By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth!
Posted By Kathleen David on March 1, 2009
Side Note: Checks the Calendar and sees March 1, 2009 then looks out the window at the snow on the ground and falling from the sky. Checks weather report and see a possible winter storm in the forecast. Double checks calendar. Well shoot. Checks to see if we have the makings for French Toast. Yep.
If you asked me which Marvel character is my favorite, I would say Doctor Strange. I have always liked him as far back as I can remember reading comics. There was something cool about him even back in the Ditko days. It was one of the few comics that I seriously collected when I was collecting comics.
Last night we sat down and watched the Doctor Strange animated film which has yet another version of his origin. It wasn’t bad but it did mess around with some of the basic tropes of the series. It added a sister to the mix and had Doc seeing “ghosts” before he journeys to Tibet.
Bring Doc from the comics page to the screen has been a rather strange journey. There was the 1978 Dr. Strange with Peter Hooten as Dr. Strange. Instead of the Ancient One we got John Mills as Thomas Linmer (Merlin). And for the villain we had Jessica Walters as Morgan Le Fay. It was a nice try but it wasn’t my Doctor Strange.
There is the Full Moon production in 1992 called Doctor Mordrid which was based on Doctor Strange and then re-written when the company’s option on the character was up before production could start. This one was much closer to what I thought Doctor Strange should be. Jeffrey Combs would have been a decent Doctor Strange.
Now we have rumors of yet another attempt at a live action Doctor Strange movie. I think with all the CGI and other things we can do with film these days that places like the Dark Dimension. Del Toro was attached to the project last year but there hasn’t been much talk since. I think that parts of Hellboy: the Golden Army was sort of a demo for what could be done for Doctor Strange.
The animated appearances of the Doc are few and far between. A lot of writers aren’t sure what to do with him so he tends to be the solution to a problem that needs a quick fix. And last year we had the direct to DVD animated feature which I saw last night.
Still haven’t really seen my Doc yet, but I will hold out hope that some day someone will figure out how to bring the page to the screen with all the weird angles and odd dimensions and make it work. I want to see Frank Brunner’s work up on the screen as well as Ditko’s and Kane’s. I want to hear all those complex magical phrases that take alliteration to a whole new level.
Now excuse me while I go off and read my Essential Doctor Strange again.
I am grateful to everyone who has contributed to the myth of Doctor Strange.
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