I've been reading The Essential Dr. Strange volume 2 and wondering about the "Dr. Stephen Sanders" identity that Eternity created for the good doctor, altering memories and records to conceal who Dr. Strange was.
Stephen Sanders seems to be promptly forgotten (as is the masked costume, thankfully) within the stories in this volume, but is never explicitly written out. (The cancellation of Dr. Strange's title was likely a factor.)
Was there ever an explanation what happened to this ID? Maybe Eternity can only make temporary changes...
> I've been reading The Essential Dr. Strange volume 2 and wondering about > the "Dr. Stephen Sanders" identity that Eternity created for the good > doctor, altering memories and records to conceal who Dr. Strange was.
> Stephen Sanders seems to be promptly forgotten (as is the masked costume, > thankfully) within the stories in this volume, but is never explicitly > written out. (The cancellation of Dr. Strange's title was likely a factor.)
> Was there ever an explanation what happened to this ID? Maybe Eternity can > only make temporary changes...
Yes, there was. I believe it was in the second story of 1971's "Marvel Feature" #1, which also had the debut of the Defenders. It was only later, in 1972's Marvel Premiere #3, that Doc would regain a solo feature.
>> Was there ever an explanation what happened to this ID? Maybe >> Eternity can only make temporary changes...
> Yes, there was. I believe it was in the second story of 1971's > "Marvel Feature" #1, which also had the debut of the Defenders. It > was only later, in 1972's Marvel Premiere #3, that Doc would regain a > solo feature.
The story in Defenders #1 fills in the details. Dr. Strange, having giving up his magic powers returns to his old home in Greenwich Village to discover that an imposter has taken his place. After he is defeated by the imposter, the Ancient One comes to Strange and tells him he must regain his life and his powers and not to run away again. The imposter turns out to Baron Mordo, who Strange defeats. So the past life or Saunders is gone. Let me know if there is anything else you need to know, I have all those Marvel comics from that era (1961-76)
Bill Svitavsky wrote: > I've been reading The Essential Dr. Strange volume 2 and wondering about > the "Dr. Stephen Sanders" identity that Eternity created for the good > doctor, altering memories and records to conceal who Dr. Strange was.
> Stephen Sanders seems to be promptly forgotten (as is the masked costume, > thankfully) within the stories in this volume, but is never explicitly > written out. (The cancellation of Dr. Strange's title was likely a factor.)
> Was there ever an explanation what happened to this ID? Maybe Eternity can > only make temporary changes...
> The story in [Marvel Feature]#1 fills in the details. Dr. Strange, > having giving up his magic powers returns to his old home in Greenwich > Village to discover that an imposter has taken his place. After he is > defeated by the imposter, the Ancient One comes to Strange and tells > him he must regain his life and his powers and not to run away again. > The imposter turns out to Baron Mordo, who Strange defeats. So the > past life or Saunders is gone. Let me know if there is anything else > you need to know, I have all those Marvel comics from that era > (1961-76)
The story with the battle against Mordo is in the Essential volume I've been reading, but the story didn't seem to me to be clear about wiping out the Sanders identity. The Ancient One restores Dr. Strange's powers, and tells him they can "nevermore be discarded", but I don't see any specific references to the documented identity of Sanders being erased. The Ancient One, in fact, initially addresses Strange as "Stephen Sanders". Strange makes a couple of comments to Mordo and Wong that could be interpreted as a deliberate resumption of his true name - "This is no longer a powerless Stephen Sanders whom you now face. This is Doctor Strange..." and "I have once more picked up the mantle of Doctor Strange and I can never again put it down" - but I see no indication of anybody undoing Eternity's alteration.
Is it possible the Ancient One's fix is shown in the Defenders story in that issue, which isn't included in Essential Dr. Strange v. 2? Or was it just something that had to be inferred until the Murdoch Adams business made it explicit?
On 2006-01-01 21:45:35 -0800, Bill Svitavsky <bsvitav...@cfl.rr.com> said:
> Is it possible the Ancient One's fix is shown in the Defenders story in > that issue, which isn't included in Essential Dr. Strange v. 2?
Possible, I suppose, but no -- it's not there.
> Or was it just something that had to be inferred until the Murdoch > Adams business made it explicit?
Pretty much. Dr. Strange passed into other hands than Roy's, and they were largely uninterested in the whole Sanders thing, since it hadn't achieved its purpose anyway (boost Doc's sales by making him more superhero-y). No real surprise that it was picked up by Ralph Macchio and Roger Stern, two history-minded creators.
I just went threw Marvel Premiere # 3-14 (7/72-3/74) and Dr. Strange 1-10 and the Saunders thing is not mentioned there. It is, I believe, part of the Marvel formula: If it doesn't work forget about it.
This happened in Strange Tales with the Human Torch. In Fantastic Four comics Johnny lived with the other three at the Baxter Building in New York and everyone knew who they were. In Strange Tales, starting with issue 101, he lives alone in Glendale, and Johnny Storm is his secret identity. The opening description informs us that the community knows that the Invisible Girl is his sister but not that he is the Human Torch. Four friends, who we never meet, also know his identity. This is counter to the continuity in the Fantastic Four and was a bit confusing.The identity issue faded away by issue #113 as part of Marvel formula #7: "If it doesn't work, just forget about it."
After reading the Dr, Strange stores, I processed them differently than you. I just assumed that when the Ancient One restated his mission, Dr. Sauders and that terrible costume were just gone.
> I just went threw Marvel Premiere # 3-14 (7/72-3/74) and Dr. Strange > 1-10 and the Saunders thing is not mentioned there. It is, I believe, > part of the Marvel formula: If it doesn't work forget about it. [snip] > After reading the Dr, Strange stores, I processed them differently than > you. I just assumed that when the Ancient One restated his mission, > Dr. Sauders and that terrible costume were just gone.
Many thanks to you and Kurt for satisfying my curiosity on this. I think we're all glad the weak attempt at making Dr. Stranger "superhero-y" was dropped quickly - I was just wondering whether it had been clearly written out or if it just fell into the "Let's never speak of this again" category.
The thing about the Sanders ploy that strikes me as particularly odd is that by that point, Marvel had had plenty of successes that broke from the traditional secret ID formula. The FF are the obvious example, but plenty of the other classic Marvel heroes (the Hulk, X-Men, arguably even Iron Man) didn't exactly lead the sort of double life usually associated with a secret ID. So I'd say this approach wasn't just inappropriate to the character, it was something of a deviation from the Marvel style. But I suppose it makes sense in view of Roy Thomas's appreciation for Golden Age heroes and of desperate sales circumstances where anything was probably worth a try. (I personally would have gone with more gorillas.)
