"THE WONDROUS WORLD OF DR STRANGE"
Writer: Stan Lee/Plot/Pencils: Steve Ditko/Inker: Steve Ditko/Letterer: Sam Rosen/Editor: Stan Lee/Cover Art: Steve Ditko
Synopsis: The evil sorcerer Xandu hypnotises two common thugs and commands them to steal one half of the Wand of Watoomb from the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange. In order to stop Xandu from becoming all-powerful, Spider-Man and Strange will have to join forces...
Review: I have a bit of a confession to make. This is a story that I didn't enjoy all that much when I was younger. Of course, now that sounds like sacrilege to me, but my reasoning was simple: it felt like a Doctor Strange comic with Spider-Man in it rather than the other way around. In fairness to my younger self, I don't think that's entirely inaccurate. We don't see Peter take his mask off at any point during the story, nor do we get treated to appearances from any of his supporting cast, and whilst there are several scenes taking place atop the roofs of New York, there are just as many - if not more - in the macabre, moody halls of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum or Xandu's hideout, not to mention the mind-bending craziness of the alternate dimension Xandu sends Spidey to halfway through the story. It may be Spider-Man on the cover, but this has much more in common with Ditko's Doctor Strange work.
Of course, this is by no means a bad thing, because Doctor Strange represents Ditko at his creative zenith. Spider-Man is obviously my favourite character and my favourite comic that he worked on, but his work on Strange is just mind-boggling in its imagination and eerie beauty, and all of that is present here: the aforementioned shadowy halls of the Sanctum Sanctorum are gorgeously rendered, with its gothic shadows and sinister demon statues, and when Spider-Man gets sent to the alternate dimension...wow. Words really can't describe just how truly incredible Ditko's artwork is here, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking:
Simply sensational. Ralph Macchio has related an anecdote about the dizzying other-dimensional landscapes Steve would create for Doctor Strange, asking him how on earth he came up with it all without using hallucinogens. Steve's answer? "It was just thought. I just put a lot of thought into what another world would look like." Surrounded by all of this craziness, Spider-Man surprisingly takes it all in stride, though I suppose after you've fought a man with four extra mechanical limbs, a scientist who turned himself into a megalomaniacal reptile, and Spencer Smythe's robot, you're bound to build up a bit of resilience against the weird.
Doctor Strange himself doesn't appear all that much in the story - if he'd been in all of it, I really don't think you could claim this was a Spider-Man book - but you do get to see him doing all the stuff he does best, hurling magic spells at Xandu, flying with his cloak of levitation, and leaving his corporeal body to take action using his astral form. Beautiful stuff; some of my favourite moments from Ditko's Doctor Strange are the intense magic battles Strange wages against his opponents, and we get plenty of that towards the end of the story. We also get a rather worrying moment - a similar one happened at least once in the pages of Doctor Strange - where after being defeated, Xandu has his memory wiped by Strange, with any trace of his evil impulses gone; essentially, Doctor Strange rewrites a man's personality without his consent. Not exactly the sort of behaviour you'd expect from someone claiming to be a good guy. Xandu himself is an OK villain; typical generic comic book baddie stuff, but nothing special, and his two goons don't say much of anything throughout the story besides variations on "Xandu-must-be-obeyed."
Despite featuring a pretty bland villain and a hoary host of plot holes - why Xandu doesn't kill Strange when he has the wand, I don't know; why does Xandu have electric lighting in his mystic lair - ASM Annual #2 is the kind of story that you just have to love on principle. It's Steve Ditko putting his two most famous Marvel creations together into one comic; how can you not love it? How did I not love it when I was a teenager? Perhaps because I hadn't then read Doctor Strange, and therefore couldn't appreciate how wonderful a crossover this is. Thankfully, with years, I've gained a modicum of wisdom, and can now enjoy this to the full. Steve's artwork is simply dazzling; the fight scenes between Spider-Man and the thugs are to his usual high standard, and the otherworldly fantasy elements are mind-blowing. This truly is a master at work; with no disrespect to Stan, his dialogue really is quite perfunctory here. This is a visual feast, one that I'm happy to finally say that I love.
Rating: 4.5/5
But of course, this is an annual, and an annual means bonus goodies! The Doctor Strange crossover is only 20 pages long - the same as a regular issue - so that means they've got another 52 pages to fill. Most of these consist of reprints of old stories that the cover advertises as "full-length epics", which is a bit of a cheek considering two of them are half the length of a full story. Those two are first up; we get a reprint of the first story from ASM #1, followed by the Tinkerer story from ASM #2. I've already reviews these issues, so if you want to know my thoughts, just click on the links I've provided.
Next up is something a bit more interesting: a new instalment of "A Gallery Of Spider-Man's Most Famous Foes". Much like the pages we got in the first annual, this consists of some stunning Steve Ditko pin-ups, with a brief description from Stan of each villain. This time around, the feature runs a bit shorter, as we only get the villains that have debuted since the publication of the last annual (Molten Man is likely not included because ASM #28 would have been printed too close to the publication of the annual). It's a welcome addition all the same, but sadly, we wouldn't see this feature again until Annual #13.
Last, but not least is another reprint, this time of ASM #5, featuring Doctor Doom. Once again, I've reviewed this story already, so click the link if you want to know my thoughts.
Well, that's it for another annual. Nowhere near as good as the first in terms of overall content, and the choice of reprints is a little bit mixed, but the Doctor Strange story is a classic, and it's always nice to see a villains gallery.
Next time, we journey back to the monthly pages of ASM, with Issue #29! The Scorpion returns, and he's gunning for Jameson's life...
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