Doctor Strange: The Oath

The fortress domicile of Doctor Strange has been breached. A hired hand with some knowledge of the dark arts has broken into the Sanctum Sanctorum to steal a mystical object. Strange confronted the thief. As result, the good doctor's life now hangs in the balance.

The ever faithful Wong brings the dying Sorcerer Supreme to the clinic of the Night Nurse. But time is running out for Doctor Strange’s servant as well. He's been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and the object stolen from Strange's abode was the key to curing not only Wong's cancer but all known diseases of man!

I know that Marvel fans love their writer to be named Brian. I do too, but instead of Bendis, I am a huge fan of Brian K Vaughn (Y: The Last Man.) Vaughn crafts a fantastic tale of magic, mystery and Marveldom! But I have to give my highest praise to the artist of The Oath.

Marcos Martin's style was just perfectly retro. I felt like I was looking at some lost Doctor Strange story of Steve Ditko’s. They say that Ditko is the definitive Doctor Strange artist and I agree. But I think Marcos Martin gives Ditko a definite run for his money.

I felt throughout this story that Doctor Strange’s look was based on classic horror actor Vincent Price. I didn't have confirmation of this until on the very last page of the artist's sketchbook I saw Vincent looking right back at me. I gave myself a bunch of praise for that correct call.

The Oath was a fun read with classic overtones. Based on how this story ends, I'm very interested in learning how long that change to the out of Stephen Strange played out in the comics. Just what that change was? You'll just have to read it to find out…

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Doctor Strange: The Oath #1 (2015 Halloween ComicFest Edition)

     It's a typical evening at the secret clinic of the Night Nurse. Iron Fist pulled a hamstring fighting ninjas and somebody got hit in the face with a mace- not the spray but an actual medieval one! Yeah, it looks like it's will be smooth sailing for the Florence Nightingale of the superhero community. That is until Doctor Strange is brought in by his faithful servant, Wong and the Sorcerer Supreme has been brutally shot.
     Clearing her schedule, the Night Nurse races to save the Doctor's life as his astral projection brings her up to date as to how he ended up on her gurney. Recently, it's been revealed that Wong is battling an incurable brain tumor. Determined to follow the Hippocratic oath he swore upon becoming a surgeon, Doctor Strange transverses the dimensions to find a remedy for his servant. Only what the wizard brought back to earth wasn't just the cure for Wong's form of cancer but all cancers! And somebody is willing to kill the mystic master of the ancient arts to obtain it!
     This Halloween ComicFest edition of the first chapter of Doctor Strange: The Oath was fantastic. The always amazing Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man) has penned a story that I want to read the remainder of; about a character that I'm not really a big fan of. That's a powerful statement about Vaughan's level of writing talent. 
     Plus, I love the whimsical art style of Marcos Martin (Amazing Spider-Man.) It's one-part Doctor Strange legend, Steve Ditko and one-part classic noir a'la Darwyn Cooke.
     Great story, amazing art, and awesome supporting characters like Night Nurse: it all adds up to the perfect formula to get Doctor Strange: The Oath on my wish list.
     
    Worth Consuming

   Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Night Nurse (Reprints Night Nurse #1-4, 1972)

I rarely buy a book new, especially if it is a comic book. But a few years ago at a lecture on the History of Comic Books, an image of Night Nurse #1 popped up on the screen and my wife exclaimed that she would actually be willing to read that. For years, I searched for an affordable copy to no avail. But with the new Daredevil series coming to Netflix, fate finally intervened.   

 See Night Nurse is apparently a character on the show. (Rosario Dawson plays nurse Claire Temple- and was intended to be Night Nurse, but Marvel Studios won't allow her real name to be used as the company has plans to use the character in a Marvel Cinematic Universe project in the near future.) So in order to both inform new viewers to what the character was supposed to be and make some money off of the property, Marvel re-released the entire run of the groundbreaking publication from the early 1970s.

      Created by Jean Thomas in 1972, Night Nurse is actually Wonder Woman. I kid, but her real name is Linda Carter and she is a student nurse operating during the evening shift at Metro General in New York. The Night Nurse was originally a candy striper in Atlas Comics’ ‘Linda Carter-Student Nurse’ which was more of a romantic-comedy series along the lines of Archie or Millie the Model.  Along with fellow up-and-coming nurses, roommates Georgia and Christine, this Linda is more dramatic, saving lives, fighting injustice and falling in love ( usually with the wrong guy.). Whether the two Linda Carters are the same character is up for debate. But it's a common practice in the comics industry, still used today, to reuse character names in order to maintain the copyright.

     The original idea behind Night Nurse was to introduce girls to comic books. Marvel's Roy Thomas was behind the effort along with the release of ‘Shanna the She-Devil'’ and ‘Black Cat’. Thomas was ahead of his time as the experiment though fondly remembered, was a failure, with Night Nurse being cancelled after only 4 issues.

  

   But like I said, Night Nurse struck a chord with readers as fans, who grew up reading the title, would usher Linda, Christine, and the rest into the modern age of comics in the pages of Nightcrawler and Daredevil.

    

 That brings us to the final reprinted tale in this edition- the first modern appearance of the Night Nurse. It's of Daredevil #80 (2004) and has Linda running a private clinic for superheroes. In this story by some guy named Bendis, Daredevil had been shot and the Night Nurse must save him while a slew of nasties is kept at bay outside by Luke Cage and friends.

   This is a very good collection of rare comic gems. The books from the 70s show their age in terms of the dialogue. The black characters speak in ‘jive’ and everyone under the age of 75 says “right on” when trying to appeal to the younger generation. Also, with all of the unrequited love going around, I thought I was reading a copy of 'Young Romance' instead of a 'superhero' title. Still, this is a great time capsule of Marvel's earliest attempts at relevant comics and the amount of care and quality in them shows.  

Worth Consuming

  Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.