For years, Stephen Strange has served as Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, the being charged with protecting our planet from all manner of supernatural and mystical threats. Soon, though, the doctor will officially be out and a new Sorcerer Supreme will have begun his tenure: Loki.

But what does that mean for Strange, and how and why did the Asgardian God of Lies come to be Earth's premier mystical defender? Those questions will begin to be addressed this November when the new Doctor Strange creative team of writer Donny Cates, artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta and colorist Jordie Bellaire take over the Marvel Comics series and kick off the title's Marvel Legacy arc with issue #381.

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CBR spoke with Cates about his take on Doctor Strange and the public face Loki will present for his actions. We also dive into the role Strange's former apprentice Zelma Stanton will play, and the coming twist that will shake the Marvel Universe to its very core.

CBR: What's your take on Stephen Strange? Which aspects of his character are you initially interested in exploring?

Donny Cates: That's an interesting question because the aspects we're exploring in this first arc are going to be a little bit different than where we've seen Stephen Strange in the past. Stephen is a wildly humble guy nowadays. He didn't start that way, obviously. He's not really interested in fortune or glory. He's more about honoring the ideals of the teachings he's gone through, and he's trying to do his best at a job that's kind of chosen him.

EXCLUSIVE: Doctor Strange #381 art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta

At the same time, he can be quite a colorful guy in that he can sometimes play this role of the ethereal, mysterious sorcerer who comes in, gives ill portents, and speaks in confounding sentences and knows more than he ever tells. That's always been the kind of thing I really loved about Stephen; how he interacts with a lot of the other heroes in the Marvel world. People will be scared of some new colossal, cosmic threat and Stephen will walk in and be like, “Aww, that's adorable.” [Laughs]

That kind of haunts the personality he has, because for the longest time he was the only person equipped to stand in the doorway against the scary things at night. So he has this burden that's a lot heavier than the other Marvel heroes’ in a lot of ways. He handles it with a lot of grace and professionalism. He's a doctor.

I always loved it when that personality trait of his carried over into his caped job. I liked the doctor mentality of, "These are the facts, this is what we need to do to solve the problem." He maintains his good bedside manner as much as he possibly can, even when things get ugly. But when this new arc opens up, we'll find Stephen in a place both physically and spiritually that he hasn't been at in a long while.

This new arc with Loki shares a lot of DNA with the origin of Stephen as the Sorcerer Supreme in the first place. This is a story about Stephen laid low and having everything taken away from him, and the spiritual and physical journey he has to go on to reclaim those things. It's also about getting him to a place psychologically where he can wrap his head around what's happened to him and start to chart a new path to get back what he's lost.

When you lay all those pieces out, it's just the origin of Doctor Strange. His profession is taken away from him and he goes on this journey to get those things back. So it's really been interesting. It's almost like Stephen Strange's midlife crisis in a whole lot of ways. [Laughs]

So when you pick up with him, he's kind of tormented and haunted?

I can't say a whole lot about where he's at, but yeah, he's certainly not thrilled about the circumstances by which this new arc opens up. [Laughs] As you can probably imagine, he's not in a great place. It's not great to have your job taken away from you... especially by the God of Lies.

Page 2: How Loki



I understand part of the mystery of your story is sort of the hows and whys of Loki becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, but can you talk about the sort of public face he presents for that? What does he want people to know about his role?

Kieron Gillen did a run on Journey Into Mystery, which found Loki reborn after his death and trying to chart a new path in his life and atone for the past things he had done. And while this Loki is far away from the mustache-twirling bad guy of the '60s and '70s, the consequences of the things he's done over the years are still very much fresh in everyone's minds. So what you have is a character who at least on the outside is trying to do the best that he can while having the world around him absolutely not trust him whatsoever. They don't trust a thing that comes out of his mouth. The interesting thing you get out of that is, because of the characters surrounding Loki, you as the reader trust him and have no reason not to trust him.

EXCLUSIVE: Doctor Strange #381 art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Every word out of Loki's mouth seems to be sincere. He really does seem to be trying to turn his life around, and to present an image of a reformed, different person. You have characters like Stephen, though, who are, “No! I'm not buying it!” It's really interesting to write Loki as someone who is trying to present himself as trying to do the best job he possibly can for reasons we don't know yet.

Everyone keeps asking me how Loki became the Sorcerer Supreme, but the question people should be asking is, “Why?” That's the big question of the whole run. The answer to that is obviously going to be something, in the truest fashion of Loki, surprising. It's something you won't see coming, because if Loki is good at anything, it's plot twists. [Laughs]

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Part of the reason I'm suspect of Loki's motivations is his actions over in Mighty Thor, where he's either a deep cover spy against Malekith or he's returned to his villainous roots and working with the monstrous dark elf. Is that something that will be addressed and explored here?

The Asgardian characters from Jason Aaron's Thor run are not going to turn a blind eye to what Loki is doing all of a sudden. So, yes, expect those things to be explored.

Will Loki's tenure affect the nature of magic in the Marvel Universe?

This is absolutely a continuation of the set of rules and world that Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo created in their run. That being said, Loki has never been overly fond of rules. [Laughs]

What else can you tell us about the supporting cast of your Doctor Strange run? Will characters like Zelma Stanton be part of the story you're telling?

Zelma Stanton is one of the biggest characters in this story. I love Zelma. She's one of the best parts of the previous run. She's a character with so much potential for future storylines, especially when you consider where Jason Aaron picked her story up and where he left her off as an apprentice in training.

EXCLUSIVE: Doctor Strange #381 art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta

I expect to do a lot with Zelma, and as shocking as Loki's new job is, as shocking as where we find Stephen at the beginning of this arc, I think Zelma's new role in this world is going to be just as upsetting.

Let's talk a little more about your amazing art team of Gabriel Hernandez Walta and Jordie Bellaire who can and have brought to life almost any type of story. What do you enjoy most about their styles?

With Gabriel, you have an artist, who like you said, can really just do anything. He can do the big spectacle, action stuff, but more importantly he can hit those emotional beats and really sell the core of any character, setting, or emotion that I or the story need him to convey. So it's always really nice to have an artist who kind of lives in your head. You can see how they'll construct a page based on what you write in your script.

I've been a fan of Gabriel's for a very long time. I have all of his books sitting on my desk along with a mountain of Doctor Strange and Loki books as well. So it's incredibly comforting knowing that there are certain things I can sell in this book that I know are going to land just by virtue of Gabriel being there.

And what can I say about Jordie that the entire world hasn't already said? She’s phenomenal. She's also one of my favorite human beings who works in comics. I had the pleasure of getting to meet and hang out with her at a con, and she is just the best. Her enthusiasm for the art form and her unbridled joy for all things is so infectious.

She's doing something on this book’s palette and tone wise that I think is going to be a little bit different than some of the things we've seen from her in the past in a wonderful, wonderful way.

Can you leave us with some final teases about your initial stories?

There's going to be a lot of heartfelt, heartbreaking, dire, desperate moments in this series, and some people will think they know where we're going. There is a thing that is going to happen in this series, though, that is enormous and not just for Doctor Strange, or Loki, but for the entire Marvel community.

It's an idea that I pitched when I first started on the book that I put into the pitch because I thought it was really fun and it thrilled me. I kind of suspected though that when it went up the food chain it would be, “That's really fun, but holy crap! You can't do that! That's insane!” To my utter joy the idea was approved.

The editorial and creative teams are all kind of waiting on bated breath to unleash this moment on the readers. I can safely guarantee you that no one will see it coming.