him by a pair of small-time crooks. Using his ethereal form, he tracked the gem and found that they had inadvertently used it to travel to the Purple Dimension. Strange went there himself and battled with the ruler there, Aggamon, for the freedom of the criminals and other captives whom he had taken as slaves. After Aggamon conceded defeat, Strange returned to Earth and learned that the terrified criminals had turned themselves in to the police. Not long after, Strange witnessed a special television event in which a reporter dared to enter a supposedly haunted house. Unsure of the house's true nature, Strange attempted to enter it through his astral form and found that he could not, proving that there was some sort of magical force at play. The reporter entered the house and vanished, which the crowd surrounding the house interpreted as just a show. Strange however knew it was real, and forced his way into the house. He discovered that the house itself was sentient, and had come from another universe. He called upon the house to release the reporter, who quickly ran out, and Strange banished the house back to its home realm. The crowd nearby continued to dismiss these events as special effects.

Mordo and the wax museum

Some time later, Strange received a phone call of distress, but upon sending his astral form to the provided address, found only a recording device. Returning home, he found that his physical body had disappeared. In fact, it had been kidnapped by Baron Mordo, who contacted Strange from afar and gloated that he would die if he couldn't return to his body within 24 hours. Strange tracked Mordo to a wax museum, where his body was put on display with a protective spell blocking Strange from easily reentering it. Ten minutes remained, and Mordo mocked his rival, knowing that Strange couldn't harm him while in his astral form. Strange thus possessed one of the other wax figures in the museum, using it to bind Mordo's mouth and prevent him from encanting any spells. Mordo slipped into his astral form, allowing Strange's to confront him directly. Strange was able to fend off Mordo well enough to break the spell on his body, magically restraining Mordo's spirit away from his own body for 23 hours to ponder his defeat.

Helping the Fantastic Four

Soon after, Strange noticed a fiery message in the skies of New York left by the Human Torch asking for assistance. He realized that a request for help from such a renowned hero must be important, and he swiftly answered the call. He sent his astral form to the Baxter Building, headquarters of the Fantastic Four, where he met Torch and the Thing. They explained that Namor the Sub-Mariner had kidnapped Torch's sister, Invisible Girl, and her boyfriend Mr. Fantastic had gone off on his own to confront Namor. Torch and Thing were worried that he would get himself killed. Convinced that the matter at hand was important enough to merit his attention, Strange located Namor's undersea palace, where he saw him holding Invisible Girl captive as well as Mr. Fantastic arriving at the door after using a breathing pill. Strange made haste back to the Baxter Building, where he reclaimed his physical form and teleported the two heroes inside Namor's palace. Strange observed the rest of the happenings from afar, and teleported the Fantastic Four back out of the palace once they had reunited.

Nightmare's ambush

After several days of unyielding battle with the forces of evil, Strange returned home exhausted, and collapsed at his desk in a deep sleep. He soon found himself in the Dream Dimension and unable to use any of his magical powers. The worn-out Strange had been careless, and neglected to cast the protective spell he would normally apply every night before sleep. He was soon met by the vainglorious Nightmare, who was able to manipulate the unprotected Strange and his surroundings with a mere thought. But Strange was not entirely powerless, as he was able to subtly hypnotize Nightmare even without his magic. His hypnosis led Nightmare to visualize the creature known as the Gulgol, a being that has terrorized Nightmare since time immemorial due to the fact that it never sleeps, and thus Nightmare has no control over it. Nightmare pleaded with Strange to stop the Gulgol, and he agreed to do so if given his powers back. Nightmare granted him this, but Strange revealed that it was merely a trick. With his powers returned, Strange escaped the Dream Dimension, enduring his foe's frustrated curses.

Asgardian adventures

One day, Strange was contacted by the spirit form of Loki, who was bound in chains. He claimed that his evil brother Thor was responsible. Strange knew that Thor was a member of the heroic Avengers and that there was probably more to Loki's story, but decided to see where it led. In fact, Loki was imprisoned in Asgard by his father Odin after repeated acts of villainy. Loki gave Strange a piece of leather from the thong of Thor's hammer Mjölnir, and Strange analyzed it with his amulet, detecting evil energy, though the energy was in fact coming from Loki himself. Strange sent out a magical hand to seize Mjölnir as Thor flew through the sky, and in doing so found that there was no evil energy coming from it or him. He concluded that Loki was the evil one, and the two engaged in magical combat. Loki's power was lowered due to being in spirit form, but he still proved an incredible threat to the human sorcerer. Strange called off the magic hand's hold on Mjölnir, returning it to Thor. Just as Loki's power seemed to be too much for Strange to overcome, Loki detected the approaching presence of Thor. The thunder god had used his magical hammer to trace the cause of the interference. Fearing his brother's reprisal, Loki's spirit form vanished. Strange counted his blessings, having survived his fiercest battle yet seemingly by pure chance.

Strange once again fought Baron Mordo, and this time in casting him away was forced to use a spell so powerful that it sapped him of nearly all of his energy. He sent a magical summons to the nearby Thor, who flew in moments before Strange collapsed of exhaustion. He was rushed to the hospital and operated on by Dr. Don Blake (Thor's secret identity) and soon made a full recovery. Strange vowed to repay Blake if he should ever have need of him. Later that day, Blake rushed into Strange's hospital room desperately looking to cash in on that favor. He needed to find his missing walking stick, without explaining why—in fact, the stick was his key to transforming into Thor. The benevolent sorcerer accepted without question, and using his astral form quickly found the cane being used as a fishing rod by a pair of homeless men. Blake arrived on the scene and wrested it from them, transforming into Thor as they ran off and Strange's spirit returned to his body. Later, Thor contacted Strange and asked him to locate Blake's nurse Jane Foster, whom Loki had abducted. Strange found her in the Limbo dimension and cast a magical barrier around her, protecting her from Loki's malicious magic. Thor would go on to defeat Loki and force him to free Foster, returning him to Asgard and Jane to safety.

Time travelling with Cleopatra

While roaming the city in his spirit form, Strange happened upon a mystical vapor. Following it to its source, he found a veiled woman walking as though in a trance. He gently guided her to his lab, where he attempted to ascertain her identity. He was shocked by what he found: she was in fact the ancient Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. Strange traveled spiritually to the Ancient One, who conjured a time-traveling spell for him, sending him back to Egypt circa 40 BCE. There he found the wizard Zota attempting to jealously kill Mark Antony, Cleopatra's lover. Strange defeated Zota in combat, stripping him of his power and sending Cleopatra back to her own time to live out her days with Antony.

Rescuing the Ancient One

While studying in his Sanctum Sanctorum one night, Strange was set upon by three of Baron Mordo's minions, whom he easily banished. Strange realized that Mordo must have realized they stood no chance against him, and thus must have sent them for a reason. He scanned the Earth for signs of danger, and found that the Ancient One was not in his chambers in Tibet—a truly bizarre occurrence. Suddenly, Mordo appeared behind Strange, and the two's spirits fought all across the globe. Strange in fact merely defended himself, as he made his way toward a Himalayan jungle where he believed Mordo's hideout to be. Indeed, there he found the Ancient One magically imprisoned, and was able to disable Mordo long enough to free the Ancient One and escape.

Dormammu's Dark Dimension

Strange was summoned to the chambers of the Ancient One, who notified him that he had received word from a spirit messenger of the dread Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension, that he intended to invade Earth. Weakened in his age, the Ancient One told Strange that he would have to handle this threat himself. Strange agreed, and the Ancient One transported him to the bizarre and twisted Dark Dimension. Strange battled with several dangerous foes before being confronted by a woman named Clea, who warned him that challenging Dormammu himself was too dangerous. Strange pushed past her and confronted Dormammu, a humanoid being with fire engulfing his head. Dormammu scoffed at the "underling" before him and demanded to see the Ancient One. Strange insisted that Dormammu would have to get through him first, and the two braced themselves for battle.

But Dormammu wasn't truly interested in fighting Strange, and gave him some time to reconsider. The cautious Strange took this time, pacing outside of Dormammu's chambers. He was again approached by the woman from before, who warned him what would happen should he defeat Dormammu. She took him to just outside of Dormammu's domain, where dangerous beings known as the Mindless Ones roamed and fought, attacking any intruder. Dormammu had constructed a magical wall to keep them out, apparently the only thing capable of doing so. If he were to perish, the wall would fall, and his people would be doomed. As Strange pondered this quandary, Dormammu captured the woman, and magically imprisoned her for speaking to an enemy. Strange was now steadfast in his determination to defeat Dormammu, no matter the cost. The two fought, engaging in a grand magical duel, weakening Dormammu to the point that his wall holding back the Mindless Ones was broken. The Mindless Ones stormed in, forcing Dormammu to focus his attention on them instead. He tried to build another wall, but his power could not match their combined force. Strange added his power to Dormammu's, and the two collectively were able to hold back the onslaught. Dormammu cursed Strange, realizing that he was now in his debt for helping save his people. Strange simply told Dormammu not to harm the woman and to vow never to invade Earth. Dormammu agreed, but nonetheless vowed to avenge the indignity he had suffered that day. Returning to Earth, Strange found that the Ancient One appeared stronger than before: by defeating Dormammu, Strange had broken a curse the dread one had placed on him ages ago. Furthermore, the Ancient One granted Strange a new amulet and cape to prepare him for what would be even greater challenges to come.

See also

• Biography of Doctor Strange, 1965-1966