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In Strange Tales #118 and then once again in the very next book, we come across Dr. Strange invoking the name of an entity called Mormammu. I initially thought that this was a typo, but then I remembered, Dormammu is usually mentioned as Dread Dormammu and never as Mighty (to the best of my knowledge).

What and who is Mormammu? Was that a typo or was that an entity that was dropped later by the authors?

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    I think it was in #119. And since it appeared only one time (and only one page of this issue to be specific), it is most likely a typo. Just like Bruce Banner was called Bob, Peter Parker was called Peter Palmer, and Spider-Man was called Superman.
    – Shreedhar
    May 31, 2022 at 14:41
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    @justanotherguy The best way to dispute someone else's recollection is to provide sources. :)
    – DavidW
    May 31, 2022 at 14:44
  • According to Marvel fandom "Mormammu" appears in #118, but it links the name to the Dormammu page, so they consider it to be an alternate name; it's listed as an alternate on the Dormammu page with a sole reference to issue #118
    – DavidW
    May 31, 2022 at 14:50
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    Strange invokes "Mighty Mormammu" in #118, and then just "Mormammu" in #119. Baron Mordo invokes "Mighty Dormammu" in #117. May 31, 2022 at 15:01
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    Mormammu? LESS-mammu more like 🔥 May 31, 2022 at 15:47

2 Answers 2

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It's probably a typo. Probably...

In Strange Tales 119 Dr. Strange needs to enter the Purple Veil to save two crooks who tried to steal a gem that was the doorway to that dimension. So he calls his Mormammu to help him

Mormammu

This blog about Strange Tales 118 suggests it's a typo

When he said Mormammu, I think he meant Dormammu. In fact, the Marvel Masterworks reprinting changes the text to read “Dormammu”. “Mormammu” was perhaps a typo. Or maybe Dr. Strange messed up the invocation, which probably would anger Dormammu.

And again about Strange Tales 119

One confusing thing about the invocations is Mormammu vs. Dormammu. In this comic, he refers to both. The Marvel Masterworks I am reading changes all instances of “Mormammu” to “Dormmamu”, so I am sometimes uncertain which was used originally.

I have two other reprints of this story, which disagree with each other. Giant-Size Defenders #2 kept the first reference as Mormammu. Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #9 changed the first reference Dormammu. The second reference is definitely to Dormammu. In order, the below pictures are from the original comic, Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #9 (1967), and Giant-Size Defenders #2 (1974).

And indeed, they have this version from a later reprint (panel #3 from the previous strip) that has it as Dormammu. Yet another later printing after that went back to Mormammu

Dormammu?

So... is it a typo, or was it intentional? The original Stan Lee work has it as Mormammu. Someone at Marvel thought it was a typo and "fixed" it, but someone else put it back to the original. Since this is the only time it's ever really used, it strongly suggests a typo, but the story itself about the Purple Dimension is a one-off and Strange does not go there again.

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    Don't forget Stan Lee and his love for words starting with the same letter. So Mighty Mormammu might not have been a typo... Jun 1, 2022 at 4:34
  • @justanotherguy - Don't forget that Stan's memory wasn't the best in regard to names, and that the reason he liked to give characters alliterative names is so that if he could remember a character's first or last name, he'd have a built-in clue that'd help him to recall the other one. Even then, he still got names wrong on occasion, having narrative captions twice refer to Peter Parker as "Peter Palmer" in Amazing Spider-Man #1, for example. Aug 2, 2023 at 17:16
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I know that this is dated, but neither Stan Lee or Ditko never addressed this. So we can only surmise that since Dormammu had not been mentioned again until ST #120, that Mormammu may have been a different entity? Strange referred to him as "Mighty Mormammu", but referred to Dormammu as "The Dread Dormammu".

I know it appears nuance, but it's all we have to go on.

ST #120 Strange cleansing a possessed house

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  • Good point about the different alliterative qualifier used.
    – DavidW
    Aug 2, 2023 at 16:30
  • As I noted in a comment beneath the question, Baron Mordo invokes "Mighty Dormammu" in Strange Tales #117. As Shreedhar noted in another comment, Stan was also known for occasionally getting characters' names wrong, having Dr. Octopus refer to Spider-Man as "Super-Man" in Amazing Spider-Man #3, to name one particularly egregious example. Aug 2, 2023 at 16:56

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