YET ANOTHER OF THOSE LOOPY LAPSES IN LOGIC DEPT - STRANGE TALES...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

DOCTOR STRANGE, Master of the Mystic Arts is aptly named - better by far than DOCTOR DROOM, the 'prototype' who preceded him, despite their very similar origins.  Strange by name, strange by nature - and also in logic if his third story in STRANGE TALES #114 is anything to go by.

So here's the plot: The mystic master receives a telephone call from Sir CLIVE BENTLEY, asking him to come at once.  Faster than QUICKSILVER can run to the loo, Strange is next seen stepping out of a British taxi (presumably having grabbed the fastest 'plane to England) and paying off the driver.

However, turns out it wasn't Bentley, but rather BARON MORDO in disguise who'd summoned Strange - who has now stepped into a trap.  Here we see what seems to be yet another infamous discrepancy between what artist STEVE DITKO drew, and what writer STAN LEE scripted.

It looks to me that Strange is trapped between a pair of mystic candles, the incense of which paralyzes him.  When the candles have burned out, Strange's life will also end.  However, Stan's scripting seems to indicate that Strange's dire predicament is caused by only a single candle.  It's just as well it wasn't four candles, or we could've found ourselves in the middle of the classic sketch by the TWO RONNIES.

Anyway, the good Doc, by the power of his mind, summons the nearby VICTORIA BENTLEY (Sir Clive's daughter), to come and extinguish the candle(s), thereby prematurely ending the spell which would've killed him.  (They had to burn out in their own time, apparently, for the spell to be effective.)

Mordo returns to gloat over Strange's death, and - on discovering him still alive - mentally saps his will, making him his slave.  But then the real Strange turns up, and reveals that Mordo had only enslaved his mental projecto-image, as he's just stepped off the 'plane from America.  Only his ethereal self could've arrived so quickly, explains Strange.

But here's where it all breaks down.  At first, it appears that Strange's 'mental projecto-image' is something entirely different to his metaphysical spirit which can float through walls, and is ghostly in appearance.  (We'll assume he can make himself visible to whoever he wishes, but I'm unsure if the 'rules' were ever established.  Wasn't The HULK supposed to be the only person capable of seeing him?)  However, he also refers to it as his 'ethereal self', suggesting that the two are the same.

Now I'm confused.  Why would Strange's ethereal self require a taxi to get to the castle?  (He could've simply used his mystic powers to take him where he was needed.)  Where does the dosh for the fare come from?  And how does his 'actual' body function independently when his mind is elsewhere?  If his mind was in his metaphysical self when Mordo enslaved it, how could he switch it over to his actual body upon arrival?  (And would these candles even be able to affect his non-physical form?)

The impression given is that both forms have independent thought, which we know from later tales just isn't so.  Also, why doesn't his ethereal self (also called ectoplasmic in subsequent stories) look, er - 'ethereal' - as opposed to a solid manifestation?  It has to be said that the conclusion seems rushed and is rather unsatisfying, depending, as it does, on the reader ignoring more holes than a vat of Swiss cheese.

As the denouement of the story depends on readers thinking Strange is there in physical form, these apparent discrepancies are maybe nothing more than deliberate misdirection, which - with a little mental exercise - can be reconciled to some degree, no?  Perhaps, but readers shouldn't have to work that hard; the best plots are always those which tie up loose ends, not leave more straggly bits than a plateful of spaghetti.

H'mm, cheese, spaghetti - all this talk of food  has made me hungry.  I'm off to raid the fridge.