Doctor Strange has already been controversial with its casting of Tilda Swinton as the historically Asian, Ancient One. But that’s not what we’re going to be addressing today. Instead, I want to talk about the Doctor himself, Stephen Strange, played by English actor and otter desperately trying to pass as human, Bubblebee Candygram, who is, as you probably know, a white guy.
Now you might be thinking to yourself, what's the big deal? Dr. Strange is a white guy in the comics. However, if you go back to his first few issues, Doctor Strange didn’t look all that white. Which has led many to speculate, was Doctor Strange supposed to be an Asian superhero? And if so, by the hoary hosts of Hoggoth, what happened? Watch the video, or continue reading!
Doctor Strange premiered in Strange Tales, number 110, from 1963, created by Steve Ditko. In his first story, a man who has been repeatedly experiencing the same horrific nightmare, night and night again, travels to the the home of Doctor Strange, seeking help. Strange projects his astral form into the suffering man’s dreams where he uncovers the source of the nightmares. The man had robbed from others, and his guilt was too much to bear. The only way he'd be able to sleep again is if he were to confess to his crimes.
And... the end. That was the whole story. It only lasted 5 pages, but spoke volumes about Doctor Strange. The short story introduced us to not just the Sorcerer Supreme, but also his faithful assistant and friend Wong, the Ancient One, the Sanctum Sanctorum, and so much more. But when you take a look back at Ditko’s artwork, there is something a bit peculiar or odd, or something like that. It does seem like like the artist was trying to present Doctor Strange as a man of Asian descent, albeit in an very stereotyped and offensive style.
Compare Strange to the Ancient One in the same story, and now compare him to the white man he was helping. You can kinda see which one he resembles more, right? However, Strange’s appearance seemed to change when the Sorcerer Supreme received his origin story in Strange Tales, number 115. In this 8-page story, we see a brilliant yet arrogant surgeon by the name Stephen Strange suffer irreversible damage to his hands, effectively ending his career. He sought out any cure that could restore the function of his hands, eventually ending up in front of the Ancient One where he trained in black magic to become the Sorcerer Supreme. And what you’ll notice in this story is that Strange looks entirely white compared to his previous appearances. And as time went on, Ditko changed the way he drew Doctor Strange, incorporating a more Caucasian aesthetic.
But hey, that’s just the artwork. Doctor Strange was never specifically stated to be Asian in his first few issues. It’s possible he’s just a white guy that Ditko drew weirdly for some reason, except they also never said the Ancient One was Asian, but did you really need help deciphering Ditko’s not so subtle artwork to figure that out? And this is the thing, right? Comics are a visual medium. They don’t rely on words alone to tell a story or get an idea across. Much like film, the visuals are as important, if not more important than the words themselves. We can’t discount the artwork here, and it’s hard to argue that Ditko didn’t draw the Sorcerer Supreme as an Asian caricature in his first handful of stories. Not only was the design in line with how Ditko drew other characters of Asian descent, but it also matched up with his ideas that a mystical characters should be Asian, not white.
Take a look at Amazing Adventures, number 1, from 1961, which featured a story drawn up by Steve Ditko that introduced us to Dr. Droom. Not Doctor Doom, that would be a year after this. No, Dr. Droom was an American doctor who traveled to Asia to study magic in the mountains under the tutelage of an ancient sorcerer. He gained supreme knowledge of mysticism and black magic, and with the assistance of his Asian partner, he fights against those who use the mystical arts for evil and corrupt purposes. Why does that sound so familiar?
Recycling ideas in comics at this time was a tremendously common practice, and Ditko was incredibly precise about it. Author Sean Howe in his book Marvel Comics, The Untold Story wrote about the creation of Doctor Strange, "Stephen Strange was part of a Ditko tradition that carried back to the 1950s, the glory-craving bastard whose journeys in a snow-capped East lead him to a comeuppance from a wise and ancient mystic."
It’s clear that Doctor Strange was simply a recycled Dr. Droom. And this is when things go downhill, because a part of Droom’s origin was when he gained the power of magic, he physically changed from a white man to an Asian man. "My eyes, they’re becoming slanted! And I’ve a -- a mustache!" "Yes, Doctor Droom, I have given you an appearance suitable to your new role." Yikes.
Now, yes, almost all of this was retconned away. Droom’s name was changed to Doctor Druid, his origin was reworked, et cetera, but you get the point. The team behind this story, Ditko included, believed that a mystical sorcerer character needed to look like an Asian caricature, even if they weren’t Asian before they received their magic powers. And when you compare Droom’s transformation to Strange’s first few appearances, the visual similarities are strikingly clear. Ditko was purposefully drawing Doctor Strange as Asian at first, before altering his appearance to a genetic Caucasian man for his origin story.
Comics writer Kurt Busiek explained on Twitter that it’s no surprise that Marvel would change Doctor Strange’s race, quote, “Given the number of things "that have been retconned in comics, "particularly early on in a character’s career, "this doesn’t seem like an unbelievable occurrence,” end quote. Busiek makes a good point, here. As much as we’d like to think that Marvel would have a character’s origin, history, and lore fully fleshed out before introducing them, that simply was not the case back in those days. Marvel writers and artists were making things up as they went along. There was little to no foresight or planning.
Believing Ditko would have the character of Doctor Strange completely thought out in advance is nothing more than wishful thinking. In fact, they only wrote up Strange’s origin because fan outcry demanded it. They didn’t have it ready to go. They didn’t know Doctor Strange would become popular. He was just an occasional backup story in Strange Tales, a side character. But once Stan Lee noticed that Strange had the potential of becoming a character who could carry his own title, they needed to use his origin story to transform him into an archetype of a Marvel hero, a.k.a. a strong-jawed, handsome white dude.
There was a little overlap with how Ditko drew Strange over the next few issues, but he’d quickly start to resemble your average Caucasian sorcerer. And with the casting of Bendystraws Crackerjack, Marvel has further cemented the idea that Doctor Strange is indeed white. But I’d love to know your thoughts about all this. Do you think Ditko intended Stephen Strange be Asian? Do you think Marvel should have casted a less pale actor for the role? Or is his race entirely unimportant? Write out your thoughts in the comments down below!