| Doc Strange | |
|---|---|
 Thrilling Comics #1 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | AC Comics Nedor Comics America's Best Comics |
| First appearance | Thrilling Comics #1 (February 1940) |
| Created by | Richard E. Hughes Alexander Kostuk |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Doctor Thomas Hugo Strange |
| Team affiliations | SMASH |
| Notable aliases | Tom Strange |
| Abilities | Scientific genius, super strength, flight, vacuum survival, super speed, invulnerability to bullets |
Doc Strange is aGolden Agecomic booksuperhero who originally appeared inThrilling Comics #1 (Better Publications, also calledNedor Comics) in February 1940. The character continued inThrilling Comics until issue #64 (Feb 1948).[1] He also appeared inAmerica's Best Comics #1-23 and 27.
Circa 2000, the character was revived and renamed 'Tom Strange' inTom Strong #11 (published byAmerica's Best Comics).
Hugo Strange ("Dr. Strange", later "Doc Strange") is an American scientist who develops a serum called Alosun — described as a "distillate of sun atoms" — which when ingested gives him superhuman strength, the ability to fly, and invulnerability.[2] Doc Strange is assisted by his girlfriend Virginia Thompson. InThrilling Comics #24, he gains a teen sidekick, wealthy young wastrel Mike Ellis, who wears a costume identical to Strange's, along with a green cape.[3] Though non-powered during the earlier adventures, Mike later gains the same powers as Doc Strange.[4]
The character's name was "Doctor Strange" at first; his moniker changed to "Doc Strange" in issue #11 (Dec 1940).[5]
According toJess Nevins'Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, they confront villains like the Faceless Phantom (and his "delta ray gun"), theYellow Peril Emperor (and his flame apes), and the black magic-empowered Mephisto.[6]
Doc Strange was briefly revived in the pages ofFemforce as part of the Vault Heroes, a group of Golden Age superheroes who volunteered to have themselvescryogenically frozen followingWorld War II, so that they could be revived should the world need them. He died shortly after being unfrozen, making the heroes realize that the cryogenic process did not work perfectly on everyone.
AC Comics went on to reprint many of hisGolden Age adventures in various anthologies.
Doc Strange, along with other heroes fromNedor Comics, were revived byAlan Moore in his seriesTom Strong. This revival set the characters on a parallel world calledTerra Obscura, which was also the title of the resulting mini-series. The character was renamed "Thomas Hugo Strange" (or "Tom Strange"), presumably to set him apart from theMarvel Comics sorcererDoctor Strange andBatman villainHugo Strange, and to present him as a Terra Obscura version of Tom Strong.
InTom Strong #11, Moore and co-creatorChris Sprouse more fully introduced the idea of Terra Obscura being a parallel Earth, "but in our own dimension. In our owngalaxy". Tom Strong himself had found it while traveling space alone. He theorizes that the duplicate Earth (and duplicate solar system) "must be due to some near-inconceivable fluke of mathematics, of statistical probability".
In this issue, Tom Strange is revealed to have run across theMilky Way for 30 years to reach Strong for help in stopping an alien menace which killed or imprisoned most of the science-heroes of Terra Obscura. It is judged Strange had set off on his task soon after Tom had left. The stress of leaping from world to world temporarily drives Strange mad. He battles Tom before being subdued and sleeping—dreamlessly—for a fortnight. Once he awakens, he is of a much calmer mind. The two set off back home in Tom's new ship, Tom shows Strange an array of comic books, produced on his earth, which matches the history and events on Strange's Earth.
Tom helps Strange revive his surviving allies, most of whom have been trapped in time by the alien menace for the thirty years, unaware and unaging. With the contents of a lab hidden deep in the inverted city of 'Invertica', the assembled superheroes manage to neutralize the alien menace.
He is described by Strong as the most powerful being he's ever met, and in a different league from Strong entirely.
He operates with the modern incarnation ofSMASH.
In 2013, he appeared in limited seriesTom Strong and the Planet of Peril byVertigo.
Doc Strange appears in the webcomic "Heroes, inc." along with a Golden AgeCaptain Future andBlue Beetle to save Diana Masters (Miss Masque) from an attack by futuristic soldiers. It's revealed in flashbacks that he is one of the scientists that were part of creating the originalGolden Age heroes ofWorld War II, under the direction of Archibald Masters (American Crusader). He developed a chemical called Alosun for the superhero project, but inspired by the heroes that they were creating, he tried it on himself first.
Tom Strange is capable of flight (or at least vast Golden AgeSuperman-like leaps), superhuman strength, and surviving indefinitely in the vacuum of space (without air or water), and has invulnerability to re-entry, extreme impacts (falling to Earth from space) and bullets. He is also a brilliant scientist.
