Empire | The 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters

The 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters, #34, Dr Strange

AKA: STEPHEN STRANGE

This universe�s �sorcerer supreme� was originally an arrogant, money-grubbing surgeon who lost the use of his hands in a drunken car wreck and sought a miracle cure in the Tibetan lamasery of �the Ancient One�. He then learned to master the mystic arts and moved into a mansion in Greenwich Village, New York, to take up the job of freelance psychic investigator and protector of the universe from menaces like �the dread Dormammu� and even Count Dracula. Never a big-seller, Strange has consistently featured in outstanding comics � with especially when drawn by Ditko and Gene Colan. As the Marvel Universe�s leading magician, he remains a mainstay of the company�s crossover stories � and organiser of the occasional group of testy superheroes the Defenders (with the Hulk, Silver Surfer and Sub-Mariner).

FIRST APPEARED IN STRANGE TALES # 110 (1963)
CREATED BY STAN LEE AND STEVE DITKO

Cloak of levitation, Eye of Agamotto amulet, magical abilities, orange conjuring gloves, white-tinged facial hair. Catch-phrase: �by the hoary hosts of Hoggoth�

Peter Hooten played a bouffant-haired intern with magic powers in a 1978 TV movie Dr Strange, Bryce Johnson voices the lead in a 2007 direct-to-DVD animated feature, and John Vernon intoned spells on the Spider-Man cartoon.

Marvel had an evil Dr Strange, who appeared two months before the magician�s debut, as an Iron Man villain. Also, one of Batman�s earliest enemies, from the 1930s, was Dr Hugo Strange (no relation).

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