Doc Strange is a

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

superhero who originally appeared in '' Thrilling Comics'' #1 (Better Publications, also called

Nedor Comics Standard Comics was a comic book imprint of American publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines (under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics) and paperback books (under the Popular Library name). Standard in t ...

) in February 1940. The character continued in ''Thrilling Comics'' until issue #64 (Feb 1948). He also appeared in ''America's Best Comics'' #1-23 and 27. Circa 2000, the character was revived and renamed 'Tom Strange' in ''

Tom Strong ''Tom Strong'' is a comic book created by writer Alan Moore and artist Chris Sprouse, initially published bi-monthly by America's Best Comics, an imprint of DC Comics' Wildstorm division. Tom Strong, the title character, is a "science hero", wi ...

'' #11 (published by

America's Best Comics America's Best Comics (ABC) is a comic book publishing brand. It was set up by Alan Moore in 1999 as an imprint of WildStorm, an idea proposed to Moore by WildStorm founder Jim Lee when it was still under Image Comics. History ''America's Best ...

Golden Age character history

Hugo Strange ("Dr. Strange", later "Doc Strange") is an American scientist who develops a serum called Alosun — described as a "distillate of sun atoms" — which when ingested gives him superhuman strength, the ability to fly, and invulnerability. Doc Strange is assisted by his girlfriend Virginia Thompson. In ''Thrilling Comics'' #24, he gains a teen sidekick, wealthy young wastrel Mike Ellis, who wears a costume identical to Strange's, along with a green cape. Though non-powered during the earlier adventures, Mike later gains the same powers as Doc Strange. The character's name was "Doctor Strange" at first; his moniker changed to "Doc Strange" in issue #11 (Dec 1940). According to ''Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes'', they confront villains like the Faceless Phantom (and his "delta ray gun"), the

Yellow Peril The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror and the Yellow Specter) is a racial color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the Western world. As a psychocultural menace from the Eastern world ...

Emperor (and his flame apes), and the black magic-empowered Mephisto.

Revivals

AC Comics

Doc Strange was briefly revived in the pages of ''

Femforce ''Femforce'' is a comic book published by AC Comics that began publication in 1985, detailing the adventures of the titular team: the "Federal Emergency Missions Force" or "Femforce", some of them original creations, while others originated in th ...

'' as part of the Vault Heroes, a group of Golden Age superheroes who volunteered to have themselves cryogenically frozen following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, so that they could be revived should the world need them. He died shortly after being unfrozen, making the heroes realize that the cryogenic process did not work perfectly on everyone. AC Comics went on to reprint many of his

adventures in various anthologies.

Tom Strong

Doc Strange, along with other heroes from

, were revived by

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including '' Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and '' From He ...

in his series ''

''. This revival set the characters on a parallel world called

Terra Obscura ''Terra Obscura'' is a 2003 comic book miniseries spin-off from Alan Moore's '' Tom Strong'' series. The stories are written by Peter Hogan, and drawn by Yanick Paquette and Karl Story with additional flashback sequences drawn by Eric Theriau ...

, which was also the title of the resulting mini-series. The character was renamed "Thomas Hugo Strange" (or "Tom Strange"), presumably to set him apart from the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

sorcerer Doctor Strange and Batman villain

Hugo Strange Hugo Strange is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. The character is one of Batman's first recurring villains and is also one of the first Batman villains to discover t ...

, and to present him as a Terra Obscura version of Tom Strong. In ''Tom Strong'' #11, Moore and co-creator

Chris Sprouse Chris Sprouse (born July 30, 1966) is an Americans, American comics artist. Sprouse has worked for multiple publishers and has won two Eisner Awards for his work on ''Tom Strong'', a series he created with writer Alan Moore. Early life Chris Spro ...

more fully introduced the idea of Terra Obscura being a parallel Earth, "but in our own dimension. In our own galaxy". Tom Strong himself had found it while traveling space alone. He theorizes that the duplicate Earth (and duplicate solar system) "must be due to some near-inconceivable fluke of mathematics, of statistical probability". In this issue, Tom Strange is revealed to have run across the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...

for 30 years to reach Strong for help in stopping an alien menace which killed or imprisoned most of the science-heroes of Terra Obscura. It is judged Strange had set off on his task soon after Tom had left. The stress of leaping from world to world temporarily drives Strange mad. He battles Tom before being subdued and sleeping--dreamlessly--for a fortnight. Once he awakens, he is of a much calmer mind. The two set off back home in Tom's new ship, Tom shows Strange an array of comic books, produced on his earth, which matches the history and events on Strange's Earth. AmericasBestComics1001

Tom helps Strange revive his surviving allies, most of whom have been trapped in time by the alien menace for the thirty years, unaware and unaging. With the contents of a lab hidden deep in the inverted city of 'Invertica', the assembled superheroes manage to neutralize the alien menace. He is described by Strong as the most powerful being he's ever met, and in a different league from Strong entirely. He operates with the modern incarnation of SMASH. In 2013, he appeared in limited series ''Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril'' by

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

Heroes, inc.

Doc Strange appears in the webcomic "Heroes, inc." along with a Golden Age Captain Future and

Blue Beetle Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes who appear in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939. The most recent of the companies to own rights to Blue Beetle is DC Comics, which bought the ri ...

to save Diana Masters ( Miss Masque) from an attack by futuristic soldiers. It's revealed in flashbacks that he is one of the scientists that were part of creating the original

heroes of

, under the direction of Archibald Masters (

American Crusader The American Crusader is a superhero who originally appeared in '' Thrilling Comics'' #19 (Better Publications, Aug 1941). He appeared in almost every issue until #41 (April 1944). The character was revived in the Modern Age in ''Femforce'' #59, ...

). He developed a chemical called Alosun for the superhero project, but inspired by the heroes that they were creating, he tried it on himself first.

Powers and abilities

Tom Strange is capable of flight (or at least vast Golden Age Superman-like leaps), superhuman strength, and surviving indefinitely in the vacuum of space (without air or water), and has invulnerability to re-entry, extreme impacts (falling to Earth from space) and bullets. He is also a brilliant scientist.

References

External links

Doc Strange
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on April 4, 2016.

at the International Catalogue of Superheroes

at

Jess Nevins Jess Nevins (born 1966) is an American author. Nevins is the author of the ''Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana'' and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction. He is employed as a reference librarian at Lone Star College-Tomball. Comic boo ...

' Golden Age Superheroes
Doc Strange
at SMASH fansite
Heroes,inc. Webcomic
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strange, Doc America's Best Comics superheroes Characters created by Richard E. Hughes Comics characters introduced in 1940 Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds Comics characters with superhuman strength Fictional explorers Fictional inventors Fictional physicians Golden Age superheroes Nedor Comics superheroes Vertigo Comics characters