Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, doctor strange, entertainment, luke evans, mads mikkelsen, Marvel Comics, rufus sewell

Elevator Pitch: What Hero Do You Want To See On The Silver Screen? Doctor Strange!

Published Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:00:00 -0500

by Hannah Means Shannon

Last updated Tue, 01 Apr 2014 23:02:51 -0500

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By Gary Turner

Hey! Got some good responses from our Nova pitch last week. Guess young Sam is more popular than I had realized. It was a fun way to kick things off. This week I'm afraid we're going to take a DARKER turn.

All the shout outs have been kinda across the board. Since so many would each like to see something different, and there's not much of a consensus, I had ta pick one. So I opted to go with one that, if you've been keeping with Marvel's pulse lately, you'll see is very pertinent since he's already in development and mentioned in a recent feature.

Let's see…if we can foresee…some badassery!

THE TEASER

Fade in on Clea, a lone woman pouring over documents from many different historic times. She is on edge, nervous, but excited. There are papers covering topics on various organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra's quests for occult items. Still even more papers about missing people who've vanished for decades without a trace; Adam Hymm, Stephen Strange, and more.

Then more recent print outs and photos, crime scene photos. [cue music: ominous melody of Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams"/no vocals] There have been acts of violence leaving in their wake charred remains. Something has been stalking from the shadows. Hunting, but for what?

We cut back to our intrepid researcher. Somehow these disappearances are connected to the horrors of Greenwich Village. There have been terrors their residents won't speak about. But she did find an article that spoke of an Asian man that came to the aid of a few of the survivors. Clea is a conspiracy theorist, and for her there are no coincidences.

After tracking down this "Wong" she confronts him in a diner. He strongly advises Clea to drop what she's doing and pick a different life for herself. She presses harder still. So he calls her nuts and leaves her behind. But as he departs he's ambushed from the shadows by thugs, gangbangers who's throats are smoldering from within. The longer they fight the more Wong's opponents seem to heat up. Until finally they all turn at once and unleash flames all at Wong. The thugs become embers on the asphalt. Wong drops, out cold without a scratch. Clea sees to it Wong is taken to the hospital, but not before opening his wallet and finding the address 177A Bleeker Street. What better time to find answers?

Clea has traveled up and down Bleeker many times, but until now she's never noticed this odd building. Nor did the thing that follows her in the shadows. The building is dark. No windows lit except at the top. After making sure that no one is watching Clea climbs through a side window. Upon passing through the curtains she sees that the room is lit well within, only not with electricity. Mixed in with modern furniture is lamps from over a hundred years ago burning oils. As a matter of fact there are no electronics of any sort, not even a digital clock.

As she opens a stairwell door leading up she's abruptly snatched from behind. A black bearded vagrant, smelly and disgusting is opening his maw and we see flames coming up his throat. At the same time a wash of 30 or 40 miniature twisted, flaming fairies spiral around the room. Just as the vagrant's hellfire unleashes Doctor Strange cuts loose with the crimson bands of Cyttorak. While this is Wong's home, it also Strange's sanctum sanctorum, a safe unseen place until now.

Clea is left trembling by the power of the possessed urchin's hellfire. Even though Stephen defeats the intruder some of the fairies escape. Strange looks Clea over. She apologizes and says, "I was so terrified. My hands are shaking."

Stephen, "Don't worry. Your's will pass."

YOUR FEEDBACK

I was very inspired by DeathPanda's idea of not starting with an origin story. An already established Sorcerer Supreme has a built in air of mystery! It was a perfect springboard. What more could you want!?!

Allowing that to mull around I thought of how he's the guardian for our reality from the "nexts", dimensions that neighbor and even encroach. His sole focus is on protecting this universe. So he stays completely off the grid. No modern anything, other than comfortable furnishings. His sanctum can only be found by those in need. Otherwise it remains beyond notice.

These dark minions are searching for a very valuable piece, the Soul Gem. They know that somewhere within Strange's trove of artifacts it must reside. What we don't learn until later is it's actually the Eye of Agamotto. Hey, if Thor's Aether can be an infinity gem then we can go with this!

So who is empowering these minions. Well it's not anyone related to Thanos, except as a rival for power. I so would want to see the ole flaming dimensional horror that is Dormammu.

THE TWEAKS

Actually not many, other than my selection of Clea. You see my Clea is short for Cleopatra. Her mother had a thing for Blaxploitation movies.

Also, take a moment and see the genius that Marvel has been doing by creating sub-genres within the hero movies. Iron Man is a high tech thriller. The Hulk was a monster movie. Captain America 2, a suspenseful spy feature. Thor, a mythical fantasy. For those that are worried Doctor Strange would be silly you wouldn't think that if we made it a scary movie. Think along the lines of Sinister, or Occulus. If you can bring the creepy factor to Stephen Strange then you've got a hit. Believe it or not you can make people jump out of their seats in a PG-13 movie. The unknowable could be breaking through to our reality very soon.

Oh and one other tidbit of a change. One of Strange's predecessors also protected the Soul Gem. But when asked Stephen says he wasn't a sorcerer. Adam was more of a warlock.

WHO'S STRANGE?

Well, I'd like to avoid the whole "sexy young charmer" thing here. Not interested in Johnny Depp, Patrick Dempsey, or Gordon-Levitt. To me this Doctor is more of the hard ass, like Daniel Craig's version of James Bond. My picks would be Luke Evans, Mads Mikkelsen, or even Rufus Sewell.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Again! That's up to YOU. But do try to pick at least one from the list. If you do shout out five characters be sure that you say which one you'd want to see most. Plus we're always game for good ideas! What's your thoughts on how you'd like to see your favorite treated?

So answer in the comments, FB message, or email me not only which from the list below, but also how you see it coming together. All votes from previous weeks still add up going forward.

Wonder Woman
Silver Surfer
Black Panther
Batman
Teen Titans
X-Men
Power Man / Iron Fist
Green Lantern: John Stewart
Ghost Rider (new addition)

Gary Turner, creator of d20 comic Technically Magi, spends his days languishing in the middle of the Pacific (to be specific…Hawaii). If not for his day job of television production & animation he'd be off doing something completely frivolous. Rollin' with the RPGers, and making mad sequential plots is how his nights are lost.