When Doctor Stephen Strange arrives in Kamar-Taj at the start of the 2016 movie Doctor Strange he thinks he knows everything. As in the Marvel comics by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee that inspired the film, Strange has come to find a cure for his shattered hands. But as an arrogant surgeon and a devoted rationalist, he cannot bring himself to believe in the magic practiced by the Ancient One. Only once the Ancient One opens his third eye and shows him the many worlds of the multiverse does Strange begin to understand.As we saw in the sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, that understanding includes the acknowledgment of other worlds, places that seem familiar, but are ultimately different, sometimes terrifyingly so. Perhaps, in another adventure, Strange visited a world where there lived another Master of the Mystic Arts. This fellow traveler also dressed in blue and wore a powerful talisman, which he uses against a former friend turned enemy, not unlike Strange’s arch-enemy Baron Mordo. This sorcerer could have been Doctor Strange, but because of an issue with copyright and licensing deals, he became Doctor Mordrid, as played by Jeffrey Combs in the delightful 1992 film from budget studio Full Moon Entertainment.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Copyright MagicThe story of Doctor Mordrid begins with Stan Lee and, more specifically, with Lee’s love of the movies. Lee was in his 40s when the Marvel Age of comics began in the early 1960s, having long worked as a writer and editor for companies owned by his uncle-in-law Martin Goodman, including Timely Comics and Atlas Comics. Lee had long since put behind him his aspirations of writing the great American novel. But when Marvel proved to be a cultural phenomenon, he leveraged that attention to move outside of comics, booking a college speaking tour, hosting an event at Radio City Music Hall, and making friends with people in the entertainment industry.Sometimes, that meant partnerships with filmmakers such as French New Wave director Alain Resnais; other times, it just meant trying to get Marvel heroes on the screen. While Lee had varying success with live-action and animated shows featuring Spider-Man and the Hulk, big-screen deals eluded the House of Ideas until the 1986 flop Howard the Duck. After that film’s failure, the best Marvel could do was produce direct-to-video schlock, such 1989’s The Punisher and 1990’s Captain America, until 1998’s Blade and 2002’s Spider-Man turned things around.Worse, Marvel hit upon hard times in the ’90s, when various forces such as the burst of the comic book speculator market drove the company into bankruptcy. To stay afloat, Marvel sold off the distribution rights to some of its characters, which is why Sony still gets to make Spider-Man movies today, and why Disney had to buy Fox to get ahold of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.That may have been why brothers Charles and Albert Band started working on a Doctor Strange film for their B-level studio, Full Moon Features. The purveyors of video store favorite franchises such as Puppet Master and Subspecies, Full Moon Features thrived on high concepts, low budgets, and the promise of shocking material. Yet, the brothers were huge Marvel fans, and took their cues from the publisher, creating a shared universe among their movies and Charles presenting himself as a jovial host in promotional material, not unlike Lee’s “Stan’s Soapbox” column in the comics.According to most accounts, the brothers were friendly with both Lee and Jack Kirby, the artist who created many of Marvel’s heroes. Those connections allowed them to secure a license to adapt Doctor Strange. But the production took so long that the rights reverted back to Marvel. Rather than let good work go to waste, the Bands simply swapped out a few names, and Doctor Mordrid was born. However, the opening credits to Doctor Mordrid do identify the project as “Based on an Original Idea by Charles Band.” Furthermore, Cecil Trachtenburg of GoodBadFlicks revealed on the Puppet Masters and Castle Freaks podcast that Doctor Mordrid screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner asserted that the film was always just an homage to Doctor Strange, never a direct adaptation.Whatever the true story, the fact remains that Doctor Mordrid plays like an alternate reality Doctor Strange movie, and a very good one at that.The Tale of Doctor MordridDoctor Mordrid opens as any story about a Master of the Mystic Arts should, in a stately library lit mostly by candles. Over a rousing score by Richard Band, promising adventure and thrills, the camera floats around the cavernous room, passing by strange objects that certainly hold untold power. After the opening credit sequence, we cut to a star field, through which peer two floating eyes. A rumbling, disembodied voice declares, “The Death’s Head will seek you out.”Who does this cosmic figure, who we will know as the Monitor, address? None other than Doctor Anton Mordrid, who stands ready to take up the challenge, citing his oath to meet the Death’s Head.An actor best known for playing weirdos in off-beat horror films like Re-Animator and From Beyond, and known for his multiple roles in the world of Star Trek, including the Vorta Weyoun on Deep Space Nine and the Andorian Shran on Enterprise, Combs gets a rare heroic part as Doctor Mordrid. But “heroic” should not be confused for “normal.” Combs plays Mordrid as a man either irritated or confused by the goings-on of the regular people around him, even those who rent rooms in his stately brownstone home. One such renter is Samantha Hunt (Yvette Nipar), a consultant in supernatural crimes working with the police, specifically detective Tony Gaudio (Jay Acovone).When Samantha and Guadio discover a murder victim drained of blood, a strange sigil on her body, Hunt recognizes the symbol from the library of her new acquaintance Doctor Mordrid. Together, Mordrid and Samantha search for the wizard Kabal (all-time ’80s “that guy” Brian Thompson), who has been gathering items of power throughout the film. By the end of the movie, Mordrid and Kabal test one another’s magical might, resulting in a battle with dinosaur skeletons, astral projection, and lots of lightning.If that sounds a bit haphazard, well, it is. Although perfectly acted by the leading cast, and certainly more ambitious than your average Puppet Master entry, Doctor Mordrid is still a Full Moon Feature, which tend to emphasize big, weird ideas over tight plotting. The film does feel a bit stretched out, even at 74 minutes, something no one would say about its MCU cousin. But does that make it a worse movie?Strange and StrangerDespite some differences, such as the fact that he’s an ageless defender of the Earth, Doctor Mordrid is a pretty direct copy of Doctor Strange, complete with his astral projection powers and use of an amulet that recalls the Eye of Agamotto. Kabal feels like an off-brand Mordo, while the Monitor is a mix of the Ancient One and the Vishanti. Between those near-misses and its decidedly lower budget, it’s easy to dismiss Doctor Mordrid as an unnecessary relic of the pre-MCU age.But Doctor Mordrid should not be forgotten, for that very reason. There’s a directness and a sincerity to the film that gets lost in modern MCU entries, which try so hard to appeal to larger audiences. Where Benedict Cumberbatch plays Strange as a snarky know-it-all like Tony Stark, Combs makes Mordrid truly strange, someone otherworldly, closer to his comic book counterpart. Moreover, there’s a nastiness to Doctor Mordrid that comes from its Full Moon pedigree, including a gratuitous nude scene for a Satanic ritual, which retains a danger to the mystic arts, something lost in the MCU.Is Doctor Mordrid better than Doctor Strange? No, of course not. But it is a worthy film on its own, a reminder of the types of superhero movies we used to have, in a different time and in a different world.The post The Strange Case of Doctor Mordrid, the Off-Brand Doctor Strange Rip-Off appeared first on Den of Geek.