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Doctor Strange Special Edition Vol 1 1

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Now, girl -- you are free from Strange's unclean influence -- and now you fall under mine! But have no fear! I will shape you -- mold you -- save your soul -- and give you life where I gave Dr. Strange death!

—Silver Dagger (Isaiah Curwen)

Appearing in "Editori-Al: Master of the Mystic Arts"

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Synopsis for "Editori-Al: Master of the Mystic Arts"

Al Milgrom introduces readers to the issue and shows off his magic skills.

Appearing in "Through an Orb Darkly"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #1

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Synopsis for "Through an Orb Darkly"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #1
Within the Sanctum Sanctorum, Clea shows Doctor Strange the most awesome of the forbidden rituals she has recently learned by summoning a rabbit from within a top hat. His recent heavy mood lightened by her trick, Strange and Clea enjoy some intimate time together before Strange asks Wong to prepare the Mists of Morpheus so that he can sleep. Once the two men have left the room, Clea talks to the rabbit, unaware that Silver Dagger, who believes Strange to be a demon in need of destruction, is lurking just outside the window. In order to gain entry to the mansion without triggering its defenses, Silver Dagger casts an enchantment that passes through the window and strikes the rabbit, causing it to enlarge to giant size. Terrified by the change, the rabbit smashes through the window to escape. Since Clea believes that her spell was responsible, she is not on her guard and so Silver Dagger is able to take her by surprise and mesmerize her. Wong arrives and attacks the intruder but Silver Dagger defeats him with a single blow, and then turns his attention to the Eye of Agamotto. Upon being touched by unfamiliar fingers, the amulet emits a mystical bolt in an attempt to warn its master but Silver Dagger conjures the Fangs of Farallah to stop it. Undetected, Silver Dagger sneaks up behind the sleeping Strange and hurls his mystical dagger at his back, inflicting a mortal wound. Silver Dagger takes both the amulet and Clea with him when he leaves. An hour later, Wong revives and finds that Strange is still alive. However, Strange states that the wound from the enchanted knife has mortally wounded him and asks Wong to bring him the Eye of Agamotto and Clea because both will be needed to maintain his life. When Wong reveals that the intruder has stolen both of them, Strange is forced to turn to the Orb of Agamotto instead. After casting a spell of stasis that prevents him from getting worse, Strange uses the Orb to seek Clea and observes her being tortured by Silver Dagger in his effort to save her soul. As Silver Dagger detects that Strange is watching, the image of his face transforms into that of a skull and then tentacles reach out of the Orb, grab Strange and pull him into the Orb. Strange realizes that, since the Orb's power stems from necromancy, it was Death that has seized him. Finding himself seemingly alive and no longer injured, Strange realizes that he has been changed and soon meets a giant talking caterpillar smoking a hookah while seated on giant mushroom. The caterpillar claims to be real within a world where nothing is real and tells Strange that he won't be able to get out but Strange rejects that idea so the caterpillar changes form and attacks him. The two then have a brief battle during which the creature reveals that Strange's use of the Orb to stave off his fast-approaching real death had opened himself too completely to unreality, allowing it to capture him. Once the battle ends, the caterpillar tells Strange that, if he's determined to try to check out, then he might as well head for the center of the Orb because everything comes together there, maybe even an egress. The caterpillar warns Strange that, even if he does get out, he will find himself back where he started, minutes away from death by stabbing, and suggests that he stay there in unreality. As Strange flies off, stating that he would rather die than become something that he is not, the caterpillar watches him go, laughing as he slowly fades away until he's totally gone.

Appearing in "A Separate Reality"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #2

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Synopsis for "A Separate Reality"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #2
Doctor Strange Vol 1 2 001

Within the abandoned subway station that is his lair, Silver Dagger continues his attempt to cleanse Clea of her black faith in the Sorcerer Supreme by using his weapon to decapitate a wax mannequin of Doctor Strange and reminding her that the real Strange is just as dead. While taking a break from Clea's conversion, Silver Dagger uses the Eye of Agamotto to see what's been done with Strange's corpse but is instead shown that Dr. Strange is alive somewhere.

Meanwhile, flying through the realm of unreality within the Orb of Agamotto, Doctor Strange is lost, unable to find the center of the Orb or anything else. In an attempt to gain the knowledge he needs to save himself, Strange begins meditating and soon theorizes that the fact that the Caterpillar he met seemed too much like "Alice in Wonderland" is an indication that his unconscious mind can affect what occurs within the Orb. Suddenly, Strange is attacked by a flying creature that rips his astral body from his mortal form and, despite an attempt by a "Silver Surfer" to prevent it, Strange's soul is sucked within the creature's guts where he encounters the heads of multiple previous victims of the Soul-Eater. Although told by the captive souls that they are all doomed to provide eternal psychic energy for the creature, Strange's astral form instead choses to disrupt the creature's brain, causing it to fly out of control and crash onto the ground. With the Soul-Eater now unconscious, all of the souls that it had held captive are able to escape. Strange's soul meets the Silver Surfer who doesn't know him and Strange soon realizes that this Surfer is an image of the Orb that has been shaped by Strange's memories. Finding that his mortal form has walked off on its own, Strange and the Silver Surfer follow its tracks to the castle of the White Queen, the Surfer's sovereign. Within the castle, the two find Strange's body sitting at a table where the Knights of the Rostrum, beings who resemble the Defenders and other allies of Strange, are having a tea party.

After Strange reunites his astral and physical bodies, the group is joined by their queen who has the appearance of the Valkyrie. When Strange tries to leave, the heroes take this as an insult and try to kill him but Strange manages to overcome them. Spotting the now-conscious Soul-Eater approaching, Strange fears that it may steal the souls of his fallen foes but the queen and the Silver Surfer explain that, for the same reason that the knights reacted so murderously and unpredictably, they are in no danger from the Soul-Eater because none of them have souls. Only Strange, among all who abide with them now, has a soul and thus only he can live or die. This revelation causes Strange to realize that only he has a choice and that, while he has squirmed and twisted like a fish in the net of unreality, his true foe has always been the fisherman, Death. When Strange declares that he has only postponed his fate and that it must still be awaiting him at the center of the Orb, the queen offers him her stallion to take him there. Strange realizes that, now that he knows what he's actually seeking, all of the beings within the Orb that he affects know, too.

As Strange flies off towards the center of the Orb astride an unreal Aragorn, Silver Dagger has been showing Clea that, although his schemes may have gone somewhat awry, Strange is actually suffering a fate worse than death. Reassured that Strange is still lost, Silver Dagger is now ready to begin on Clea.

Appearing in "...Where Bound'ries... Decay"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #4

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Synopsis for "...Where Bound'ries... Decay"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #4
Doctor Strange Vol 2 4 001

While riding the unreal Aragorn through the Orb of Agamotto to the exit at its center, Dr. Strange recalls how he ended up in this world of unreality, what he has experienced here and that he must soon once again confront Death. His journey nears its end as Aragorn descends to an ominous land full of trudging processions of dark-robed men. Strange is greeted by three old men, one of whom claims to be Famine who, with his two brothers, once rode with Death. Famine reveals that Strange has entered the Domain of the Dying and Strange soon encounters people who are suffering and wish to die but cannot. As Strange approaches a shimmering haze, he begins to experience the pain from his injury that had vanished once he entered the Orb. Surrounding the haze is a crowd of people who have been gathering there in the hope that, when Strange passes beyond and dies, they will also be able to slip through. Strange and Aragorn leap into the mist which parts before them and enter a cave behind the mist, unaware of the fact that the mist has solidified after their passage, keeping the others from Death.

Strange and Aragorn travel through the cave which ends in a cliff. When the cliff edge crumbles beneath them, Strange and Aragorn fall until they find themselves in the void of space where Aragorn soon becomes a skeleton after his hoof is struck by a meteorite. Death then appears and reveals that Strange has reached the outside and is now within the depths of Death at last. Strange futilely tries to fight until Death states that he has returned to the real universe where everything dies. Strange then tries to escape Death but his attempt is doomed until he spots a hole in space whose shape is that of Eternity. Death admits that the whole of Creation is the sum of Death and Eternity, and fails to prevent Strange from reaching safety within Eternity's void. As Death distorts the space around the Eternity-shaped void in an attempt to force him out of it, Strange comes to the realization that, since he cannot fight, escape or avoid Death, his only option is to surrender to it. With his situation forcing him to believe that his time to die has come, Strange accepts that death is a part of life, just as life is a part of death, and that death, although remorseless, is not evil but just an experience for the soul. With this new understanding, Strange stops fighting Death, gives up his fear of death and opens himself, growing to fill the huge form of Eternity that he is currently inhabiting so that he will feel Death's touch on all of him at once. Once that happens, Dr. Strange dies.

However, at the moment of Strange's death, the universe around him begins to shudder and fall away from him. Strange then finds himself in a white void where he is greeted by the Ancient One, manifesting as a disembodied head, who congratulates him for winning the first of a series of trials that he must undergo, all unknowingly, as a Sorcerer Supreme, by expunging even the most deeply-held fear of death within him. The Ancient One confirms that Strange is dead on his plane of existence, something that doesn't matter on the Ancient One's plane where they currently are, then reveals that his pupil will live again, reborn into his realm with no physical fears to arrest his development and that, since he will never fear Death again, his life will be touched by Eternity. From that moment forward, he will not age and death will only come from without, in battle, and not from within. The Ancient One then states that Strange may live for 600 years, as the Ancient One did once he won that trial, or he may live even longer, perhaps forever. When Strange admits that he does feel different, the Ancient One points out that the Ankh, the symbol of Enduring Life, is now on his forehead.

Before fading away, the Ancient One tells Strange that there are many other unexpected trials before him of which the Ancient One may say no more, but that if Strange lives his new life well, then he will meet them well, and in the end he, too, will become one with all.

Appearing in "Cloak and Dagger"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #5

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Synopsis for "Cloak and Dagger"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Doctor Strange (Vol. 2) #5
While torturing Clea, Silver Dagger reveals his origin. He explains how he was once a Cardinal of the Catholic Church and was a potential successor to the Pope. However, the College of Cardinals had passed him by due to his youth and fanaticism, and another had been chosen to become the new pope. He then studied the black arts and was determined to become God's weapon and fight against the followers of Satan. While studying to be "the Silver Dagger," he traveled the world, learning everything he could from the adepts of the "dark religions" and then slaughtering them as part of the Lord's vengeance. He then sought out the Ancient One but he was too late: There was now a new Sorcerer Supreme -- Dr. Strange.

As the Silver Dagger continues trying to break Clea, Dr. Strange's soul returns to the Earthly plane through the Eye of Agamotto which is in Silver Dagger's lair. Still disorientated, he mistakenly enters a wax dummy of himself and, now trapped within it, his stumbling movements are perceived as an attack by Silver Dagger who assumes that Clea is responsible and swiftly cuts it to pieces. Once Silver Dagger has left to relieve himself, Clea touches the dummy, enabling Strange's spirit to enter into her body and the excess energy he brings with him restores her strength. As one being, the two of them break Clea's bonds and escape to the Sanctum where Strange's spirit returns to his mortal body which has been in an inert state, neither alive nor dead, since his soul had been pulled into the Orb of Agamotto.

Silver Dagger arrives shortly afterwards, using the power of the Eye of Agamotto against Strange and Clea, but Strange uses the Shield of the Seraphim to briefly block the Eye's power, long enough for he and Clea to take control of the Eye and turn it against their enemy. Forced to see the truth of his charlatan ways, Silver Dagger allows himself to be sucked through the portal which the enlarged Eye has become, ending up in Agamottto's realm of unreality engaged in an endless dialogue with the caterpillar.

Notes

  • Although Doctor Strange Special Edition is the name that appears on this issue's cover and is used by various websites (including this Wiki), the actual imprint reads "DOCTOR STRANGE/SILVER DAGGER 1982 Vol. 1, No. 1." Some other websites combine these names and list this issue as "Doctor Strange/Silver Dagger Special Edition #1."

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