benedict

Yesterday morning on BBC Radio 4 I heard Scottish writer, journalist & TV presenter Muriel Gray explain how she'd been asked by Marvel to write a Doctor Strange comicbook.

I believe that she is a friend of Mark Millar.

From what she said, her brief was to go back to the begining and start things afresh.

I couldn't find anything definitive online so thought I'd throw it here for additional comment &/or speculation!

movieguru

Maybe Dr. Strange will make a deal with Mephisto.

JasonF

Please, please, please. No reboots. No "everything you know is wrong." No "Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Steve Engelhart, Frank Brunner, Roger Stern, Marshall Rogers, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, and all the rest got it wrong." Because they didn't. They fucking got it right, and if you can't pick up the ball and move it forward without going back to the starting line and doing it over your way, then you don't belong in corporate-owned comics. If you want to do it your way, create your own fucking sorcerer character and tell stories about him. Don't piss on mine.

Linn1

I'll be the first to say...quoted for the truth!

ytrez

Didn't they already try this with Warren Ellis & Mark Buckingham back in 1995 or so? As I recall, Strange had to find some new magical source, chaos magic or something, and sported a new, updated look. As much as I love Warren Ellis, that didn't last long, 'cause what Stan & Steve did is still the best.

Giantrobo

Well I'm just glad they're not doing this to my Dr. Fate...Oh...wait a minute....

JasonF

The interview is available here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/saturday...20080223.shtml

(I haven't listened to it yet as I don't have Real Audio on this computer).

fujishig

You mean melting the helmet into a dagger and turning the character into a non-mystical, tattoo-covered guy didn't last? Stupid Zero Hour. All that stuff has pretty much been retconned or reverted anyway (Primal Force, Parallax, the Legion reboot, Manhunter, Fate, Guy Gardner Warrior, Batman the "urban legend") The only good to come out of it was Starman and the new JSA.

Giantrobo

Yeah, "Fate" was lame. Hell I even hated having Hawkman's son as Dr. Fate from the early issues of the current JSA series.

Anyway, I've always respected the Dr. Strange character because of how they make him the Ubber Mage of the Marvel Universe.

coladar

Umm, a mention of the Warren Ellis' run on the Dr. Strange series around issue 80 and no mention of another reboot that happened like, yesterday? Didn't they just do this three damn years ago??? I know the J. Michael Straczynski and Samm Barnes was horrid and forgettable, but I'm still surprised at no mention. Honestly, either the character still works or it doesn't. If you need to reboot it every time you decide to relaunch the character with less than three years in between, the character either doesn't work anymore or you're just too stupid to make it work. And for the Joe Quesada Marvel, it isn't the former. If Straczynski can't get it to work, I don't think some Scottish journalist chick who has never written nor probably read a comic in her life is going to do shit. Could Marvel really do anything worse for a character who is in drastic need of a major quality new series to save it from having any shot at success in the future than this? Dr. Strange has been irrelevant both character-wise and sales wise for going on a decade and a half. Given that, it's clear the character itself ain't going to push over 10k copies save for a major effort by a quality creative team.

So they come up with a UK journalist who probably has never even heard of the character, who hasn't written fiction in almost a decade, and at that, only wrote three fiction books. But because she's a "friend" of Millar she is in charge of not only writing, but recreating Dr. Strange? Marvel must be in pretty sad shape writer-wise if this is what they are having to resort to.

True_Story1011

conversation in progress...

Mark Millar

... yeah those biscuits were so bloody tasty!

Muriel Gray

Yeah. ha! Mark... Mark, Its been really hard to motivate myself to start writing again. I... I'm afraid when I do get something out it'll be bollocks.

Mark Millar

I think I've a solution for ya. I've been making a killing from these bloody-Yanks. They let me write what I want just as long as when I'm lookin' fer names fer the characters, I jus use their pre-existin' rubbish. Dont worry bout what mum think eyther - nobuddy reads the rags!

boredsilly

Well strange still works, BKV and Marcos Martin proved that with The Oath.

And while strange had a rough go in the 90's, I thought he's been pretty damn prominent over the last 5 years or so. Maybe not enough so to have his own book, but used in the way the Silver Surfer or someone like that is used. He's a tool in the toolbox that comes out when shit is about to go down. I like him in that role. Every character doesn't need to have their own series. Strange definitely feels like a miniseries kind of character to me, though in the right hands any character can carry their own title.

But I haven't listened to the interview yet, nor know the intentions of Marvel or this writer, so I won't write it off just yet (not that I care all that much about Strange to begin with).

benedict

Looks like this news is now getting wider exposure

fujishig

Wait, writers get 2k a month? That's only 24K a year... no wonder they have to write multiple books.

So who is this person anyway? Is she popular enough in her home country that this will spike sales of whatever book she's on? I just don't understand the publicity behind this.

And I agree that Strange is better left to the occasional mini series or supporting role. He's much too powerful (much like the Surfer) to fight traditional villains, and fighting the Dread Dormamu and Mephisto every other issue would get a little old. It seems like a lot of the recent revamps basically depower him a bit to make him a bit more manageable, but I have no problem with him staying as is.

movieguru

Writing and drawing comics doesn't pay much nowaydays unless you are in the top of your field like Bendis, McFarlane, Bagely, etc.

dadaluholla

That picture of her is truly horrifying. She looks likes she's being electrocuted.

They really shouldn't bother with Dr. Strange. He has about as much chance of commercial success as a new Blade book would have. Just keep him to occasional guest appearances when there is some serious magical shit going down and he's the last resort "go to" guy.

Or just bring back Defenders full time...and put Deadpool on the team.

True_Story1011

They could do a Strange title like a Sandman type tale - Have him be.. you know the most powerful sorcerer, and have all these other supporting cronies running around trying to complete missions of great importance, fight parnormal things and investigate them.

If they cant of course Strange comes in feeds them some information alot like a cancerman'ish type character. Make him a mysterious character that doesnt interact directly with the conscious.

Make it dark - moody - alot of inner dialogue.

Peep

Why would she get royalties?

bloopbleep

most comics sell in the 10,000 to 20,000 range, so I don`t see why your surprised at only 2k amonth.
so who is the person anyway? someone who`s got people talking about about Doctor Strange again. when was the last time anyone on this board read a Doctor Strange comicbook? this character has lots of potential and I give Marvel kudos for trying to jumpstart it. I hope its similar to classic Doctor Strange or close to the dvd I just watched.

fujishig

I guess this might spike sales in Europe, but I still don't see how attaching her name to Dr. Strange will do anything for sales here. I mean, if someone hadn't posted this in a thread here, I doubt I'd have even known about it.

True_Story1011

Nah, I bet Wizard next month'll have something in there about it.