Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Did Strange Get Authorization For That?

So here's what I'm thinking about. The Juggernaut gets his power from a mystical gem created by a being from another dimension known as Cyttorak. The gem makes the Juggernaut allegedly unstoppable, at least as long as he keeps following Cyttorak's will. That means causing lots of damage and destruction, leading to people trembling in fear of the Juggernaut, and by extension, Cyttorak who empowers him.

However, Dr. Strange has a spell he employs at times which is known as the "Crimson bands of Cyttorak". In the Busiek/Larsen Defenders series, this spell typically took the form of a ball, which would be used to encircle someone the Doc wanted to restrain, usually the Hulk.

Well that seems rather contrary to Cyttorak's stated goals, doesn't it? What makes it more curious is that in some comics I've read, when Dr. Strange invokes the name of some mystical entity in his spells, it means he's essentially asking them to lend him power to do whatever it is he's trying to do. So if he's angered one of them in some way, they can refuse to help and the spell will either be weaker, or just not work at all. I would think Cyttorak wouldn't be a big fan of how the Sorcerer Supreme is using his power, which makes me wonder how Strange pulls that off.

4 comments:

Jason said...

Well, see Dr. Strange helped Cyttorak move this one time, so he/it/she owes him. Once you help someone move a sleeper-sofa into a third-floor apartment with no elevator, you own them. Mystical entity or no.

Seangreyson said...

Actually what I think it is: The Crimson Bands of Cytorrak are a spell created by Cytorrak, that eventually ended up being learned by several earth-based sorcerers (I think Dr Doom has used it once or twice). Cytorrak probably referred to it simply as his Crimson Bands spell. However when the first human learned it they wrote it down in their tome or spellbook as the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak.

Cytorrak probably wishes it weren't available to all of these humans, but the spell's already out there.

That's my guess anyway.

CalvinPitt said...

I believe we need to amalgamate these two theories. Thus, Cyttorak created the spell, wrote it down somewhere, and when the Ancient One (or another similarly powerful mystic) helped him move furniture, they were allowed to see the spell, and thus were able to disseminate it to other spellcasters across the world.

Matthew said...

Maybe each of the magical powers has to contribute a spell or item to the Sorceror Supreme's arsenal - like a union fee!