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Doctor Strange #14: Review

May 1976
Steve Englehart, Gene Colan

Story Name:

The Tomb of Doctor Strange!

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Doctor Strange #14 Review by (August 3, 2021)

Review: A terrific opening, with Dracula having defeated Dr. Strange who is helpless against the vampire, putting the hero in an unaccustomed bind. But the follow up climactic confrontation is a bit hard to follow with half-human/half-vampire Dr. Strange’s powers and limitations not made clear. So Strange regained the power to cure Wong and himself because Dracula was dead? Seems to be what they are saying. I guess. But Dracula isn’t dead, he’s only faking (see the next issue of TOMB OF DRACULA). Anyway, the scene is highly dramatic, with Strange calling on the Christian God for help and receiving it. And Drac is looking dead. So we’ll see what goes on in his own book….

Comments: Dracula isn’t really dead; see TOMB OF DRACULA #45. Doctor Sun’s last appearance in a Dracula story; he returns in NOVA #16, 22-25 (with Drac and the gang), followed by FANTASTIC FOUR #206-217 and that’s that. Sun’s appearance here could be taken as an illusion created by Dr. Strange, as he did with Maria, which actually makes more sense but the Marvel Database lists this as an actual appearance of Dr. Sun.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Doctor Strange #14 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Story continued from TOMB OF DRACULA #44.

Doctor Strange has been bitten and apparently killed by Count Dracula who drops him into a pit in Dr. Sun’s mansion cellar and leaves him to rise in three days as a vampire. Strange’s astral form returns, the wizard having sent it out of his body when Dracula hypnotized him—but he finds he cannot reenter his body because the vampire’s control over his victims is so strong. He battles anger and despair as he tries to figure out what to do….

The next day, Dracula discovers a deconsecrated church and decides it is ideal for his lair; first he kills a homeless lady who had been squatting there. He then sees the ghost of Doctor Sun before him, pronouncing Dracula’s doom before vanishing. The vampire goes back to Sun’s mansion to see that Dr. Strange’s body is still there and is relieved….

Two nights later, Dracula goes to the alley where he left Wong’s body but it isn’t there. Instead, he sees a glowing image of his long-dead wife Maria, claiming to be a demon who will punish him for his sins. Dracula fights against her and passerby, who cannot see Maria, offer help to this troubled man but he chases them off and turns into a bat to pursue Maria who has become a mist and drifted away. Dracula follows her out over the ocean and “Maria” reveals herself to be Doctor Strange, drawing the vampire lord out to face the sunrise. Dracula turns tail and flies back to shore, crashing into an abandoned shack to find refuge from the sun….

The next night, Dracula returns to Sun’s mansion, armed with a stake to kill Dr. Strange as soon as he rises as a vampire. But Strange, a vampire no longer controlled by Strange’s mind (in astral form), battles Dracula and he calls on the power of Jehovah which empowers him to burn Dracula to ash. As soon as the vampire is dead, Strange recalls Wong and casts the darkness out of him and then does the same for himself. They head home, leaving Dracula dead on the ground….



Gene Colan
Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer
Gene Colan (Cover Penciler)
Tom Palmer (Cover Inker)
Tom Palmer (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: John Costanza.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Doctor Sun
Doctor Sun

(Dr. Sun)



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