Doctor Strange #5-8 (1989): 1st Mephista; Roy/Dann Thomas run begins

Silver Age writer Roy Thomas brings his wife with him to return to Marvel on Dr. Strange, and they start with a rock-star/porn film oral sex cover shot. 

Come on. Tell me that doesn’t look like Clea is blowing the doc?

Strange is now portrayed as a muscular he-man who even justifies his new bod…

This is not the Doctor Strange anyone expects.  Or wants, really.

Rintrah rejoins Strange. And when he knocks on the door to the Sanctum Sanctorum…

…Topaz answers the door in her undergarments.

From there, it’s the return of Baron Mordo, who tries to coerce Strange into helping him prevent Mephisto from taking his soul.

Both Mephisto and Sattanish want Mordo’s soul, and we also meet Mephisto’s daughter.  Guess her name?

Mephista.  Seriously.

This is just awful.

By the end of the story, the spell that made the world think Stephen was dead is undone, and he gets his eye back so he’s not wearing an eyepatch any more.

Howard the Duck also appears.  The Thomases keep trying to be witty and funny in these issues, and it doesn’t work. Ever.

Oh, and Now! Magazine is publishing an expose about Dr. Strange.  That’ll be the next arc in the series.

Finally, there’s a back-up series about the Ancient One and Mordo before they met Strange, and it talks about the Book of Darkhold. Dracula is in it. Meh. It continues into the next arc.

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