0197: Doctor Strange (vol. 2) #24
Cover Date: August 1977 On-Sale Date: May 10, 1977
So Doc will finally get to meet these Creator dudes and Apalla comes out of hiding in her adorable overalls. After a few false starts, this terrible epic finally gains some speed. As we have seen in many previous issues, the story attempts to do a lot with a small cast. Heck, Clea and Wong are basically just watching a magic television!
Doc stands outside the portal to the Creators' realm. This is apart from the Quadriverse which doesn't seem to have much bearing on the overall story. There is one plot element which carries over and we'll see resolved next issue. Anyway, the Creators appear to relish this event as they will be able to eliminate Doc. They then flashback to the events of the last few issues and confirm that the Quadriverse thing was just a delaying tactic. The GRAND ALTERATION will continue!
We get a glimpse of the tool they created for this. The Cosmic Wheel of Change.
I'm not Al Migroom's biggest fan, but that does look cool! They look back at the portal and Doc is just standing there. He's contemplating his really bad mood lately that's caused him to snuff a few foes.
Doc proceeds to fling a spell at the portal which flings it right back at him and knocks him for a loop. That may fall under that rash behavior category.
We look back at Earth and see that Apalla, the queen of the sun has shown herself again. She's searching out Doc, but can't find him mentally. She does the next best thing and goes to the Sanctum Sanctorum for Clea.
Apalla seems much more confident than in her previous appearance two issues ago. Clea shows her where Doc is and Apalla trades her cute overalls for a really tacky pink and white get-up. She also tells Clea and Wong that she's gonna rescue Doc.
It's a good thing the Green Lantern people didn't see this. Imagine what Star Sapphire's costume would have mutated into! As Apalla heads into wherever the heck the Creators are, we look in on them and they take an entire nine-panel page to explain their plan which is to replace the stars with themselves. (While that sounds like a cool plan, there are 10²⁴ stars in the observable universe while there don't seem to be quite that many creators. Even back in 1977 the estimated start count was 10²² which still vastly outnumbers a couple of dozen Creators.)
Doc wakes up and tries a few more spells to open the portal which don't work. Instead the door opens itself and reveals a new challenge for Doc, Visimajoris. Vis appears annoyed because Doc wasn't lazy enough to give up and sod off.
Vis calls himself the divider of souls and Doc finds himself split into 1,024 pieces. Vis is about to wipe the floor with the various Docs, but Apalla makes a timely entrance.
I may have missed it, but I don't recall any narrative about Doc dreaming of Apalla. Maybe he didn't want Clea to get jealous so he kept it to himself. Doc seems aware of the Creators' plans to become stars and is confused why they want to. Apalla explains.
Apalla then reveals that she is one of these stars that the Creators wish to replace.
Apalla and Doc head through the portal and are immediate attacked by the Creators. The pair seem remarkably capable of handling this group of boringly robed sorcerers.
Apalla points him to the Wheel of Cosmic Change. However, before she can tell Doc what he must do, he goes all rash again.
Apalla is appalled! (Sorry, had to get that in somewhere!) The changes the Creators set in motion are probably self-sustaining. What the heck is Doc gonna do?
It's not the worst Doc installment of all time, but it doesn't quite work. One thing that is never answered is who are these Creators and how did a bunch of very limited people manage to cobble together the resources to plan and execute this? Was it their plan for Doc to destroy the wheel to begin with? We don't see Apalla again after this story. Where did she go? Is all of this an excuse for the artists to draw some really bizarre stuff for the next couple of issues? Probably!
There's just so much of this that doesn't make sense and never gets explained.