Titan Books has announced Doctor Strange: Dimension War, a new prose novel retelling the origin of Marvel‘s Sorcerer Supreme.
Set for release next March, Doctor Strange: Dimension War comes from New York Times-bestselling author James Lovegrove (The Age of Odin). The novel seeks to revisit “the earliest days of Doctor Strange — and his origin as the Sorcerer Supreme,” adapting the original Marvel Comics stories by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Check out the official cover art for Doctor Strange: Dimension War below:
Per Marvel, Dimension War features “foundational characters who have defined Doctor Strange through the years, such as the Ancient One, Wong, Clea, and his many adversaries.” It also “follows Strange’s adventures to some of the weirdest places in the Marvel Universe — the dream kingdom of Nightmare, the Dark Dimension, and beyond!”
Titan Books’ official synopsis for the novel reads as follows: “When arrogant physician Stephen Strange lost the ability to wield a surgeon’s knife, he embarked on a path of self-reflection and discovery. Now equipped with magical powers, he battles tirelessly to defend the Earth from arcane threats that few humans can conceive of — facing rival sorcerers, thwarting Nightmare the malevolent ruler of dreams, and daring to defy the terrifying despot of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu.”
James Lovegrove talks Doctor Strange: Dimension War
“I would have been seven or eight years old when I first read the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko DOCTOR STRANGE [comics],” Lovegrove said. “I was instantly captivated by its intrinsic weirdness, its blurring of the line between superheroics and the supernatural. There was no other comic strip that looked like it, disorientated like it, revelled in its own extraordinariness like it. There was nothing stranger than STRANGE.
“I’ve come back to those tales several times since that first youthful immersion, and while revisiting them yet again in preparation for writing Dimension War I found them just as fascinatingly tricksy and woozily dizzying as I did when I was a kid,” the author continued. It’s almost impossible to re-create Ditko’s mad, daring artwork in prose form but I challenged myself to offer readers at least a taste of it while also giving them the opportunity to relish Lee’s exuberant, alliterative spellcasting chants and oaths [for] an unparalleled sense of cosmic grandeur and eldritch absurdity.”
Lovegrove concluded, “My take on the early adventures of the Master of the Mystic Arts removes some of the original’s more outdated tropes, throws in a dash of Benedict Cumberbatch [who plays Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe], and a pinch of wider Marvel lore. Dimension War marinades it all in modern sensibilities, with results that I hope will both satisfy purists and be appetizing to newcomers.”
Doctor Strange: Dimension War by James Lovegrove goes on sale March 26, 2024 from Titan Books. The novel is currently available for pre-order.
