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Doctor Strange Vol 2 5

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Appearing in "Cloak and Dagger"

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Synopsis for "Cloak and Dagger"

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

  • Cover art: pencils and inks by Brunner, colours by Starlin.[1]
  • Plot by Englehart and Brunner, script by Englehart.[2]
  • The story in this issue retroactively changes what had appeared to happen in previous issues.
    • In the first issue, the mortally-wounded Doctor Strange was seemingly physically pulled into the Orb of Agamotto and found himself in a world of unreality within the Orb.
    • In the second issue, Doc's soul was ripped from his mortal form by a Soul-Eater but later reunited with it.
    • In the previous issue, Doc escaped from the Orb and found himself in deep space facing Death who confirmed that he had returned to the real universe. Then, after surrendering to Death and giving up his fear of death, Strange found himself on the same plane of existence as the Ancient One who confirmed that he had died but would be reborn into his realm.
    • In this issue, Doc's soul returned to Earth via the Eye of Agamotto and eventually reunited with his corpse which had not deteriorated since Strange had been neither alive nor dead while imprisoned within the Orb. This strongly suggests that, despite appearances, it was only Strange's soul that had been pulled into the Orb in issue #1 and that his inert body had remained in the Sanctum the whole time.
    • And yet, when this issue ends with Silver Dagger being pulled into the portal that the Eye had become, there is no sign of his physical body remaining in the Sanctum. This indicates that Silver Dagger was transported, body-and-soul, into Agamotto's Realm of Unreality.
  • This story also establishes that Doc had been pulled into the Orb "days" earlier, long enough ago for it to be odd that his corpse had not yet begun to decay.
  • The names of the popes who appeared in Silver Dagger's origin flashback have never been revealed. Given that the story was published in 1974, the most recent papal election would have occurred in 1963, when Pope John XXIII died and Pope Paul VI was chosen to replace him. However, these identities were never confirmed and, even if they had been, the Sliding Timescale would have long ago made them only topical references.
  • When Silver Dagger's origin was recapped in the Book of the Vishanti feature in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #10, it was stated that one of the books he read in the Vatican Library was the Darkhold which he read under one of its alternate names, the Shiatra Book of the Damned. However, since the true Darkhold was stolen from the Vatican Library back in 1459 A.D.,[3] whatever text Cardinal Curwen read could only have been, at most, a copy of the Darkhold.
  • The world in which Silver Dagger ends up after being sucked into the Eye, referred to as "Agamotto's Realm of Unreality" by Dr. Strange, is again said to be within the Orb of Agamotto. This claim will be repeated when it next appears in Marvel Team-Up #76-77. However, in Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #6 it will be established that this realm is its own dimension, one that is not actually inside the Orb. Instead, the Orb and the Eye can both function as portals to that dimension.

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