Biography of Doctor Strange, 1965-1966

The following is a biography of Doctor Strange from 1965 to 1966.

Biography

The mysterious Demon

Late one night, Strange was approached at the Sanctum Sanctorum by a frightened man claiming to be a disciple of the Demon, a sorcerer bent on ruling the world. The man had underestimated the Demon's malice, and now looked to escape his grasp. Moments later, the man disappeared, leaving only a pile of clothes behind. Strange knew that the Demon had to be responsible, and magically compelled the disciple's clothes to retrace their steps. Strange located the Demon's lair, and defeated him in magical combat, sealing him in a trance for the time being and helping his disciple escape for good.

Tiboro of the Sixth Dimension

As Doctor Strange's profile rose in New York City, so did the volume of his doubters and detractors. He was asked to appear on a television show to prove the existence of "black magic" against a group of skeptics, but Strange declined. On the program, the panel of scientists examined a supposedly magical idol from Peru, scoffing at the idea that it could contain mystical power. As they looked it over, the lights in the studio went out, and when they came back on, the panelists were gone. The desperate director decided to call in Doctor Strange to investigate. Examining the idol, Strange could tell it was of an occult nature, but couldn't determine its purpose beyond that. He sealed it in a magical shield and contacted the Ancient One for advice. The Ancient One recognized it as an idol of Tiboro, an ancient and evil ruler. Though Tiboro perished with time, it seems that his essence lived on through the idol somehow. To investigate further, Strange allowed the idol to absorb him, and he re-emerged in the Sixth Dimension. Strange fought with Tiboro, who described himself as the "spirit of decay," eager to take advantage of the Earth in its exceptionally strife-ridden state and rule it stronger than he ever had. Strange was able to defeat him in a magical duel and release the scientists, but Tiboro insisted that he would return. What happened to Tiboro's idol is uncertain, but Strange most likely kept it in his possession.

Team-up with Spider-Man

One day, the Sanctum Sanctorum was invaded by a couple of seemingly normal, if large, men. Doctor Strange found however that their minds could not be penetrated, indicating that someone else was already hypnotizing them. Whoever controlled these men saw through Strange's various magical attempts to subvert them, and they pummeled Strange into unconsciousness. When he awoke, he found that they had taken his half of the Wand of Watoomb, a magical artifact capable of opening dimensional pathways (among other powerful magical abilities) when completed. Strange used the Eye of Agamotto to guide him to the Wand, and it led him to the home of the sorcerer Xandu. Xandu, naturally, had the other half of the Wand, and had combined the two in an attempt to gain "supreme power." While Strange was knocked out, Spider-Man had witnessed the men leaving the Sanctum and followed them back to Xandu, who sent him into another dimension for his troubles, but Spider-Man grabbed the Wand on his way out. The portal to this dimension remained open, and there Spider-Man fought the two men and tried to keep the Wand from them. Doctor Strange, by far Xandu's superior in pure magical ability, quickly overwhelmed the lesser sorcerer, but Xandu's hypnotized henchmen returned with Spider-Man and the Wand, which Xandu retrieved. Knowing that the Wand bolstered Xandu's power to outmatch his own, Strange fled and returned in his spirit form. Spider-Man continued to fight the men back in the local dimension, and Strange helped him to shock the men with a stray wire, snapping them back into mindfulness—and utter confusion. Spider-Man confronted Xandu directly, Strange returned to his body, and the two double-teamed the evil wizard. Xandu was thrown off-balance by their teamwork, and Strange and Spider-Man managed to restrain him and take the Wand of Watoomb. Strange used the Eye of Agamotto to drain all the magical power from the Wand, leaving it inert. He cast a memory-erasing sleep spell on Xandu, erasing all of his malicious desires. The two heroes parted, leaving Spider-Man baffled as to what exactly he had just experienced.

Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Full article: Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Doctor Strange attended the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four, along with a number of other renowned heroes. Doctor Doom attempted to sabotage the wedding by using his "emotion machine" to encourage (or coerce) a veritable army of other villains to attack the Baxter Building. One of the earliest villains to infiltrate the building was the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, who quickly overwhelmed the Fantastic Four, who had been caught off-guard on their special day. Strange arrived to help, and banished Red Ghost and the Apes to another dimension. In the end, Reed Richards used a device provided by Uatu to transport all of the villains back slightly in time and wipe their memories of these events. Reed and Sue Storm were thus successfully and peacefully married.

The alliance of darkness

On the run from Baron Mordo

One day, while Strange studied with the Ancient One in Tibet, the two were attacked by Baron Mordo and a pair of magical henchmen. Strange quickly realized that Mordo was much stronger than usual, and he and the Ancient One were forced to flee. The Ancient One was injured, and Strange carried him away, narrowly hiding from Mordo's pursuit. Strange left the Ancient One with a monk in a hidden cave to recover, and took a bundle of rags to stand in for his prone body. As he continued to flee toward safety, Strange was pursued by otherworldly spirits whom he was sure would report his location to Mordo. He reached Hong Kong and the home of Sen-Yu, a disciple of the Ancient One: though not skilled in the mystic arts, he was responsible for watching over the Ancient One's belongings. Strange recovered in Sen-Yu's home, and on his advice decided to go into hiding as a civilian. He concealed the Cloak of Levitation within a normal suit, allowing him to use its power without revealing himself. Sen-Yu offered to house him, but Strange didn't want to put him at risk. He left and walked out into the streets of Hong Kong, where he was quickly set upon by several sorcerers. Mordo had contacted malicious mages throughout the world to find and deliver Strange to him. However, Strange's potent skills proved more than a match for the relatively limited opponents, and he cast a paralysis spell on them to allow him to flee safely.

Strange fled through the city and managed to slip aboard an airplane, dodging Mordo's spirits and coerced citizens. A spirit tracked him into the plane itself, but his own spirit form defeated it, then disguised himself in its garb to convince the others that Strange had escaped. Strange thus shook off Mordo's pursuit for the moment, but still needed to learn how Mordo had achieved such monstrous power if he was to defeat him. Strange returned to the Sanctum Sanctorum, but found that a powerful henchman of Mordo's had taken up residence there. Strange did not want to alert him, lest he in turn inform Mordo. He went to a costume shop and returned to the Sanctum, disguised as a rival sorcerer challenging Doctor Strange. The bizarre and baffling nature of the character caught the henchman off-guard, allowing Strange to simply knock him out. Strange went to the Eye of Agamotto, intending to use it to figure out the source of Mordo's power, but he unwittingly sprung a magical trap. Knowing that Mordo would surely be on him soon, Strange donned his traditional sorcerer garb once more and prepared for battle. Mordo indeed soon arrived, and the two fought. Strange finally deduced that Mordo was drawing power from another, stronger being, but couldn't focus enough to deduce who it was. He fought valiantly, but was again overwhelmed by Mordo his master's superior power. With no other recourse, Strange used all of his remaining power to hastily warp himself to another, unknown dimension.

The despotic sister

When he finally arrived in the bizarre, nearly formless place, Strange was quickly approached by a woman. She warned him of the danger of the area, ruled by her tyrannical half-sister Shazana, who was liable to kill a stranger on sight for fear of their being a spy sent to threaten her rule. A guard of Shazana's came and forcefully brought the two to her throne room. Shazana was as paranoid as her sister had said, but for the time being she left the weakened Strange in a paralysis spell and went off to deal with other business. While she was gone, Strange used his mental eye to discover the secret to her power: she had coerced a man to grant her magic in the form of a glass globe that she kept concealed under her throne. With the help of the grateful citizens of the dimension, Strange destroyed the globe and ended Shazana's reign. Having regained his strength, Strange returned to Earth.

The search for Eternity

With no plan of action for striking back against Mordo, Strange booked a room in a cheap hotel in New York and sent his spirit form to the Ancient One in Tibet. Strange's master remained comatose, but the man watching over him told Strange that he had repeatedly muttered the word "Eternity" in his sleep. Strange granted the Ancient One some of his magical power in hopes of speeding up his recovery. Strange returned to the Ancient One's library to investigate what he meant by Eternity, but found nothing. As he researched, he grew careless, and he was spotted by one of Mordo's spirits. He fled, but was soon followed by the spirit form of Mordo himself. Strange's spirit flew out into space and all the way to the Sun: though the heat couldn't harm the spirits, the increasingly intense radioactivity would eventually prove fatal, both to a spirit form and its home body. Mordo's lackeys turned back, while Strange dared Mordo to join him in flying into the Sun's core, willing to sacrifice his own life to ensure the Ancient One's safety. Mordo thought it was some kind of trick, that Strange had protected himself from the radioactivity, and so declined and fled back to Earth. Strange returned to Tibet, where the Ancient One was recovering but still comatose—and still muttering about Eternity. Strange gave him another dose of magical energy, and returned to his physical form to continue searching for answers about Eternity.

Strange visited a castle in England belonging to Sir Anthony Baskerville, a disciple of the Ancient One who had stopped practicing magic due to injury. Strange asked Baskerville for information about Eternity, and Anthony went into the other room, ostensibly to find the relevant knowledge. Unfortunately, Baskerville was in fact loyal to Mordo, but Strange suspected as much from his anxious behavior. Baskerville returned with Mordo's disciple Kaecilius, through whose body Mordo could see and speak. Strange used a clever deception to get the upper hand, knocking Kaecilius unconscious and magically assaulting Baskerville's mind. He probed Kaecilius' mind and learned that Mordo's master was the dread Dormammu. He similarly interrogated Baskerville, preventing him from lying, and asked him what he knew about Eternity. Baskerville knew nothing, and explained that he had detested the Ancient One for not being able to fix his injured hand. He instead turned to Mordo, who deceptively promised that he would cure him in return for doing his bidding. Strange left the castle, upset that he had still learned nothing of Eternity.

Strange contacted a number of other sorcerers around the world, and eventually found one who claimed to be the only one alive other than the Ancient One with knowledge of Eternity. The man was old and, by his own admission, his mind was "clouded," but Strange had no choice but to go along with him. The man gave Strange a scroll, which he took to the ruins of an abandoned temple to recite. He performed the spell on the scroll, opening a portal. Strange's casting caught the attention of the vigilant Mordo, who ever arrived at the same moment that Strange went through the portal, which closed behind him. As he emerged in another dimension, Strange began to fear that he had made a mistake. The unsettling world was filled with columns of large masks. Strange found a man standing restrained to a bizarre machine: all of his limbs were held back, and he had an opaque visor over his eyes. The man seemed to need rescuing, so Strange lifted the visor. The man's eyes emitted a bright green glow and revealed that it had all been a ploy. The captured man's eyes housed a demon that now took over Strange's form, effectively switching the places of the two bodies. The humanoid demon's face replaced Strange's and vice versa, leaving Strange bound to the machine, and the demon inside Strange's sorcerous garb. The demon began to form a magical mold over Strange's face, blocking his eyes and mouth along with his limbs. The demon arrogantly revealed that only by looking into his eyes could Strange break the spell. Strange mentally commanded the Cloak of Levitation to fight back, breaking the mold and allowing eye contact. Strange The bodies switched once more, and the demon commanded his army of prior victims to attack. Strange quickly used a banishment spell to send them back to their proper places, and used the blinding light of Agamotto to essentially wipe the demon's foul realm from existence, forcing Strange back into his own dimension. He returned to the Ancient One and decided that it was time to take the knowledge of Eternity from his mind by force.

At Eternity's Gate

As expected, the Ancient One's powerful mind instinctively put up a great deal of resistance, but Strange was eventually able to convince him of his good intentions and make a mental connection. The Ancient One commended Strange on his progress thus far, and transferred the knowledge of how to find Eternity into his mind. Strange was momentarily weakened by the intense power of this knowledge, but he quickly recovered and flew away so that he could have room to cast his new spell. He did so, and his amulet grew to several feet in diameter and transformed into a portal. Strange stepped through, and again escaped moments before Mordo arrived at his spell's detection. Through the portal, Strange emerged into a dimension like no other. Colorful stars, planets, and other celestial phenomena swirled around him, until they began to take shape: the shape of a man made up of the universe. This entity, Eternity, probed Strange's mind, and the mortal was powerless to resist. Eternity understood Strange's dilemma perfectly, and refused to grant him additional power to defeat Mordo and Dormammu—for he did not need it. Instead, Eternity cryptically claimed that what Strange lacked was the wisdom necessary to defeat them. Eternity dispersed, leaving Strange to return to Earth and ponder what he meant. He returned to the Ancient One, but found that he was gone—taken by Mordo. A group of Mordo's spirits appeared and demanded that Strange follow them to Mordo's sanctuary where the Ancient One was being kept. He complied, and there he indeed was met by Baron Mordo, who had the Ancient One in a time trap and conversed with Dormammu in the Dark Dimension via a magical screen.

The final duel

Dormammu demanded to know what Strange had gained from Eternity, but Strange truthfully told him nothing. Mordo removed the time trap from the Ancient One so that he could witness Strange's defeat, while Dormammu similarly held Clea captive in the Dark Dimension. Mordo engaged Strange in magical combat, as Dormammu and Ancient One bolstered their respective charges with their own powers, but all involved knew that Dormammu's might allowed Mordo to be the superior. On the advice of the Ancient One (and Eternity), Strange instead relied on his wits to out-duel Mordo, and he indeed managed to prolong what might well have been an easy victory for Mordo. Dormammu grew impatient, and he banished everyone to another dimension.

Strange, Mordo, and the Ancient One emerged in a distant dimension. Mordo tried to keep fighting, but Strange easily held him off, demonstrating just how lacking Mordo's power was without Dormammu to bolster it. They were soon joined by a number of different dignitaries from myriad other dimensions, and the Ancient One knew immediately that Dormammu had sent them as well. Dormammu himself arrived and challenged Strange to a duel with the fate of Earth and the approval of the other dimensions at stake. Some present supported Dormammu, while others supported the Ancient One, and Strange in turn. Strange agreed to Dormammu's terms, whereby they would battle in such a way that relied upon skill and wits rather than raw magical power. The two proved to be relatively even, but Strange eventually got the upper hand. As he did so, Mordo blindsided him with a powerful blast of energy to the back, taking him down.

Dormammu was naturally furious at Mordo's interference. Mordo said he was only trying to help, but Dormammu only got more insulted at Mordo's insolence. He banished Mordo to the "Dimension of Demons," but in any case declared himself victor over Doctor Strange. Strange recovered however, and insisted that they continue fighting. He had in fact fully recovered from Mordo's attack, but let Dormammu believe that he was more injured than he truly was. Dormammu agreed, and the two resumed their battle as before. Strange played into Dormammu's overconfidence and outsmarted him, defeating him convincingly. Dormammu begrudgingly agreed to never attack Earth, with the eyes of the dimensions' powerful representatives upon him. He banished everyone back to their home dimensions, decrying his own arrogance. Strange and the Ancient One emerged in Mordo's sanctum, where Dormammu showed via a screen that he had Clea held captive. Dormammu banished her to an unsaid dimension as punishment for assisting Strange from afar. The Ancient One told Strange that his victory would allow them to gather help to find Clea, rather than blindly searching on his own. They also found information in Mordo's lair to lead them to other evil enchantments being conjured throughout the world. Strange returned to the Sanctum Sanctorum, eager to truly rest for the first time in a long while.

Captured by Mordo's disciples

Strange scanned the Sanctum for any evil auras, but found no remnants of Baron Mordo's presence, meaning that someone had deliberately erased it. He looked more closely, and found a non-magical bomb that was soon to go off. He flew the bomb into the sky, letting it detonate in midair. The shockwave temporarily incapacitated him, allowing him to be magically grabbed by three assailants on a nearby rooftop. When he awoke, Strange's hands, head, and entire body were restrained by various spells and contraptions, preventing him from using any of his usual techniques of escape. His captors had also removed his cape and amulet, and because his eyes were covered, he could not see who or where they were. Soon, one of them, the sorcerer known as the Demon, tried to probe Strange's mind, but the far stronger Strange instead hypnotized the Demon into freeing him. Though the Demon dispelled the largest of the restraints, freeing Strange's body, this interruption did not go unnoticed. Through his freed spirit form, Strange saw that someone had placed a trance spell around the Demon's head, preventing Strange from commanding him further. Instead, Strange used his spirit form to mentally guide his inept physical body out of his mysterious surroundings, dodging a number of Mordo's leftover henchmen to eventually emerge on the roof of a tall building in New York.

Strange had been taken by some of the vestiges of Mordo's global black-magic network, who remained unaware of his banishment to another dimension at the hands of Dormammu. Lacking his amulet, cloak, and a usable body, Doctor Strange had to think and plan carefully to get back to full strength. He jumped to a neighboring rooftop and stashed his body inside of a water tower, "hooked" onto the interior ladder to keep from drowning. Back on the first building, Strange's spirit form saw a recovered Demon ordering henchmen around in the continuing search. Strange searched the building while many of the henchmen were on the roof, and soon found his Cloak of Levitation. Kaecilius showed up, but Strange incapacitated him using the cloak and carried him back to the water tower—only to find that Strange's body was no longer there. Strange employed mental control over Kaecilius, flying him into the inner sanctum where a sorceress had Strange's physical body. She had enchanted Strange's restraints to be easily trackable. Strange had a plan to use Kaecilius against the woman, buy she detected Strange's spirit form and trapped him in a magical bubble. The woman was studying Strange's amulet, which he telepathically accessed and used in an attempt to hypnotize her. The Demon arrived and interrupted him, and a complex battle ensued. Strange used his cloak and amulet to fight back against the Demon and the sorceress, and eventually outwitted them as he had so many enemies before. He hypnotized them both along with Kaecilius, freeing his physical form and at last reassembling his full sorcerer's ensemble. He wiped the three mages' memories of their evil pasts, and encouraged them to live virtuous lives. With this diversion taken care of, Strange returned his focus to rescuing Clea.

The search for Clea and Dormammu's destruction

While Strange went through this ordeal, the Ancient One went into another dimension to seek answers about Clea. He contacted Strange and introduced him to a ruler in another dimension who pointed out that a powerful spell had been cast at "the outer edge of infinity," from which no explorer had ever returned. The Ancient One warned that it could easily be a trap, but Strange knew he had to go anyway. There, he met a being named Tazza, who had been tricked by Dormammu into thinking that Strange was coming to destroy him. Indeed, the whole thing was a ploy by Dormammu, as Tazza had no inkling of Clea's whereabouts. Tazza had taken a number of adventurers captive in his ages ruling over his domain, and stored their bodies in his Hall of Heroes—sans their spirits, so they remained preserved forever. Strange defeated Tazza in magical combat and freed his captives, leaving to continue his search for Clea.

Back at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Strange detected some evil magic in the vicinity. Exploring the area, he found a man in a nearby building practicing black magic. Strange confronted the man, who introduced himself as Mister Rasputin and attacked. Strange quickly proved to be his superior magically speaking, so Rasputin simply pulled a gun and shot him. Covering his wound, Strange flew into a nearby hospital for treatment. He was quickly operated on, and over the next several hours he recovered and testified to the police about his encounter. The police were of little help however, and Strange instead sent his spirit form back to the Sanctum to see if Rasputin had taken up residence there. Indeed he had, and he was speaking with a garden-variety thug hired to kill Strange in his hospital bed. As the thug left, Strange's spirit and the Cloak of Levitation attacked Rasputin, and they fought. Strange defeated him, and took his unconscious body in the cloak. Meanwhile, Rasputin's henchman tried to shoot Strange's body, but the amulet sensed his murderous intent and froze him in place. Strange rejoined his body and exerted his hypnotic will on his two foes, persuading them to confess their crimes to the police, and wiping Rasputin's knowledge of magic.

Suddenly, the Ancient One magically grabbed Strange from afar and pulled him into the Dark Dimension, which now lacked a ruler. The Ancient One sensed Dormammu's destruction: his body was utterly obliterated, and "if he exists at all, it is as a disembodied spirit, shorn of mind and will." The Ancient One could not say what had happened to Eternity, however. Soon, people who'd been mentally enslaved by Dormammu came to Strange to express their gratitude and offer their assistance if needed. He further freed those who'd been banished by Dormammu, and they began to emerge from various portals. Most were similarly grateful, except for Baron Mordo, who expressed his hatred for Strange despite everything. Most importantly, Clea emerged from her dimensional prison, and she and Stephen were overjoyed to see each other once more. The Ancient One told those freed from Dormammu's yoke to work together to cleanse the dimension of his evil—meanwhile, he would take Mordo prisoner "until the evil in his heart has died." Strange and Clea said farewell, but Clea knew that their paths would cross again some time in the future.

See also

• Biography of Doctor Strange, 1963-1964