As a young man he fought as part of the Freedom Brigade in WW2, alongside Johnny Nitro and Electrical Man. Now, he is nearing 100 – which for a wizard is like puberty. It is now the time that he should find a cave in the Andes and study the mystic arts for the next two centuries. Stranger has been putting it off, however, to remain with his two teammates, now facing senility and heart disease. They are his last remaining friends, and he doesn’t begrudge them a couple of years to see them off to the next world in comfort. The warping of their nursing home into The City was unexpected, but nothing he can’t handle. Of greater concern to him are the wizards of the OTHER city. They still perform magic in a medieval fashion – chants, material components, elaborate hand gestures – while the Stranger uses advanced 20th century techniques that let him cast spells with a simple phrase. The primitive wizards want to learn his technique, and are not being very polite about asking.