What’s happening everybody? I hope all is well this weekend and you’re ready for some excitement, because this week’s Marvel Snapshot is going to keep with the Marvel Horror theme that I’ve been writing about along with my Ye Olde School Cafe’ column now for a while. In this week’s edition, we’ll be spotlighting Jericho Drumm, or as he’s more commonly known as, Brother Voodoo! This character has quite an eccentric origin and life, so let’s get right to it!
Alright, so, for those of you who don’t know anything about his origin, I’ll start from the beginning. Jericho Drumm is a native of Haiti, and left there to practice medicine in the United States. Upon returning years later to his home land, Jericho found his twin brother, Daniel, was dying. His brother was under a spell from a voodoo sorcerer. Jericho’s brother Daniel is also the houngan (a priest who carries out rituals and such) for the village. Well, to make a long story short, Daniel dies and Jericho eventually becomes the houngan supreme, and gets revenge on his brother’s killer.
After his beginning a new era as a crime fighter, Brother Voodoo had his share of team-ups with the regulars like Spider-Man, and the like, but he had a great adventure with Doctor Strange. The two men fought alongside Clea to stop Marie Laveau from using a vampire army to wreak havoc on Earth. Jericho was also assisted by his dead brother Daniel’s spirit. Papa Jambo used a voodoo spell to bring back Daniel’s spirit to advise Jericho if needed.
Brother Voodoo was one of Marvel’s characters that was left on the back burner for quite sometime, only making brief appearances in other characters’ books. He eventually became Sorcerer Supreme when Doctor Strange gave up the mantle because the Doc used poor judgment in fighting against evil. Voodoo received his own series in 2009, and his skills were put to the test immediately with Nightmare and Doctor Doom needing to be dealt with.
The newest incarnation of Brother Voodoo had a great writer behind it. Rick Remender was the genius behind that great (but short lived) series. Originally though, it was Len Wein and Gene Colan that produced most of the older stuff and also are credited with being the creators. This is one of those characters that I don’t think Marvel had any idea what to do with for a while. The latest ongoing series was good, I thought. I mean, you had Doom, Nightmare, Dormmamu, and a host of other supernatural beings just waiting to be tapped for that series.
In closing, I’d like to urge you to buy the trade paperback of the Doctor Voodoo series by Remender. It contains the five issue series and a one-shot that shows Jericho’s origin.
Recommended Reading
Doctor Voodoo Avenger of the Supernatural – Tpb
New Avengers vol. 1 – #53, 54, 59, 60
The Tomb of Dracula vol. 1 – #34-37
Essential Marvel Horror vol. 2 – Tpb
Werewolf by Night – #40 & 41
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
Brother Voodoo is one of those characters that Marvel should have spent more time developing before they put him in the role of Sorcerer Supreme. Sure he’s got the experience and all of that but he had been out of the spotlight for such a long time that either people didn’t know who the hell he was or just didn’t care. Either way that’s not a great thing for the character.
@Speech- I would have loved to see Brother Voodoo study under Doc Strange for a while in a mini or something before he took the reigns.
It’s kind of like Marvel just threw him at fans like “here ya go guys!” I know they (Marvel) wanted that surprise element but it severly backfired here. If they spent at least a year building up his exposure since he was such a rarely used character then I think people would have been a bit more invested in him when the time came for him to take over as Sorcerer Supreme.
@Speech- Oh yeah, they (Marvel) were hoping for that shock factor when BV was revealed as the new SS, but it obviously fell short because of the lack of face time he gets. Its a shame to because he’s a great character.
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