Even though I recall my first Dr. Strange story, it would be awhile before I would flip through the character's debut appearance in 1963. As with other Marvel characters that I became exposed to, I had to work my way backwards, piecemeal, in order to become more familiar with Strange, steadily closing in on learning more about the man who was originally known as the Master of Black Magic, and, as a result, finding myself drawn more (at least in the beginning) to the less rigid, more human Stephen Strange who later emerged in other stories besides his own. That's not to say I didn't really care for Strange during his time as the Ancient One's disciple; in fact I find the dichotomy between the two versions of Strange interesting, albeit likely not intended to be scrutinized too closely. I wonder if Stephen Strange would even recognize himself in his more exotic, stern appearance and manner back in the day.
By the time we first meet Strange in print, he'd been in that role for some time, establishing a reputation as a mystic master in his own right and having made his fair share of enemies in the process. Primary among those, Baron Mordo, was someone I first read of in Strange's origin story, a man who surreptitiously plotted against the Ancient One and paid a price for it by being rejected as his successor in favor of Strange. But to readers of Strange Tales in August of 1963, their first exposure to Mordo was just after Strange was introduced in the comic and had successfully prevailed in his first adventure. All we know of Mordo at that point is that he and Strange were once pupils of the Ancient One and have since become rivals (in Mordo's eyes) for "the secrets of black magic"--thus making Mordo the perfect arch-enemy, having been attacking both Strange and the Ancient One openly. And in his latest scheme, he seeks to attain by force what he could not accomplish through subterfuge.
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