The Ascendance of... Baron Mordo!?

 

OR: "Dr. Strange, Hiker of the Mystic Arts"

The thought of Michael Golden handling the artwork for the forty-page What If story featuring Baron Mordo as the Master of the Mystic Arts would be enough to spur even the Dread Dormammu into picking up a copy. Alas, Mr. Golden took care of just the cover art. Still, one look at the exquisite splash page for the issue has one thinking that artists Butch Guice (née Jackson Guice) and Sam Grainger are the next best thing, eh?

Mordo's turn at being the Ancient One's choice to succeed him is an interesting premise to explore, though we don't really need the Watcher to get that ball rolling: Basically, something must happen (or not happen) to prevent Strange from taking Mordo's place as the Ancient One's disciple. But Mordo actually wanting to be worthy of the Ancient One's teachings is a new twist that only Uatu could see coming.

(Of course, if you're under the impression that those tentacles somehow played a part in Mordo becoming the model student, you get a complimentary copy of the Book of the Vishanti! (Not really!) )

From here, things progress for Mordo as they did for Strange--except for writer Peter Gillis feeling the need to plant a seed in our minds that something is up here. (It occurs to me that if Wong distrusts Mordo, surely the Ancient One would still have misgivings, but what do I know.)

Soon enough, Mordo's baptism of fire arrives in the form of Dormammu's intent to invade our dimension. Unlike Strange, however, the shrewd Mordo decides to forcefully secure the aid of another denizen of the Dark Dimension, Clea, in order to enact a plan to free a menace from captivity that even Dormammu must drop everything to defend against.

And what of Strange? He's decided to use his new lease on life to become an instructor at a New York medical school--yet unknown to him, he has also fallen prey to a powerful entity who uses a person's dreams to inflict suffering, a foe he would have battled in our reality as "the Master of Black Magic."

As for Dormammu, he strikes against Mordo in the only way he's able to while bound by his oath--by giving power to a toady like Cyrus Black (whom Nightmare once pulled the same trick with). Mordo, however, takes the opportunity to rub Dormammu's nose in his own circumstances, though he appears to make a grave tactical error in the process. In the process, he at last tips his hand to the reader as to where his loyalties truly lie.

Gillis now faces the task of how to deal Strange back into the story as a viable threat to Mordo and Nightmare, if that's his intent. It becomes apparent that Nightmare certainly sees him as such, albeit couching his words as Strange being a "potential" threat--even though, to the reader, Strange, having received no training whatsoever in the mystic arts by the Ancient One, is, as Mordo correctly states, "less than nothing." Nevertheless, to Strange's utter bewilderment, he's dealt with as an enemy he never became, while Nightmare sees Strange's banishment as simply hedging his bets.

And yet, Strange recalls his time spent in the Ancient One's company well--and despite the madness playing out around him and the fact that this medical doctor is as banished as banished gets, he takes hold of himself and begins a painstaking process which will hopefully lead him home, a lengthy segment in the story perhaps meant to convince the reader that there is more to Strange than meets the eye. "If I have to walk, I'll [find my way back]!" Walk on, pal, assuming you can find your footing in the dimensional flotsam you've been sent to--even Steve Ditko wouldn't be able to get you out of this one.

As for Mordo, the main event arrives in the form of Dormammu's arrival in our dimension (a singular accomplishment which we've seen a variation of in an earlier post), though the Dread One has no inkling of Nightmare's plans for him. (And unfortunately, we can say the same for the Ancient One.)

Meanwhile, as we've seen, Clea has pitched in during the final stages of Strange's efforts to navigate his way back to Earth, sending Nightmare into a panic and forcing him to dispatch Mordo to eliminate him. From what we've seen, Mordo knows his business in the mystic arts, and neither Strange nor Clea should present any problem to him whatsoever. Impossibly, we turn out to be only half right, even as Nightmare and Dormammu cement their newfound alliance.

With Strange's attack, we've seen the last of Mordo--particularly since, as we can see, the time has come for Mordo to be edged out of this story in time for Strange to step up as the one to take on both Nightmare and Dormammu. Personally, I'm with Dormammu on this one: "...What mortal power could hope to stand against two lords of chaos, coupled with the power of the Eye [of Agamotto]?" Gillis provides only brief narrative in response to assures the reader of Strange's ability to do just that, the scene's only saving grace being that Strange doesn't survive the encounter--but given how the situation is tidily rectified in the final panel, we only have Steve Englehart's (and, later, Roy Thomas's) previous treatment of the character vis-à-vis his encounter with Death to assuage us that the concept of death is something that both the Ancient One and Strange consider to be a matter of perspective.

To be frank, I would have been more than satisfied with a less lax and more meaningful ending which owned up to the realistic deaths of both Strange and the Ancient One, given the circumstances--retaining Gillis's closing panels that sufficiently noted Strange's sacrifice and capped by Clea's final words, followed by the Watcher's closing thoughts on Strange. Otherwise, the story's title, "What If Dr. Strange Had Never Become Master Of The Mystic Arts?", is all but rendered moot, as are the scenes of personal sacrifices we witnessed on the part of both Strange and the Ancient One. Let's instead settle for the only levity in this story being Guice's plug of his work in the '83 Avengers Annual. ;) (Did you spot it?)