The Sorcerer Supreme gig is a pretty sweet one. There's the cape, the eye, all that awesome magical power at your (knackered) fingertips - what could be better? Well, as another superhero is always bloody bringing up like his life depended on it, with that sort of great power, there must also come, great responsibility. And for Doctor Strange, that responsibility involves not only looking after us stupid humans but also travelling across into different realms and making sure that the universal balance is kept in check. And those realms were usually rendered like the best acid trip ever taken. Debuting during the sixties, there were many who assumed that the Marvel bullpen was a hot box full of perma-stoned hippies whose stories and illustrations were nothing more than recreations of their highs. As a prank, two of the more switched-on editors told naïve original Strange artist Steve Ditko that kids were tripping off of he images of the different planes of existence he was drawing - full of crazy colours, impossible shapes and other weird stuff. Ditko was horrified, claiming he "never intended" anything like that, but it's pretty inherent in the text. Could the Doctor Strange film be the next stoner hit?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
