Doctor Strange Masterworks Vol. 2 (Strange Tales (1951-1968))

Dr. Strange finds himself in an intense battle against a group of sorcerers whom he manages to overcome. However, his greatest challenges lies ahead as his nemesis the Dread Dormammu returns. To include other would be conquerors will stand up to challenge him. -summaryThis second volume of Marvel Masterworks Dr. Strange collects Strange Tales issues 142 - 168, and continues the rest of his shared stories with Nick Fury which took place between 1966 - 1968 across Marvel's title Strange Tales. After this series Dr. Strange would see his own title due to some popularity. For those who may not know, Nick Fury's stories are collected in his own Marvel Masterworks trade titled Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.This second batch of stories may not be as good as the first volume but they're far away from bad, and they still maintain a great amount of entertainment through some imaginative writing. The stories this time around are also longer focusing on actual story arcs which is a good thing, because some of the individuals Dr. Strange is forced to battle are indeed some tough customers, and through so much build up it would be quite lame for bit-sized stories.Now one thing to point out is that these stories were written by a plethora of writers such as Steve Ditko, Marie Severin, and even Dennis O' Neil. Dr. Strange's titles weren't looked at in the same favorable light as Spider-Man, Hulk, or Thor for example. Therefore his Strange Tales title was like a testing ground for writers. Despite this revolving door of writers; I found a good enough consistency between the stories.Dr. Strange engages in another confrontation with Dormammu which is nothing more than a set up to introduce newer and more powerful characters such as Eternity, The Living Tribunal, and finally Dormammu's powerful sister Umar; whom actually doesn't care for her brother, but considers it a duty to kill Strange and avenge her brother's defeat and apparent death due to a mortal. This is one of the better and quite possibly best encounters in the book. However, there's nothing afterwards I can consider to be boring.Dr. Strange's title really is a lot better than some people give it credit for. One thing I still find interesting about his stories is how unique they are to him. As master of the mystic arts, Dr. Strange's world is strictly based on magic and even the occult. In these stories he faces sorcerers and demons with these battles taking place in different dimensions. It seems as if he's the only hero capable of performing these missions which sets him apart from everyone else. The cleverness needed to escape and confront many of his enemies is something only he can do, and it adds another dimension to the overall action. His fists are rarely the answer which provides a huge change of pace when compared to about 99% of the stories written around this time.The artwork delivers some highly creative fantasy landscapes that fully develops Dr. Strange's world. When picking up this title and witnessing these highly colorful backgrounds and different demonic creatures, it's clear that a frequent comic reader will be getting something different. The different otherworldly settings reminds me of Thor's title during his trips to Asgard. There's a grand feel to everything that towers over the usual streets of New York Spider-Man frequents or the Hulk's desert stomping grounds. I find it to be a lot of fun.The only real flaw besides the artwork and writing not being as tight as the first volume, is that I can imagine hardcore action fans, the fist to face types not really getting into this fantasy world where the characters battle through incantations and magic wielding; but if one can get pass those things then they more than likely may come away enjoying these stories. I definitely recommend giving this early Dr. Strange run a look. I enjoy these stories much more than when I was younger.Pros: Very good writing at times, nice imaginationCons: Could be too different from other titles, multi-arcs may bother some

Ditko's last monthly issues of Strange Tales, a title shared with Nick Fury and SHIELD marks the end of an era. Ditko's unique and psychedelic art includes the beginning of Marvel's comic pantheon including Infinity and the Living Tribunal. Stan gave way to Roy Thomas and Denny O'Neil as scribes and Bill Evert and Marie Severin followed Ditko. Fun continued stories with a cliff hanger every chapter. Good fun and great enduring characters.

Vol. 1 of Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange was a great example of the inexhaustible creativity of Steve Ditko.Vol 2. contains only the remaining 5 stories that Steve Ditko drew and plotted before leaving Marvel Comics and his loss was very noticeable unfortunately. After Ditkos final 5 stories, Bill Everett picks up the tale of the Master of the Mystic Arts. Everett basically carries on with the tools that Ditko had left. Under Everetts tenure we do see the introduction of the rather entertaining and malevolent villainess "Umar". Everett's style wasn't particularly suited to Dr. Strange, and many of the characters seem to look very similar to SubMariner. Marie Severin and Dan Adkins are even weaker on this title. Trying to mimic the Ditko style but not succeeding very well. The art is adequate but not stunning.One can look at the first 5 stories in this volume and see the difference for themselves. One of Ditkos greatest creations was "Eternity". In Ditkos last story in Strange Tales 146 entitled "The End At Last", we see two pages that show Ditko's genius. On pages 5. 6 for example, we see two full splash pages of Eternity and a mystical, dimension shattering explosion that is nothing short of beautiful and epic. Pages 7 and 8 are also very lovely examples of Ditkos final work on this series.The stories that follow are blander and less imaginative. Denny O'Neil does the writing and it's obvious that he's not yet the talent that he would be later on things like Batman over at DC. However, I still must suggest this to Ditko fans and Dr. Strange fans as they are stories that continue the characters mythos. While the series suffered a creative malaise after Ditko left, and before Gene Colan came on board, there are still a few bright spots that make this worth purchasing.This volume contains Strange Tales #142 through 168. Only the covers that feature Dr. Strange are shown and are reprinted in the back of this book (Vol. 2)

Fun at times when some over the top bad guy shows up...fun with all those corny speech bubbles...but very redundant in the way the stories play out... the drawing stay very consistent through the different artists, although you could also say it's a bad thing since the different artists do not bring any special character to the title. All in all, it's surely representative of an era, but I'm not sure I would call that a Masterwork.

This volume of doctor strange masterworks had every page from the actual book digital downloaded correctly with the table of contents and the introduction pages as well as any other printed pages of material and extra artworkYou need to go back to the current incomplete masterworks of the hulk volumes, avengers, fantastic four, and iron man to complete the booksThanks

If you liked the first one you will enjoy this one. Not much else to say, it's just as good as the first one.

Great just as promised 🙂

Product was as advertised.

After a gap of many decades, I am taking a walk down memory lane and gradually reading my way through the Dr Strange masterworks on Kindle.Dr Strange was one of my favorite superheoes ever since I started reading comics as a kid way back in the day, and this masterwork doesn't disappoint.One of the tings that always impressed me about Marvel was the way they segmented, linked and interweved their various superhero stories.This masterwork is obviously just part of the epic Dr Strange saga, but can happily be read in isolation - you don't have to read each masterwork in sequence (though personally I prefer to) to enjoy it.I do miss the adverts that used to be in the comics (I used to want one of those giant plastic army sets! The miraculous fish eggs, not so much). Including all the adverts 'inline' in the stories would be intrusive and distracting, but a sample few in an annex at the back would have been interesting.As an e-book, its well formatted, well coloured, cleanly 'printed' (also cleanly 'zoomable' on screen), and the 'frame by frame' structuring is particularly good (some e-comics I've read have been quite poor). Its easily readable on my 8 inch Kindle Fire and impeccable on my 12" ipad.The price of the e-book is also (usually) far lower than the paper versions - I could never afford to reread these comics on paper.

As a big fan of marvel since i was a young man in the early 70s, dr strange was one of my heros, i loved the way stan the man wrote the stuff and the art of steve ditko was out of this world,this collection is from the strange tales comic of the 60s and has some classic stuff included.you wont be disapointed with this as its marvel at its best. plus it will bring back memories of happier times of innocence and enyoyment which now seems like a distant memory,nuff said.

I remember some of these stories, vaguely, from my youth. The art has changed somewhat, which is always bad in things you buy mainly for nostalgic reasons, and I suspect the storyline has too, but I'm not so sure about that.I believe Mordo is taller than he used to be, not exactly important, but a change.You get quite a lot of pages for your money, and they're in colour.It's about a 4.25 to 4.5 out of 5 for me.

This is an excellent MMW. The softcover TPB MMWs are, in my opinion, far better than the hardcovers - they are cheaper, in most cases, as well as a lot lighter and a lot easier to read. The Dr Strange 2 is no different. The book contains the last Ditko stories (Eternity etc) as well as some first rate Dan Adkins' art (the Bill Everett art for Dr Strange never did much for me but the Umar stories are fine). The book only comes with one extra bonus page (which is a little skimpy), a basic poster of Doctor Strange by Steve Ditko.Strange Tales 142 - 168