As we previously noted in our post about Doctor Strange #2 back in May, in June, 1974, Marvel Comics provided fans of the Master of the Mystic Arts’ normally bimonthly series with the release of an extra issue.  But Doctor Strange #3 didn’t feature the third chapter of the continuing story begun by scripter/co-plotter Steve Englehart and penciller/co-plotter Frank Brunner back in the premiere issue of their hero’s newly revived solo title; rather, behind a new cover by Brunner (and also wrapped within a new 1 1/2-page framing sequence by Englehart, Brunner, and inker Alan Weiss), the comic offered an edited presentation of an old story that had originally run in Strange Tales #126 (Nov., 1964) and #127 (Dec., 1964).  That tale by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko was indisputably a stone classic, and as a latecomer who’d only arrived at the Doc Strange party in 1969, my younger self was happy to have it; still, even I was impatient to see the continuation of the Sorcerer Supreme’s current quest to escape the Orb of Agamotto, and rescue his beloved Clea from the sinister but self-righteous Silver Dagger, by the time Doctor Strange #4 finally showed up in the spinner rack. 

Following yet another instant-classic cover by Brunner, the issue’s splash page promised that there’d be no letdown in artistic quality as we proceeded through the story (especially since Brunner’s interior artwork continued to be inked by Dick Giordano)…

…although, despite the book’s published credits, it appears that Giordano may not have been solely responsible for finishing Brunner’s pencilled art on his own.  According to the Grand Comics Database, other members of the “Crusty Bunkers” — a loose grouping of artists connected to the Continuity Associates art studio headed up by Giordano and his business partner, Neal Adams — also worked on this story; among the specific Bunkers said to have wielded a brush and/or pen on “…Where Bound’ries… Decay” were a 21-year-old Bob Wiacek, just then embarking on his inking career, as well as Adams.

The second and third pages of our story are devoted to a recap of the previous chapters; they’re well done, but since you have the links we’ve given above to our posts on those issues readily available to you for reference, we’re going to skip ahead to the conclusion of Doc’s internal monologue, as he muses on the fact that even if he reaches his goal — the “inner exit” from the Orb’s realm of unreality, located at its center — he’ll still have to confront Death…

If this guy is Famine, then it follows that the two figures accompanying him — his “brothers”  — are his fellow Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War and Pestilence (the final member of their foursome, Death, is of course awaiting Dr. Strange at the end of his quest).  That said, the long-shot visualization of the trio at the bottom of the previous page doesn’t match up very well with what we seen of them here, suggesting a disconnect of some sort at the coloring and/or inking stage.

As Strange rides on into the town, Famine tells him that he has now entered “the Domain of the Dying — where the denizens suffer their death throes — forever — and never pass beyond!”  Our protagonist immediately gets a demonstration of just what those words mean when a ragged figure jumps from a bridge, just as he’s riding beneath it…

This is a fairly chilling panel, frankly.  Englehart’s script has told us numerous times that everything and everyone in the Orb’s realm is “unreal” — but as we witness the continued suffering of the denizens after Doctor Strange has departed the premises, it’s hard not to feel that the hero has let down real sentient beings, somehow, even if unwittingly: “He will never know what he leaves behind.”  Brrr.

This wordless page is one of my favorites that Frank Brunner drew for Doctor Strange — if i exclude covers, it may even be my very favorite.  I especially love the sequence of Doc squeezing his eyes tightly shut, then opening them again to find that, nope, things haven’t gotten any better while he wasn’t looking.

No, not Aragorn!  (Yeah, okay, I do realize that this isn’t the “real” Aragorn — onetime mount of the Black Knight, now in the possession of Doc’s fellow Defender, the Valkyrie — getting killed, here.  But, per my earlier comments, that doesn’t mean that the suffering of this creature isn’t, in its own weird way, real.)

Doc Strange finally gloms onto the fact that he has achieved his goal of exiting the orb… which means that he’s returned to reality… which means that he’s once again bleeding to death from the wound dealt him by Silver Dagger in DS #1.  Still, he remains determined to escape what would seem to be his certain fate…

I’m not certain whether I’d yet read any of the original Lee-Ditko Eternity stories from Strange Tales when Doctor Strange #4 first came out; on the other hand, I had read Doctor Strange #180 (May, 1969), so I knew what this anthropomorphized abstraction was supposed to look like, and could fill in the visual for the “cut-out” version provided here.

In later years, Marvel would codify how their lineup of abstract cosmic entities — who in addition to Death and Eternity would eventually include Life, Infinity, Order, Chaos, Oblivion, etc., etc. — all related to one another, as well to the nature of reality itself.  But in 1974, things were still pretty freewheeling, allowing Steve Englehart to go his own merry way with his metaphysical musings without worrying overmuch about stepping over any editorial boundaries regarding the overarching structure of the Marvel Universe.  Thus, there’s not much point in wondering whether the “Death” in this story is supposed to be the same one that Englehart and Jim Starlin had just been dealing with over in Captain Marvel, or whether the awesome Eternity can really be reduced to “a man-spawned concept” that is so relatively insignificant as to be “all but invisible next to Death!”  In the context of this particular story, those questions are essentially irrelevant.  Or, to put it another way: just go with the flow, man.

Some readers might recognize a parallel between the dilemma faced by Doctor Strange here in this issue’s closing pages, and the one which he was forced to deal with in the climax of Englehart and Brunner’s Marvel Premiere #10 (Sep., 1973).  There, the Master of the Mystic Arts was driven to conclude that the only way to save the universe from the cosmic evil of Shuma-Gorath was to take the life of his own beloved mentor, the wise and good Ancient One.  Here, he’s confronted with yet another seemingly impossible choice — to give up his own life — and he’s not even provided the consolation he had in the earlier instance of knowing that his sacrifice will accomplish a greater good — i.e., saving Clea from Silver Dagger  — as all indications are that his actions will have no effect on that situation whatsoever.  In the context of the superhero genre, it’s an even more unthinkable decision than his earlier choice to kill the Ancient One, as it requires him to acknowledge that some battles against evil simply can’t be won; that, sometimes, there is no option but complete and total surrender.

The ending of “…Where Bound’ries… Decay” continues and completes the parallel with Marvel Premiere #10’s “Finally, Shuma-Gorath!”, as Stephen Strange’s experience of death is revealed by the Ancient One to be but another step on his long spiritual journey, in precisely the same fashion as Strange’s “murder” of his master in the earlier story was explained by that now-transcended worthy to have cleared the way for his ascension to the role of Sorcerer Supreme.  By accepting the absolute inevitability of death, our hero has effectively conquered it; his new status is signified visually by the appearance on his forehead of the ancient Egyptian symbol of life, the ankh (an event that was foreshadowed in Doctor Strange #2 by means of the “tea party” scene, which took place around an oddly-shaped table which, in retrospect, clearly suggests a modified ankh).*

Of course, the denouement of Doctor Strange #4 differs from that of Marvel Premiere #10 in one very important respect; in the earlier tale, once our hero had made his choice and passed his trial, the story was over; Shuma-Gorath had been utterly defeated.  But in our present narrative, Clea remains in peril, and Silver Dagger remains at large — and even Dr. Strange’s physical survival may not be quite as settled a matter as this story’s final page might lead one to believe.  But to see how it all turns out — and how Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner put a capper not only on this storyline, but on their overall collaboration on this series — we’ll have to wait until our look at Doctor Strange #5, coming in September.

 

*Intriguingly, a little over a year later, Doctor Strange’s nearest analogue over at DC Comics — Doctor Fate (whose first appearance predated Strange’s by more than two decades, of course) acquired his own association with the ankh symbol.  This appears to have been the idea of artist Walt Simonson, who drew the solo adventure of the superheroic sorcerer published by DC in 1st Issue Special #9 (Dec., 1975):

The introduction of the ankh into Fate’s milieu doesn’t appear to have been inspired by its use in Doctor Strange #4 — though that doesn’t mean that it didn’t owe anything to Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts.  As Simonson later explained, in an interview published in Comic Book Artist #10 (Oct., 2000):

One of the things I loved about Ditko’s “Doctor Strange” was the rather wonderful job he did creating a graphic system of magic. The dialogue was cool, but Steve created a complete visual system of magic based on vectors and circles that rendered the magical aspects of the strip visually coherent…

 

So, when I was doing Doctor Fate, I was trying to develop an alternative way to visualize structured magic. It grew out of my admiration for what Steve had done, of course, and owed a lot to it, but I was searching for a different visual basis. In the end, I came up with the idea of using the ankh as a symbol for Doctor Fate, the Egyptian symbol for life, which seemed appropriate for the character… It must have worked out okay because everybody who’s drawn Fate since has used the ankh.

(More to come in September, 2025.)