Doctor Strange Animated Series

Could it work? If you think so, how should it be done?

Got my hopes up.

Ditto.

Dang It.

I am all for it as long as Man of Action isn't in charge.

Maybe title should be changed...

Anyway it would require one of tho things.

1. Give magic some limits like in Harry Potter. If Dr can freely teleport, read minds, hypnotize, phase through things or change objects into other objects it hard to write plot. Could easily lead to Forgot About His Powers all the time. Sure, you can go "Mordo's castle has more protective spells on it that there is books in Endless Libraly of Za-Tunngh!" but you cant overuse anti-magic or else you make magic useless and make it clear someone should just load Strange with anti-magic lead.

2 Smart writing. Make challenges complex and opponents and more powerful that Strange. The "Huigrh the Eternal Master of Thousand Realms cares not if Dr Strange can turn a dozen men into chickens with sneeze, he can blink New York out of existence" kind of challenges, forcing doc to use his wits as much as spells in each battle.

Good points. And I agree with them. However, the solutions are easy:

-First, although Strange is supposed to be the Sorcerer Supreme, he *doesn't* start that way. He started as as the Master of the Mystic Arts; the SS was still his teacher, the Ancient One. It wasn't until the Ancient One "died" that he declared Strange his worthy successor. So the series can get away with Strange playing the effective but still relatively new wizard and grow in power over time.

-Even in the comics there were times Strange had to rely on his wits. There was the time he challenged the Dread Dormammu to meet him in a physical duel rather than a magical one (still dangerous but not as hard.) Another time three of Mordo's minions managed to put him in magical manacles, gag, and blindfold, and he still managed to slip away (using his Astral Self to see where to go!); and my favorite one, the time his soul was forced out of his body and he had to possess a rat to get around! So yes, even with Story-Breaker Power Strange can be fun if written well.

edited 6th Aug '15 6:35:05 AM by Sijo

Both very good points. Personally I advocate establishing strict, defined Functional Magic rules. That's just an exemple, but if Strange had limited mana ressources that need to recharge regularly, that would at least give him some limits.

I will add that from my experience, the hardest question isnt often "What can they do" but "How these powers work". Of course we dont need long explanation for each powers, cause otherwise there will be no surprises ( Who doesn't love these little "didnt know you could do that" "neither did I" moments) but often powers like possession, observing enemies trough crystal ball, hypnosis etc are left very vague.

Good example would be Servantis from Omniverse. Every time he wanted to read someone's mind he had to stand close and shoot lightnings in their head causing them obvious pain. And then out of nowhere in final Kevin said they were finally out of range of his powers.... when they were fighting in completely different room then he was.

Seeing as Doc Strange is a Sorceror Supreme in the Marvel Universe, this makes him a Wizard On Deck. I believe that his adversaries will be likewise Reality Warper types, making it a roughly even match. Superman battles the Physical God types like Darkseid; Batman battles armed lunatics in Gotham; Mister Incredible battled the Omnidroid, a battle 'bot designed to eradicate superheroes.

The battle is always more interesting when the combatants are evenly matched.

Obviously yes. Even his comic book villains tend to range from Evil Sorcerer to Eldritch Abomination. But still would be appreciable if his powers had some mechanics rather than just whatever the episode needs them to be. Superman might be powerful but his powers are clearly defined.

And of course the most memorable character of any comic book-based cartoon is the villain. So how would you portray Dormammu?

Dormammu would be probably big, powerful, booming voiced guy with amazing power and grand speeches. Baron Mordo would be probably changed into suave, sneaky, sarcastic, manipulator with maybe some depth.

Question what other good villains Strange has? I cant think of Mephisto the satan, Mindless Ones aka Dormammu's meat fodder, Dracula, D'Spayre who makes people upset, Nightmare (you can guess his shtick) and of course Shuma-Gorath - that eye with tentacles that stars in Capcom fighting games.

Man, wouldnt be Crazy Awesome if Shuma-Gorath showed up and was brawler like in games?

i'd find the guy that voiced Dormammu in MvC3.

Okay, what character tropes would you apply to Dormammu?

Eh, he had better voices http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/voice-compare/Doctor-Strange/Dormammu/ First three are pretty good.

Sorcerous Overlord, Manipulative Bastard (?), Dimension Lord, maybe Big Brother Is Watching You

I would also add Magnificent Bastard, Card-Carrying Villain, and Complete Monster.

Reality Warper is a must as well.

Maybe Card-Carrying Villain or maybe Above Good and Evil, if writers would like to try something new. Especially if they would get away with having Mephisto and wanted to distance the two.

edited 14th Aug '15 6:18:57 PM by Sunchet

I just hope that if they adapt Mephisto, they won't be stupid enough to adapt that one comic he was involved in and we shall not name here.

Does anyone think Dormammu would work as a Card-Carrying Villain? He IS a literal hellspawn after all.

Depend how it's handled.

Now for the voice actors. Which one would you pick for each character?

Okay, bringing this back just for the hell of it. Would Shuma-Gorath serve as the Greater-Scope Villain? Or should he be a regular foe alongside Dormammu?

Shuma-Gorath is too alien to serve as more than a really scary, occasional menace. Dormammu and Nightmare have the advantage of being more reletable in their motivations (and have more servants for use in stories.)

I kinda envision Shuma-Gorath as whatever kind of villan Bill Cipher is like.

What do you mean? Like he has Bill's insane personality and sick sense of humor?