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Today, look at how a Doctor Strange guest appearance in an X-Men Annual where he was overmatched by a new sorcerer led to Strange getting revenge, of sorts, in his own series.
In Meta-Messages, I explore the context behind (using reader danjack’s term) “meta-messages.” A meta-message is where a comic book creator comments on/references the work of another comic book/comic book creator (or sometimes even themselves) in their comic. Each time around, I’ll give you the context behind one such “meta-message.”
SOME EARLIER X-MEN/DOCTOR STRANGE CONFLICTS
Even before the story I am about to relay to you, Roger Stern, as writer of Doctor Strange, had some conflicts with Chris Claremont, as writer of the X-Men. Claremont, for instance, wanted to have it be revealed that Nightcrawler was actually the son of the Doctor Strange villain, Nightmare. Stern later recalled to my pal Tim Callahan in TwoMorrows’ Back Issue #29, “Chris had come up with the latest of several crazy ideas and declared that Nightcrawler’s father was Nightmare. And I replied with something like, “No, he’s not. I’m not going to let you appropriate one of my character’s major villains.” As I recall, Len Wein crossed the room and shook my hand. And not too long after that, I did become the X-Men editor and was able to make sure that didn’t happen for long enough that Chris eventually changed his mind.”
John Byrne also recalled at one point, “Back when I was on the book, Chris wanted to reveal that Nightcrawler’s father was Nightmare, the Dr. Strange villain. Roger Stern, as editor, said no, pointing out that that would make Kurt a hybrid, not a mutant.”
Well, by the end of 1980 (this was all soon after the Dark Phoenix Saga. The Annual in question even printed letters about the Dark Phoenix Saga), Stern was no longer the editor on X-Men, and nor was his successor, Jim Salicrup. Louise Jones had instead taken over as the editor on the book and when it came to Doctor Strange, she had a different perspective than Stern when it came to Claremont desiring to use the character.
DOCTOR STRANGE FIRST MEETS MARGALI SZARDOS
In X-Men Annual #4 (by Claremont, John Romita Jr. and Bob McLeod), Nightcrawler is sent a statue on his birthday and it suddenly does something magical to him and he falls, seemingly dead. The X-Men call in Doctor Strange for help and Strange examines him and discovers that yeah, some powerful magic is at work here.
This is when Margali Szardos revealed herself and quickly overpowered Strange. In a striking sequence (look at how cool Romita and McLeod’s Wolverine is!), she banishes Strange and the X-Men to the gates of hell!
They eventually work their way back, and we come to the key part of the story, where we learn that Margali is punishing Nightcrawler, her former foster child, for the killing of her biological son. Nightcrawler, of course, has an explanation and when Strange suggests using the Eye of Agamotto, Margali just snatches the Eye from Strange and uses it herself to have the truth revealed…
In the end, she sees that Nightcrawler had no choice and so she forgives him for his actions and things are hunky dory. However, I imagine Stern was not a fan of this story, as Strange really gets essentially pantsed by this new sorcerer that we’ve never met before.
DOCTOR STRANGE GETS A REMATCH AGAINST MARGALI SZARDOS
Late 1982’s Doctor Strange #57 (by Stern, Kevin Nowlan and Terry Austin), sees Margali’s daughter visit Strange to seek to become his new apprentice (someone has made it very public knowledge that Strange’s previous apprentice, Clea, was no longer with him). When he turned her down, her mother shows up and it was time for a Strange/Margali rematch! This time, though, Strange had studied up on her and he was much more prepared for their magical battle…
In the end, Strange revealed that Margali Szardos was not a powerful sorcerer at ALL! It seems as though she was possessed by a magic wand and it was the WAND that was a powerful sort of demon that made it seem like Margali had powerful magical abilities. Strange broke the control of the wand and Margali returned to her human form…
Strange then broke the magic wand. Her daughter, Amanda Sefton, also returned to normal and the two women were thrilled to be released from the thrall of the demon who was making them rather unpleasant individuals. Of course, this did not last and both characters were back to magic soon enough (I figure I will address how this storyline was abandoned by later writers in the future), but for a time, at least, Stern had made a major change in the lives of two minor, but established as X-Men characters.
Now, you might wonder whether this was necessarily Stern specifically decrying what had happened to Strange in the X-Men Annual (sort of like how Peter David had the Hulk knock out Doctor Octopus with a single finger after Octopus had defeated the Hulk in the pages of Spider-Man). Well, there was one other clue in the issue in question…
ONE LAST DIG AT THE X-MEN BY DOCTOR STRANGE
The issue of Doctor Strange opened with the Doc enjoying breakfast with his lady friend, Morgana Blessing, when the two are interrupted by a man who is clearly based on Chris Claremont. It is not a particularly flattering caricature
Nor is the magical punishment that Strange did on the Claremont stand-in. However, that cameo makes it pretty evident that this issue was definitely a commentary, of sorts, on what Stern thought of how Claremont used Doctor Strange in the aforementioned X-Men Annual.
If anyone else has a suggestion for a future Meta-Messages, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com
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