STRODE
Real Name: Strode (first name unrevealed)
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Draftsman
Group Membership: Large firm (name unrevealed)
Affiliations: None
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: Wife (name unrevealed), son
(name unrevealed)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Somewhere in the
Multiverse?
USA (exact location unrevealed)
First Appearance: Epic Illustrated#34/6
(February, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: Strode was a normal human
and able draftsman but dissatisfied with life, suspecting there was
more to reality than what was perceived. He was curious and initially
believed he could phase into other realities when it was only delusion.
Ultimately, he could phase out of reality into another universe.
Height: 5'9"
(by approximation)
Weight: 170 lbs. (by
approximation)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed
History:
(Epic Illustrated#34/6 (fb) - BTS) - Strode had a
wife and son, and they lived in suburbia. He was one of many draftsmen
in a
large firm.
(Epic Illustrated#34/6) - Despite
being led to believe that he should be satisfied with life, Strode felt
there was more to reality than the solitary one he knew. He
became reclusive from his family and began searching for answers in
strange places, finding ancient and ridiculed and forbidden texts for
knowledge. He learned reality was a matter of perception, that any
reality imagined could exist and was infinite. He felt he had to master
phasing from one reality to the next and this became an obsession to
the exclusion of all else, and his mental health seemed to deteriorate.
Strode imagined himself phasing into
different
fantastic worlds, soaring in spaceships and saving princesses from
giant lizards using ray guns. However, as his excitement grew in
phasing
between worlds, he found it difficult to maintain one reality, and
magnificent
vistas gave way to grim, darker lands. In his mind, faceless soldiers
arrested him, but in reality they were medics, who bound him in a
straitjacket and incarcerated him in a padded cell in a psychiatric
hospital. Left alone, he finally was able to phase out of reality and
into another
universe.
Comments:
Created by Archie Goodwin & Al Williamson.
Al Williamson made an excellent artist for the grand
fantasy and scifi vistas of this story, which was printed in black
& white and
served to highlight his outstanding artwork. If you like his Flash
Gordon work, you'll love this piece.
So what book drew Strode in and showed him the
fantastic
worlds before eventually allowing him to phase out of his universe?
As Queen sang: Is
this the real life? Is this just fantasy? I wonder how much he
interacted with the "real" world while he was lost in the fantasy
worlds. Did he actually shoot someone while thinking he'd shot a
dragon? He was holding a weapon when the medics arrived. And what of
the space princesses he kissed? Or was it all just him rambling in his
house? Or were there times he actually phased out to confuse him as if
he were a plaything in some game with a demon lord who'd baited a human
with a forbidden book left in a dark section of a library...?
This profile was completed 8/28/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile
by Grendel
Prime.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Strode has no known connections to:
- any other "Strode" characters
images:
(without ads)
Epic Illustrated#34/6, p4, pan2 (main image)
p7, pan3 (headshot)
p7, pans4-6 (incarcerated, phasing)
p5, pan2 (jumping with sword)
p3, pan1 (standing with gun)
Appearances:
Epic Illustrated#34/6 (February, 1986) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Al
Williamson (pencils & inks), Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, Jo Duffy
(editors)
First posted: 09/30/2021
Last updated:
09/29/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let
me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™
and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com.
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for
hosting the Appendix!
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