Doctor Strangefate #1
“The Decrees of Fate”
Writer: Ron Marz
Penciler: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Inker: Kevin Nowlan
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colors & Separations: Matt
Hollingsworth
Editor: Dan Thorsland
Special thanks to Michael Hagen
Cover: Garcia-Lopez and Nowlan
Published by: DC
Released: Feb. 29, 1996
A strange fate awaits Access, the young man with the power to travel between the DC and Marvel universes, when he finds himself in the world of Amalgam.
Wait, sorry, that's Doctor Strangefate awaits Access … yadda yadda yadda ... in the world of Amalgam.
The issue opens not with the title character but the aforementioned Access, running through the sewers from, well, something. Still reeling, I believe, from the two different universes combining instead of one destroying the other after an ill-timed sewer flushing* in Marvel vs. DC #3, he ran into trouble in the new universe** in the form of Abominite, a combination of Marvel's Abomination, who I think lived in the sewers at this time, and DC's Helgrammite, who I did not know existed at the time nor that he got his name from an insect that looks like something out of a comic book.
Before Abominite can violently protect his home turf, Access disappears because teleportation is one of his powers, but I forgot he didn't really know that at this point. Maybe I should have reread the crossover that spawned these stories before proceeding.
Turns out he was the source of the narration on page 1 about having to stop Access, who he says is “carrying the keys to the destruction of everything that exists.” Strangefate knows Access has the ability to restore the two original universes, and he aims to stop him.
But he's not going to get involved directly, at least not at first. He has his manservant Myx (the unexpected combination of Mr. Mxyzptlk and Wong, I presume) summon his agents, who don't get a catchy name but remind me of Strange's loose alliances with various incarnations of the Defenders.***
From left, after Myx, they are Skulk (Hulk + Solomon Grundy), Jade Nova (female herald-of-Galactus Nova + Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner edition with perhaps a dash of Guy Gardner, plus, according to marvunapp.com, Jade) and White Witch (Scarlet Witch + Zatanna). Strangefate reminds them they all owe him and instructs them to bring him Access. Jade Nova complains, Skulk doesn't say much, and White Witch makes it clear she's more interested in extracurricular activity with Strangefate – or judging from subsequent dialogue, any nearby male – than the mission at hand.
Skulk is the first one to find Access, and when his quarry won't come quietly, a startling metamorphosis occurs. Well, he hulks out, except this particular Hulk is a much paler shade of gray than Bruce Banner sometimes is and clearly was born on a Monday.
Jade Nova lights a cigarette with her power ring, then powers up to look a lot like Fire from Justice League International, although it's also not a bad approximation of Nova in green. Just as she entraps Access in some green energy chains, he pulls his disappearing act again. Soon after he rematerializes on a dock, he's confronted by the White Witch, who tries a different tactic – kissing the startled fugitive and putting him into a coma.
Back at Strangefate's tower/sanctum – which Skulk references as sitting atop Arkham, so is it the same tower Catsai and Dare stormed in Assassins? I don't think so – the mysterious mystic awakens Access and explains why he has to kill him: If he restores the original universes, the reality Strangefate is pledged to protect ceases to exist. As motivations go, it's not a bad one. If the worlds in these stories are “real,” then it stands to reason the ones created as a result of them are too. That – and the potential to sell more issues – are why settings like Heroes Reborn and the Age of Apocalypse tend to persist.
But Strangefate isn't taking any chances on doing this the nice way. He plans to destroy Access and, in the process, the shards of the prior universes he managed to preserve.
Only Access doesn't have the goods on him. Where he hid them was shown in Marvel vs. DC #3 and where they ended up in DC vs. Marvel #4.
Despite his sorcerous powers and the psychic abilities he says he possessed before learning the mystic arts from Nabu the Ancient One, this throws Strangefate for a loop. Paralyzed at the prospect of losing his world, he's unable to stop Access from hurling himself out a window and managing to teleport again just before he hits the pavement.
And with that, Strangefate declares that he's failed and removes his sweet helmet to reveal the face of...
As an Amalgam issue, this one falls a little short, with only hints about the world around it. But that's understandable since it kind of serves as a DC vs. Marvel/Marvel vs. DC #3.5, under the pen of Marz, who co-wrote the main series with Peter David. Splitting the story between the title character acting rather unheroic and Access gives it a unique feel but also leads to things feeling rushed at times. But overall it's a good read.
There are plenty of nods to history between these characters though, not to mention a nice set of Easter eggs in Strangefate's sanctum, like the hammer of the absent-from-this-round-of-Amalgam Thor. The agents Strangefate summons feel like there's more to them than just the hero combos, and there's definitely a story to be told as to why the not-so-good doctor's servant is crossed with a Fifth-Dimensional troublemaker.
Best Amalgam: That's easy, Doctor Strangefate himself. Garcia-Lopez excellently combines the familiar elements of both their iconic looks, and the art and writing give him the gravitas he needs. I was a bit confused the first time I read this as to why a “hero” was being so ruthless, but I've read more Doctor Strange since then and know he deals with dark forces and sometimes has to make hard choices. For all my fawning over Fate's amazing helmet and general cool look, I haven't read as much about any particular version of him.
I somehow forgot that Professor X was the man under the helmet. It seems kind of out of left field, but having read a number of stories where Professor X does the wrong thing for the right reasons – perhaps none bigger or harder to come back from than the recent Krakoa finale – it tracks. I'm not sure that we had seen so many examples of that at this point in X-history, but I was still fairly new to it back then. The days of the sentient Danger Room and Deadly Genesis were still ahead, for better or worse.
Most Confusing Amalgam: Abominite. I'm all for Helgrammite being included, but we're not going with Killer Croc? Maybe it was too obvious.
* - No, really.
** - Not that New Universe.
*** - But not the Netflix ones.
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