Doctor Strange #60: Review

Aug 1983

Roger Stern, Dan Green

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Story Name:

Assault on Avengers Mansion

Review & Comments

Rating:

Doctor Strange #60 Review by T Vernon (December 10, 2022)

Comments: Part two of the four-part Montesi Formula arc. Doctor Strange previously battled Dracula in TOMB OF DRACULA #44 and DOCTOR STRANGE #14. Scarlet Witch was possessed by Chthon is AVENGERS #186-187. Dracula fought Thor in THOR #332-333, published the previous month.

Review: The Avengers, well, two of them plus Jarvis, are drawn into a famous Dr. Strange story arc and give Dracula a hard time. Drac, returning a few years after the cancellation of his own book, makes a formidable foe for the Sorcerer Supreme. Very nice little epic also includes Hannibal King, vampire private eye who knows all of the Hammett/Chandler tropes and is usually an entertaining guest star.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Doctor Strange #60 Synopsis by T Vernon

Story continues from AVENGERS #234.

Minions go through New York City at midnight, gather all of the criminal element they can find and leading them to a large building. When they are assembled, Count Dracula enters and brings them all into his power with hypnosis….

Doctor Strange in his astral form has located the Scarlet Witch and requests her help. He is seeking the magic book called the Darkhold and thinks she may know where it is. She confirms this: the book made her vulnerable to possession by the demon Chthon and she has now hidden it away safely. Strange explains that Dracula seeks the book and he must get it before the vampire villain. Wanda reveals that it is hidden in a secret vault at Avengers Mansion and Strange arranges to meet her there. Wanda telephones Jarvis to alert him that Dr. Strange will be dropping by. As they talk, astral Strange enters the Mansion and searches the building until he locates the hidden vault and looks into the Darkhold. What he sees there shocks him….

Dracula meets with his minions who tell him that the Darkhold is certainly inside Avengers Mansion. A former A.I.M. operative reveals that there are two subterranean levels to the Mansion and a submarine pen that opens to the East River. Dracula assembles his troops….

Dr. Strange returns to his Sanctum Sanctorum to reunite with his material body. Wong and Sara Wolfe are there and a visitor arrives, vampire detective Hannibal King. As they lay their plans to recover the Darkhold, the Orb of Agamotto lights up, signaling major vampiric activity at Avengers Mansion…

…where Dracula’s mob of cultists and criminals are trying to force their way in, joined by a swarm of rats. The Mansion’s defenses stop many of the interlopers but the horde smashes their way through the front door only to be stopped by stun beams—until the rats chew through the wiring. Jarvis prepares to take on the enemy but Captain Marvel pulls him aside and sends him down to seal off the classified sections of the building then takes down the invaders with her energy powers. Meanwhile, Dr. Strange and Hannibal King have arrived outside. While King throws punches with the baddies, Strange casts some spells but finds the cultists have magic staffs that can injure the sorcerer. Strange responds with the Flames of Faltine to whittle down the mob and conjures the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to seal the Mansion’s doors. Then Scarlet Witch arrives by taxi and uses her hex bolts to knock down all of the mob so that Strange can put them all to sleep. Captain Marvel comes outside to meet them, having vanquished those who made it inside….

Meanwhile, Dracula swims through the East River and forces open the door to the Mansion’s submarine pen. He heads for the hidden vault and he is surrounded by three identical Doctor Stranges who take him on; they are really Wanda, Cap M, and King under a spell while the real Strange tries to neutralize the Darkhold. But the Darkhold is exercising its own power over Strange and the spell is broken. Dracula races to the vault where he finds Strange engaged with the book just as it vanishes. Dracula tries to hypnotize Strange into returning it but his power does not work on the sorcerer. Captain Marvel generates sunlight to contain Dracula. Wanda informs the villain that the rest of the Avengers have been summoned and are on their way. Unwilling to face Thor again, Dracula takes his leave. Later, Strange reveals to Hannibal King that he could not destroy the Darkhold but managed to send it elsewhere where its evil aura would be masked: the empty castle of Baron Mordo in the Transylvanian Alps….

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