Random Happenstance

I should just keep an eye out for the rest of this series, since I remember one issue I read when it came out, but haven't seen it since. It wasn't this one, either, but since it's here...from 1987, Strange Tales #8, featuring "The Black Tear Drop" Written by Terry Austin, pencils by Brett Blevins, inks by Bob Wiacek; and "If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!" Written by Peter B. Gillis, pencils by Terry Shoemaker, inks by Randy Emberlin. Cover by Kevin Nowlan.

We saw the next issue some time back, and I may have been harsh on Cloak as a dumb kid; but this is pretty traditional. We've seen the Hulk and the Thing do this multiple times: cured, but their low self-esteem drives them back to their "disease." In this case, Tyrone is having nightmares about the dark hunger that was inside of Cloak: their powers had recently changed, and Dagger was able to use her light to keep him as plain Tyrone 24 hours a day. But his stutter had returned, he was struggling in class, and felt like a failure compared to Dagger, where he had been her equal as Cloak. This leads him to Mr. Jip's shop, who gives him "the obsidian cube...(which) shall grant your heart's blackest desire." He takes it, returning to Cloak, and Dagger does not understand, nor want to, and she quits.

The Strange story is a bit of a wordy one, as Stephen has found a journal of the Ancient One, his master, which is not filled with glowing praise for him. In fact, it read as if he felt Strange followed him too closely, instead of "(fighting) his own way along the paths of magic." I'm not positive that journal wasn't a plant to damage Strange's confidence, but he also stops reading there! Maybe he proved the Ancient One wrong later. Kaluu also arrives, having been freed when the Book of the Vishanti was destroyed. Kaluu presents his own spin on events, arguing that while he may have committed a bit of evil here and there, didn't the Ancient One let a number of atrocities happen, that he could have stopped? Stephen may claim to not be a black magician; but Kaluu asks, is any action really "pure"? I don't think Strange is snowed by him, but still needs something to stop the world from dying, and is forced to team up.

The title of that one is probably from the works of psychotherapist Sheldon Kopp, which probably doesn't mean what you would think. Probably. If you meet the Buddha and think you can take him, well, who am I to stop you?