This Isn't The Planet You're Looking For

Let's see--we were reviewing Doctor Strange #s 10-13. Where did we leave things?

Yikes, that's right! The Earth has been destroyed. And you and I are dead.

The End.

But it looks like there's a body in all of that rubble and planetary debris: Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. It was his battle with Baron Mordo which resulted in the Earth's destruction--and it looks like he's the sole survivor. But, how can that be? At least we can take a good guess at his state of mind right now.

Strange's grief and sorrow are certainly understandable. But, what does he do now? Float around in the void, in the area where his home planet used to be? Well, if you're the disciplined Dr. Strange, you start to pull it together, whatever the circumstances.

Yeahhhh--about that "power of prolonged life" part, allowing him to live through the disaster. In a word: baloney. Strange is speaking of the time when the Ancient One progressed to a higher plane, and bequeathed his status as Sorcerer Supreme to Strange--and as a result Strange would now have a longer natural lifespan as did the Ancient One. But exactly how does having a longer lifespan allow you to survive injury or death while the ground you're standing on (as well as everything else) is being blown to smithereens? Let's even use a less planet-wide example. If, say, Gorgon attacks Strange, can Strange just ride out the massive shockwaves without injury? Can he just laugh off strikes by Blastaar? Nitro?

While we're on the subject--in all honesty, I've never been fully on board with the whole "Sorcerer Supreme" concept, which writer Steve Englehart introduced with the Ancient One's ascendance.

The title tends to raise the bar too high for Strange. Is he really the "supreme" sorcerer--i.e., above all other sorcerers? More sorcerous knowledge than anyone else? More power? As readers, we can appreciate the status it gives Strange in terms of his being the Ancient One's successor--but just how literally are we to take it? And what does it say about Strange? Does he now rule out that any other practitioner of the mystic arts can be as wise, as learned as himself?

But let's put these things aside, because Strange has a lot on his plate right now. He definitely has all the time in the world now (oops, he doesn't have a world anymore, does he?) to think his way out of this mess--and in doing so, he returns to one of the clues Englehart dropped along the way.