Doctor Strange: The Oath

Doctor Strange: The Oath is a 2007 comic book limited series written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Marcos Martin, published by Marvel Comics and starring the superhero Doctor Strange.^[1] The story follows Doctor Strange as he searches for the person who tried to kill him, while he also looks for a stolen magical elixir that will cure the terminal cancer of Wong, his faithful servant. Doctor Strange finds himself facing another disciple of the Ancient One, who has learned about the elixir and is determined to destroy it.

Plot summary

During a rainy night in New York City, in the lobby of the hospice belonging to Night Nurse, Wong, servant to the Sorcerer Supreme, drags in the unconscious, bleeding Doctor Strange, begging for help. He had been running errands and returned to the Sanctum Sanctorum to find that Strange had been shot during a burglary. Strange appears in his astral form and tells Night Nurse that if she didn’t hurry, he’d be dead before Wong could finish.

Inside the office of Dr. Nicodemus West, a thief named Brigand hands him a bottle containing the Otkid's Elixir and an amulet. He claims that he killed Doctor Strange during the theft and shows him a gun that fires silver bullets. West tells him should have made sure Strange was dead.

Night Nurse removes the bullet from Strange’s chest as Wong explains how Strange learned of his illness. Inside the Sanctum Sanctorum, Strange had been looking for his Cloak of Levitation and had found Wong's hidden bottle of Timelozar, a targeting agent for brain tumors. Wong had hoped to keep his terminal brain cancer a secret until his replacement could be found. He accepted his fate, but Strange refuses and remembers something from a book of magic.

Following the directions to a specific location, he opened a portal to another dimension to find the Otkid’s Elixir to cure Wong’s cancer. Wong begged him not to go up against a god for the cure. Strange reminded him that he had taken the Hippocratic Oath before entering the portal.

After finding the elixir, Strange wanted to test it first and sent a sample to his good friend, Dr. Jonas Hilt. He returns to his body and reveals that the elixir can cure every form of disease. Strange then flashes back to the incident inside the Sanctum Sanctorum.

He had been studying the elixir when was interrupted by Brigand. The thief fired a silver bullet that broke through a defense spell and hit him. He stole the elixir and left Strange for dead.

Strange takes Wong and Night Nurse to Hilt's research lab. Inside, they find the place destroyed and the sample gone. Hilt is dead, shot by the same gun that had been used on Strange. The Eye of Agamotto leads them to Brigand's hideout where they enter a room filled with stolen security droids. Strange and Wong successfully fight the robots until Brigand stops them. He’s holding Night Nurse hostage with his gun, but she frees herself allowing Wong to disarm him. This allows Strange to immobilize Brigand then make him go to sleep. Inside Brigand's mind, Strange forces him to reveal that the sorcerer helping him was the same West who had been unable to repair his hands.

At Timely Pharmaceuticals, West’s employer, he meets with the board members. He admits that with enough time, Strange could recreate the elixir. They tell him that anyone who knows of it needed to be eliminated.

West scoffs when the board members claim they only want humanity to get cures at a natural pace. He asks if they really mean that if a cure was found, they would lose their powerful lucrative jobs. The CEO counters by saying that he wouldn’t have killed Dr. Hilt if he thought they were wrong. The group then orders him to end their problem with Strange or summon something that could.

Strange returns to Brigand's hideout and suggests they return to the hospice to rest. He throws Brigand inside a portal to lock him in his own mind to permanently torment him for his crimes.

Before they can enter the hospice, they are stopped by a giant, fire breathing Marrrakant Hellguard that is attacking the building. Strange is able to destroy it using Brigand's stolen gun. He then opens a portal to its summoning origin. When they walk through to West's room, he imprisons them in a holding spell, and Strange demands to know who taught him magic.

West explains that after Strange disappeared, he became determined to find a way to restore his hands, and located the Ancient One.

He quickly grew bored and left. After using some magic to help a severely injured girl, he went to a bedridden, terminal cancer patient. He tried a spell to get his immune cells to attack his cancer. The botched spell backfires and his immune cells attack all the cells in his body causing them to explode.

He was about to turn himself over to the police when he was stopped by two CEOs from Timely. They had him followed because they did not want the increasing use of magic to affect their industry. They offered a lucrative deal to him. He would track and keep users of magic in check, and in return they would cover his mistake.

Strange breaks the holding spell and orders West to hand over the elixir. He refuses and instead wants to destroy it. When Wong collapses, Strange uses mystical handcuffs on West to keep him immobilized. Night Nurse promises to do what she can to keep Wong alive.

West teleports out of the cuffs to a bathroom, where he prepares to dump the elixir down the drain. Strange appears and tells him that if does, his own blood would follow. He then asks why he wants to destroy it.

West thinks the liquid is poison and people need cures by natural means. Strange counters by asking if things like CT scans were natural. Strange feels that West is scared that not all things considered magic are harmful and Pavlish hadn’t been killed by magic, but by his incompetence as a sorcerer.

Strange forgives him for not saving his hands and owns up to his own involvement in how they were destroyed. He knows that doctors and sorcerers have to own up to their mistakes. He can’t forgive West for not owning up to his mistake as a sorcerer. West teleports to the roof with Strange in pursuit.

After using a spell to prevent the use of magic, West offers to take Strange on in a fistfight. He's able to deliver several blows before Strange takes a fighting stance, revealing his training in the martial arts.

Strange delivers several severe blows. West tries to get away only to fall over the edge of the roof, taking the elixir with him. The vial shatters, leaving only a tiny drop on top a broken piece.

As Strange looks at it, West's astral projection appears as he had managed to send it out just before he landed. He tells Strange to make a choice: use the last of liquid to save Wong or take the necessary amount of time to recreate it. Strange is torn but West reminds him of the Hippocratic Oath he had taken. West’s astral form fades, and he asks Strange to think about which choice he could live with.

Wong wakes in his bedroom and is told there is no trace of his cancer. Before he can argue, Strange tells him that his life was worth the final bit since he had saved his life many times over.

Night Nurse assures Strange that he can only do his best and leave the cures to the drug companies. He reminds her that no one at Timely would pay for their crimes. She shows a confession memo she had lifted from West’s office. He had created it for the board members at Timely about the Otkid’s elixir. He reminds them about the extreme measures they had used to destroy the cure and silence everyone who knew about it. She sent copies to various government agencies as well as a certain lawyer friend. He's so grateful that he invites her to set up a new hospice inside his Sanctum Sanctorum.

References