The best part about the early 1970s was the influx of new talent, and Marvel’s willingness to let them think differently. Creators Steve Gerber, Steve Englehart, and Jim Starlin changed the Marvel way from what had become kind of routine/stale at the end of the 1960s into something more radical and different.
Yet this story is written by Stan Lee!
This is a great story-it probably should be in the top 10 Dr. Strange stories of all time. It starts simply, with Strange daydreaming while walking the streets of NY at night, when he is almost hit by a bus and uses his powers to freeze it just before the point of contact.
Then, the issue gets stranger and stranger. He is unable to merge his astral and corporeal forms, and runs a mystical gauntlet against an unseen enemy, trying desperately to identify his foe, until finally the truth is revealed: He was in fact hit by that bus, and he’s been in a coma. And he is facing Nightmare.
This would be an awesome sequence for the next movie.
This issue is one of my 100 favorite self-contained issues of all time. For the full list, go here.