Posted by
Daniel Crandall on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 11:09:09 PM
To ensure that every corporate entity was vilified within the four color pages of the comic books, Marvel's writer Brian K. Vaughn puts Dr. Strange up against Big Pharmaceutical in the five issue mini-series titled
"The Oath". Fighting off evil sorcerers and etheric demons isn't enough. The Master of the Mystic Arts really needs to bring down the monsters within Big Pharma.
The storyline involves Dr. Strange on a mystic journey to find a cure for his dying servant. You read that right. The politically correct Sorcerer Supreme has an Asian manservant, named
Wong, who happens to be dying of cancer. Early in the five issue series Marvel makes it clear that Stephen Strange and Wong do not see their relationship as one of Master and Servant. No good Liberal would actually have a Servant. Right?!?
So Wong is dying of cancer and Dr. Strange will do anything to cure his ailing "sidekick" so he sets out in an mystic journey in the Astral Planes. He fights demons, posing as his worst enemies, and is successful in bringing back a potion that will cure every known disease afflicting humanity. No more common cold. No more flu. And most importantly, for the story at least, no more cancer.
Well, now, the white "Overlords" running "Timely Pharmacopeial" just can't have that can they. This wonder cure would seriously eat into the corporate giant's profits, and that is what Big Pharma cares about most.. Isn't it? So Dr. Nicodemus West, on behalf of "Timely" sets out to ensure that people continue to suffer from head colds. Because, of course, everyone knows that Big Pharma
only cares about profits. It's not like
they are actually trying to find cures for the worst ailments afflicting mankind. And, by the way, I'm not making up the white Overlords bit. The board of directors of Timely are referred to as "Overlords" and they are all white people. Very unhappy white people based on how they are drawn throughout the series.
There is one brief point in The Oath, in which Dr. West actually makes a fair point, which Dr. Strange, apparently, has not reflected upon. In Chapter 4, Dr. West states, "...THINK. If you wipe out every last health problem in one fell swoop, our world will be
stripped bare by over-population." Maybe, and maybe not. But it is something to think about. Isn't it?
According to Brian Vaughn, it isn't. Thinking and Liberalism just don't seem to go together.