Welcome back to another round of Down, But Not Out. This week we’ll be taking on a character we’ve not yet visited. Who could that be?

Doctor Strange #30 –
“A Gathering of Fear”
Original Release Date:
August 1978
Words: Roger Stern
Art: Tom Sutton
Letters: I. Watanabe
Inks: P. Rache
Edits: Jim Shooter

Springtime in New York’s Greenwich Village finds a rather normal scene of harsh weather; hard rain and furious wind have taken over the streets. It’s a wonder that anyone can make it around on foot, and even then, why be on foot instead of in a car? Well, cars aren’t much use to Stephen Strange, the man people call The Master of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Strange!

Greenwich’s 6th Precinct is the good Doc’s destination. Strange has associates there and on this particular evening, he has been called in by one for his rather unique expertise. Once inside the crowded, dilapidated old building, Strange’s friend, the Police Captain, introduces him to a Lieutenant that urges Strange to call him Ralph.

With very little introduction, the Lieutenant – Ralph Blumkenn – gets quickly down to business; he asks Strange if he’s familiar with the occult. Strange replies sarcastically that he’s had some experience with it. The Lieutenant then tells Strange, while looking and pointing out a window in the precinct, that something is out there… on the hunt.

Curious, Doctor Strange asks the Lieutenant to explain in further detail. Ralph, apparently no stranger to this situation, proceeds to recall a reported account of this vicious thing: two sanitation workers, deep in the sewers, were doing routine work when out of nowhere, one of the workers gets jerked up by a set of massive tentacles; these horrible appendages pull the worker, now screaming to the top of his lungs for help, into the thick, dark waters of the sewer.

The other worker, Jackie Krammer, managed to escape back to the Sanitation Office’s headquarters. Once there, Krammer was spouting off nonsensical things; he mumbled that there was no way to stop it; they must join it instead! If they died, they would live forever! With his rambling pumping to an intense scream, Krammer pulls out a lighter and begins making his way toward gas tanks. Before his coworkers can stop him, Krammer has destroyed the entire building.

Ralph tells Strange that the two coworkers that had been with Krammer in the offices managed to make it out alive, but there wasn’t a sign of Krammer’s body; it was nowhere to be found!

Strange remembers reading about the explosion in the Daily Bugle, having noted it was odd that it was buried in the paper on page number 25. Ralph explains that the idea was to keep a tight lid on the story for a while. Strange asks the Lieutenant about his earlier experience with this creature he alluded to earlier. Ralph apparently used to work at the Midtown North Precinct and one day The Mighty Thor and Hercules stopped a creature just as this!

Doctor Strange asks Ralph if he’s considered calling The Avengers for help, considering they’ve obviously dealt with this thing before, but the Lieutenant says he’s already tried; they’re just not that easy to get in touch with. Strange then accepts the Lieutenant’s invitation for help on the case. Before he can go much further, the door to the room is opened and Clea, the other-dimensional disciple of Strange enters the room! She wishes to be involved in this case, since she is not only Strange’s lover, but also his student, but Strange tells her she needn’t worry about this one; he’s got it. Disappointed, Clear leaves the precinct.

Strange turns to the Lieutenant and tells him he’ll take care of things, but he must first tend to a personal matter. Outside, Strange catches up with Clea; he explains that he should be a better mentor to her and that sometimes he’s just a little overprotective; it’s a matter of love that clouds his mission of teaching her. He will do it no more, he promises!

From a nearby manhole, tentacles extend and grab Strange from Clea’s grasp. Before she can react, The Master of the Mystic Arts is gone from the street, pulled under like a rat caught by a snake. That will not stop Clea from going after her mentor and lover; with a thought, her admittedly outlandish street clothes are replaced with even more eccentric clothing; clothing appropriate for a budding Mistress of the Mystic Arts!

She leaps into the sewer and, using her powers of the mystic arts, eventually catches up with the creature that took Doctor Strange. She confronts the creature, but it acts as if she is no true threat, speaking to its minions that have snuck up behind her. Before she can react, two shadowed creatures attack her and push her into their master’s hold.

The creature speaks of her fear, telling its minions that it has replenished his power. In Clea’s mind, Strange’s astral form appears; it tells her that she must calm down; this creature feeds off of fear! Clea is shocked to see that Strange is still alive!

Elsewhere, on another plane of existence, a shadowy figure lies still on a slab. As Clea’s fear burns and twists even more, this figure begins to stir from his dormant home upon the black chunk of unknown material.

Back in the sewer, Clea gets enough strength to fire multiple mystic bolts at the creature, but Doctor Strange’s astral projection tells her it is useless. Strange asks her to join him on the astral plane; when she does, the creature immediately senses something is wrong! Her fear is gone!

On that dark plane elsewhere, the shadowed figure suddenly realizes its hold is weakening; it must soon return to that black slab if its Earthly counterpart cannot feed off of the fear of Clea!

On the astral plane, a place where minds meet, Strange and Clea are together, overcoming her fear. On the astral plane there is no true fear, just oneness with calm. From their safe position, the two pour forth a cleansing light upon the tentacle creature; before it realizes, the creature is gone; destroyed by the pure light of Strange and Clea!

Returning to their bodies, Doctor Strange and Clea find that they are not quite out of the fire yet: the shadow minions attack! Without the guidance of the tentacle creature, their master, they have gone into a lunatic rage! With the combined strength of Strange and Clea’s power, the shadow beings disappear and in their place two humans appear: the sewer workers!

Back in that shadowy other-dimensional plane, the dark creature has gained enough power to stay off its slab. It senses the destruction of its minions and wishes to see just what enemy has kept him from entering their dimension. With a twist of his arm, a viewing portal opens. In this portal, this dark creature sees Strange and Clea in the sewer, leading the two workers to the surface.

After reaching the surface and bidding farewell to the sewer workers, Strange mentions to Clea that he wishes to learn the origins of the fear creature. Looking through his portal, the shadow creature insists that Strange does indeed come looking; it will only be a matter of time before he is destroyed,

*****

Ah, Doctor Strange, one of the many comics I overlooked in my younger years. It’s rather unfortunate, too, considering just how good the stuff is. Take this issue for example, it’s chock full of fun, dark stuff with a pretty heavy tie to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos.

Marvel superstar writer Roger Stern crafts a nice little story that not only fits in with Doctor Strange’s “normal” affairs, but pays tribute to horror legend H.P. Lovecraft. This appeals to me on that level; I’m a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft, who, if you haven’t read anything by, is one of the greatest horror writers to have ever put words on paper.

Stern is definitely no stranger to the world o’ comic books. If you’ve happened to read more than a few issues of The Amazing Spider-Man or The Avengers, then you’re probably familiar with him. He’s one of the main guys I think of when I think of 70’s and early-80’s Marvel Comics.

The art here is appropriately dark, but if you know the late Tom Sutton’s work, then you’d expect that. The majority of Sutton’s work in the comics biz was on various horror comics, from Vampirella to Werewolf By Night. Pretty much, if you read any of Marvel’s 70’s horror books, you knew him; if you read any of Warren Publishing’s books, you knew him.

The Doctor Strange of the 70’s and early 80’s could easily couple with any of Marvel’s horror series. So, if you’re into the stuff (everyone should be!), then there’s no reason for you to not check this out!

Well, that’s my opinion anyway. See you next week, kids!

Fun links:
Roger Stern info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Stern
Tom Sutton info: http://lambiek.net/artists/s/sutton_tom.htm
                               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sutton