Doctor Strange (1968) #182

Cover by Gene Colan

Cover Date: September 1969

On-Sale Date: June 1969

Synopsis: Doctor Strange temporarily frees the Juggernaut from the Crimson Cosmos to help him defeat Nightmare.

Proposed Placement: XY 3, April

CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES:

This story continues from the last issue of Doctor Strange, and a bunch of stuff happens to set it up that's not really relevant to the X-Men.  After Eternity's battle with Dormammu in Strange Tales (1951) #146, Nightmare captured Eternity and held him prisoner.  (This would have happened somewhere around X-Men (1963) #22 if we go by publishing dates.)  Strange recently discovered this, and went to Nightmare's realm to rescue Eternity, leaving behind a psychic shell to connect him with the real world.  Nightmare trapped Strange by using his own amulet against him, and that's where this issue begins.

Eternity mentions on page 18.4 that he was imprisoned for months.  The X-Men issues published around the same time happen in the middle of XY 1, which is plenty of time for that months-long captivity.

Page 8

Of more relevance is the reappearance of the Juggernaut, who was last seen being sent back to the Crimson Cosmos in X-Men (1963) #46.  Here, he is summoned by Strange to distract Nightmare so that Strange can rescue Eternity.  Once rescued, Eternity consigns both Nightmare and the Juggernaut to "oblivion".  He'll next show up in Amazing Adventures (1970) #16, where he returns to Earth from oblivion only to be sucked back through another dimensional portal.  The poor guy just cannot catch a break.

It's interesting to note that the Juggernaut is said on page 10 to have gained certain mystic abilities during his exile in the Crimson Cosmos.  He does display some odd powers during his earlier appearances, including some spellcasting here, whereas later he is almost entirely a super-strong brute.  It's nice to see writer Roy Thomas writing those powers off as a result of his dimensional imprisonment. Presumably those powers wear off later.

COUNTING THE DAYS:

This story happens over a few hours at most.  In publishing terms it's concurrent with X-Men (1963) #59, but really it can happen any time after #46 and before Amazing Adventures (1970) #16.  The large gap between X-Men (1963) #52 and #54 looks like the best place to squeeze it in.