After a really great arc in which Clea leaves him, Stephen Strange meets up with… D’Spayre! At a time when Jim Shooter was telling everyone to do done-in-ones and keep it light, Roger Stern dug deep into the exploration of emotional rejection. It’s something I don’t think anyone had ever done in comics before. Even Jean Grey didn’t get this kind of a send off, and Clea’s not even dead!
In this story, Strange’s self-indulgent sadness gives rise to a Christmas Carol inspired story in which he mystically gets to see what the world would have been like if he had never existed. Like, if he was a movie character.
Along the way, he meets his creators–Stan Lee (Les Tane) and Steve Ditko (Ted Tevoski). Anagrams!
Also, there’s a flashback with The Defenders, and we get to see them drawn by the great Michael Golden.
Beautiful. But it doesn’t count as an appearance because it’s just a mystic dream.
Until this story, D’Spayre never really worked as a character–but between the extraordinary art and the horror-tinged writing, he now makes sense.
Great story — kind of breaks the fourth wall with Tane and Tevoski. Golden’s pencils, when inked by one of the greats, really shine. Here it’s Terry Austin. You can feel the sadness of Strange on that 1st page. Within about the same year, it’s Armando Gil in Avengers Annual 10. Some beautiful stuff.
Yes! Love this issue. And love Golden–he was a really nice guy when I met him at a con many years ago.