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! 
Appearing in "Through an Orb Darkly"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Silver Dagger (First appearance)
- Death
Other Characters:
- Genesis (Sise-Neg) (Referenced)
- Rabbit
- Vishanti (Mentioned)
- Morpheus (Invoked)
- Cyttorak (Invoked)
- Dormammu (Invoked)
- Farallah (Invoked)
- Valtorr (Invoked)
- Ancient One (Invoked)
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Faltine Hybrids
- Rabbits
- Demons (Invoked)
- Abstract Entities
Locations:
- Earthspace
- Agamotto's Dimension (First appearance) (Unnamed)
Items:
- Cloak of Levitation
- Eye of Agamotto
- Spells
- Mists of Morpheus (Mentioned)
- Crimson Bands of Cyttorak (Invoked)
- Fangs of Farallah
- Vipers of Valtorr (Invoked)
- Silver Dagger
- Orb of Agamotto
Synopsis for "Through an Orb Darkly"
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.
Notes
Publisher Notes[]
- Cover art: pencils, inks and colors by Brunner.[1]
- Plot by Englehart and Brunner, script by Englehart.[2]
Continuity Notes[]
- In this issue, Wong prepares the "Mists of Morpheus" at Dr. Strange's request. The mists are likely to be the weird surroundings of Dr. Strange in later panels. They are also likely to be related to Morpheus, an Olympian god (thus, probably an acquaintance of Hercules) who has never appeared in the Marvel Universe except via mentions like this. The villain Morpheus who opposed Moon Knight is likely not related to the Mists of Morpheus.
- Although Doctor Strange's entire being appears to be pulled into the Orb of Agamotto in this story, the final issue of this storyline will reveal that, despite what Strange thinks he experiences within the Orb, his physical body has actually remained within his Sanctum the whole time and, despite seeming to be dead, has not deteriorated.
- The fact that the Caterpillar is actually Agamotto the All-Seeing and the world within the Orb of Agamotto is his realm won't be revealed until he identifies himself to Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #7. That same issue confirms that Agamotto had taken the image of the caterpillar from "Alice in Wonderland" from Strange's mind.
