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Violence In Stan Lee's Dr. Strange

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Silver age comics were steeped in the conservative nature of the 50s, even the edgier Marvel comics fell into this trap and Dr. Strange is no exception. Stan Lee’s Dr. Strange, though he wears a cape, is no golden age Superman. Instead, he is a conservative man who answers to a greater vow to aid all humanity regardless of the cost to himself, who just happens to get along with local law enforcement. There are four main things in the Dr. Strange comics that set them apart from the golden age comics, the first is the conservative nature of the conflict seen, even in the “greatest battles ever seen” no one is truly hurt, the second is the lack of corporate or harden criminals who need to be taught a lesson, instead the criminals introduced in …show more content…

Strange. In these comics, criminals and adversaries are not killed or graphically defeated. Instead, human criminals are treated gently before being handed over to the proper authorities and alien foes are distracted or reasoned with after a display of power. The alien foes faced throughout the comics engage in direct battles with Dr. Strange, three such examples are Nightmare, Aggamon, and Dormammu. Each of these adversaries faced Dr. Strange with a conservatively displayed battle and walked away without any true harm being done. In the case of Nightmare, Dr. Strange arrived the dream dimension to rescue the ____ forms of innocents. After following a winding path he was confronted by Nightmare and his pet Spinybeast (Dr. Strange 116, 7). When cornered Dr. Strange used his amulet to temporarily blind Nightmare who accidentally strikes his pet dead (Dr. Strange 116, 8). In this way, the only thing killed is a beast that may be considered equivalent to killing a spider in our world, furthermore, this was done by the villain instead of the hero. The second case with Aggamon involves a battle of wills that Strange wins because of Aggamon’s lack of faith in his power (Dr. Strange 119, 8). Even in this event, the battle was waged by blasting a beam of light at one another. The lack …show more content…

Strange finds himself faced with also differ from the golden age criminals. Instead of committing violent crimes or being a part of organized crime that put others in danger they are petty criminals such a thieves, or guilt-ridden men. Even as these men commit the crimes seen in the comics they are wholesome criminals. For example, in issue 110 When Dr. Strange is faced with a man haunted by nightmares and guilt about robbing a man, Strange agreed to help the man stop his nightmares as he was not yet aware of their cause. As Dr. Strange attempted to help the man he was trapped in a trance. The man then attempted to kill Strange to prevent him from telling the authorities but, Strange easily subdued the man once he awoke from his trance. Faced with his guilt the man clamed “it’s over! You’re alive, that means I’ve lost.” (Dr. Strange 110, 5) The man concluded that his escape was improbable, therefore deciding it was best to surrender and claim “now I’ll confess.” (Dr. Strange 110, 5) In a later issue Strange is faced with Two thieves’ who steal a gem and get transported to the Purple dimension and become slaves. Not only is the issue of slavery addressed as being fundamentally wrong, as Dr. Strange makes it so Aggamon can only regain his strength by letting people go, but the criminals once saved realize the error of their ways and turn themselves into the police (Dr. Strange 119, 8). “They said they wanted to serve time, pay their debts to

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