History Comicbook / DoctorStrange

* ''Marvel Graphic Novel'' #23 (1986) - ''Doctor Strange: Shamballa'' by J.M. DeMatteis and Dan Green

* ''The Mystic Hands of Doctor Strange'' (2010) - black-and-white 48-page anthology with stories by Creator/KieronGillen, Creator/PeterMilligan, Creator/TedMcKeever, and Creator/MikeCarey

* ''Doctor Strange: ComicBook/TheBestDefense'' (2018) - part of the ComicBook/TheBestDefense crossover

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** Sorcerer Supreme, Master of the Mystic Arts. Clea was sometimes called the Mystic Maiden. Luke Cage attempted to saddle him with "the Magic Avenger" when he officially joined the New Avengers.

* SlidingTimeScale: One of the few characters in the MarvelUniverse who is immune. According to the ''Marvel: The Lost Generation'' limited series, his origin actually ''did'' happen in the Sixties, or perhaps even earlier.

* SlidingTimeScale: One of the few characters in the MarvelUniverse who is immune.

* SuperWeight: Level 5 or level 6 DependingOnTheWriter. To be expected when you've been called upon for aid by ''the manifestation of the '''universe''' itself''. Returned to level 6 after [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop selling his soul for the power of a god.]]

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: So many dimensionsal overlords like Dormammu speak english for some reason, some times it’s explained other times it’s not.

* FantasyKitchenSink: Demon lords, dimensionsal overlords, witched, fairies, zombies, Eldritch abominations, gods pretty much the whole package.

* WizardingSchool: Dr Strange is to open Strange Academy, a school for magical children to learn to use their powers responsibly, in 2020.

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* WhoYouGonnaCall: Other Marvel heroes often come to Doctor Strange seeking help with various mystical problems.

* CityOfWeirdos: Greenwich Village, [[BigApplesauce New York City.]]

'''Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange''' is Master of the Mystic Arts and the Sorcerer Supreme of the MarvelUniverse, which means that he's in charge of protecting it (mostly from powerful supernatural menaces). Strange first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (July, 1963), created by Creator/StanLee and Creator/SteveDitko. He has been appearing ever since, featured as a star of his own series, in team books, and as a frequent guest star in other people's titles. His story has been adapted into a live-action MadeForTVMovie, an [[WesternAnimation/DoctorStrangeTheSorcererSupreme animated DVD movie]] and [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 a film adaptation]] for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse.

* AstralProjection: This is an incredibly dangerous spell that leaves the body vulnerable and is fatal after 24 hours. [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fire12_210.jpg Strange barely even hesitates to use it]]. In fact, it's one of his signature moves.
** AnAstralProjectionNotAGhost: Inevitably someone who sees his astral form will mistake him for a decedent. Of course, he never makes that mistake himself.

-->'''Thug''': Now give us everything you've got!
-->'''Wong''': I offer nothing less.
-->[''cue beatdown'']
* BigBadDuumvirate: When Baron Mordo first teams up with Dormammu, this is what he ''thinks'' has happened...
** DemotedToDragon: ...but as Dormammu constantly reminds him, this is what ''actually'' happens. Mordo resists the idea at first, but eventually gives in, calling Dormammu master and trying to keep favor with him.

* TheChessmaster: At times he cannot fight the enemy directly, so he recruits heroes and sends them to deal with the threat. In particularly jerkish moments, he neither asks their permission first nor thanks them afterward, but he'll usually apologize and explain if called on it.
** Taken to the extreme in a recent Defenders one-shot, where a time-displaced future Strange sends his astral projection back in time with a devastating snowball of consequences, all for the intended purpose of altering an alien's travel trajectory a few degrees.

* DemotedToExtra: Ever since the loss of his own title series.
** Strange was basically this for most of the 2000s. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski was supposed to write a regular Dr. Strange book, but for whatever reason the book never materialized, so Straczynski compensated by making Strange a supporting character in the ComicBook/SpiderMan book instead, suddenly being Spider-Man's closest superhero ally over Peter's more long-standing friendships, like with Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. It got to the point where Spider-Man fans groaned whenever Spidey came across some sort of mystical phenomena, knowing full well that he was going to make yet ''another'' trip to the Sanctum Sanctorum for help.
* DentedIron: Turns out that one really can't be a SquishyWizard in Marvel. Channeling the dark arts will alter your innards and will kill weak people who try it for long enough period of time. Dr. Strange has methods to reduce the effects and he's tough as nails, but he still has to go through a regular routine of getting pus drained out of internal boils, ulcers treated and etc.
* DePower: Zigzagged. His most powerful spells draw on the energy of divine beings, so he can't technically lose those unless he also loses the favor of that deity. On the other hand, AstralProjection, PsychicPowers, the ability to manipulate the magical energy of the universe, and the ability to steal another's magic through sheer force of will have been implied to be his own personal powers. He relied heavily on artifacts like the Eye of Agamotto to help him use those abilities effectively, so his loss of the Eye and the special patronage of the Vishanti would count as a functional de-powering.

* DrJerk: Strange's backstory. Before he became a sorcerer, he was one of the most skilled surgeons in the world and had the clout to charge his own exorbitant fees, turn away patients who couldn't afford to pay, and walk out on colleagues.
** The animated movie gives him a literal dead little sister to give him a FreudianExcuse.

-->'''Wong''': Journeys only find meaning at their destinations. I am fully prepared to reach my final--
-->'''Doctor Strange''': Oh, shut up with that Zen crap.

* {{Fingore}}: Strange's hands were badly injured in the car crash, and though they outwardly appeared to heal, nerve damage meant he could never safely operate again. [[DependingOnTheWriter Different writer-artist teams]] may or may not make his impaired dexterity obvious, and a few particularly sadistic ones have [[CallBack had his hands damaged again.]]
** [[DependingOnTheWriter Others have said]] that his hands have fully healed and there's nothing physically wrong with them, it's his confidence, and more specifically, his ego that was devastated.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal / AlliterativeName: '''S'''tephen '''S'''trange, the '''S'''orcerer '''S'''upreme, resident of the '''S'''anctum '''S'''anctorum (and Master of the Mystic Arts).

* HealingMagicIsTheHardest: Potentially. Other than the rumors of healing that brought Strange to the Ancient One's doorstep, the ability of magic to heal is almost never addressed.
** As of the comic #19 (2019), Stephen has healed his hands. What it took was a DealWithTheDevil with an EldritchAbomination named Channok, Keeper of Forbidden Spells. Channok had a tome called "The Book of Even Odds" with the spell "Uthurvan's Invocation" a spell no one tried for a millennia. With good reason, it could cure Strange's condition or it could permanently remove his powers and make the Earth dimension vulnerable without a Sorcerer Supreme. It worked, but in an agonizing way. [[BodyHorror The spell vaporized Stephen's hands and bit by bit rebuilt them until he had brand-new hands]].

* NoEnding: A huge complaint about the ''Strange'' mini-series; it seems to end right at what you'd think would actually be the halfway point of the story. Who wants to take bets that Casey is just going to be forgotten and will be a little soul flame for the rest of her life, [[DemotedToExtra poor girl]].
** We later get a resolution in [[spoiler: ''Doctor Strange (2018)''. Turns out Strange spent the better part of a year looking before his obsession with finding her nearly gets him and the Earth annihilated by a monster called Jundo. He temporarily removed his memories of Casey to focus himself on sealing Jundo away, but not before she kills the demon Stange intrusted the memories to without Strange noticing. Now Casey's back nine real-time years later feeling betrayed and ''pissed'', impersonating the good Doctor while he was out in space (long story)]].

** As one advertisment once said, "if he has to make a house call, you're already in trouble."

-->"Oh...''crap''," Stephen? Such a mundane utterance from the Sorcerer Supreme! I'd expected ''"By Cyttorak's Crimson Bands!"'' or ''"Vipers of Valtor!"'' or--what is your other favorite?--ah, yes ''"Shades of the Seraphim!"'' But..."Oh...''crap''"? Most unimaginative.

* OracularHead: Strange's animate head in the miniseries ''ComicBook/{{Marvel 1602}}'', taking advantage of a cannot-speak-of-this-while-alive loophole.
* OutOfTimeOutOfMind: Strange spent 5000 years in another dimension and returned after four months of 'real' time, having aged only a year.

* ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest: Strange owes his long tenure as Sorcerer Supreme to the fact that the few who are actually skilled enough to challenge him also tend to be wise enough to realize how badly it would suck to actually have his job, which entails fighting potentially world-destroying threats on a daily basis. Strange once faced a challenge from a young man who was convinced that he was ready to become the Sorceror Supreme and, not wanting to hurt the kid, allowed him to think that he'd won... then gave the lad a simulation of all the shit he deals with on a normal day. The poor sod lasted only a few minutes before freaking out and begging Strange to take the job back.

* PostModernMagik: In the 2018 series Strange meets the alien Pkzkrfmknna, Kanna for short, who is an arcanologist, a study of magic. Her knowledge is deep enough that she can replicate magical spells with completely scientific substitutes and regularly uses a "wrench wand" for mechanical repairs.

* PsychologicalTormentZone: One weapon of his enemies'. D'Spayre once caught him in one so painful that he nearly [[DrivenToSuicide took his own life]].
** BreakThemByTalking: Another of D'Spayre's favorite weapons. So good at it that, again, he came within seconds of convincing Strange to kill himself. Yes, he's nearly done it ''twice''.

* SacrificialPlanet: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in a StoryArc from the 1970s, wherein the villain Nightmare manages to destroy the Earth at the beginning and the story is about trying to bring it back, or at least get Earth recreated anew.

* SlidingTimeScale: One of the few characters in the MarvelUniverse who is immune. As Sorcerer Supreme, he has eternal youth and is locked in his forties, although he's chronologically twice that age.
** Potentially retconned after the events of Secret Wars 2015. When asked how long he's been practicing magic, he answers "about a decade."
* StealthPun: For a time, Strange took on Rintrah, a green minotaur-like being, as his apprentice. [[spoiler:A ''greenhorn''.]]

* SuperheroSobriquets: Sorcerer Supreme, Master of the Mystic Arts. Clea was sometimes called the Mystic Maiden. Luke Cage attempted to saddle him with "the Magic Avenger" when he officially joined the New Avengers.
** TheAdjectivalSuperhero: For some reason this one applies to his rogues' gallery: The Dread Dormammu, the Unspeakable (or Unrelenting) Umar...

* ThematicRoguesGallery: Most of Strange's enemies are sorcerers or demons.
** Stressing the point here, Strange is ''too absurdly powerful'' to fight non-{{Eldritch Abomination}}s or other Super Super threats, [[DependingOnTheWriter most of the time]].

* GodzillaThreshold: Strange has to pull out these options quite a bit. In one memorable multi-part storyline from the late 60's, he went through a whole ''chain'' of these; to defeat Dormammu's sister, Umar, he had to free the awesomely powerful demon Zom; to defeat Zom, he had to [[ItMakesSenseInContext yank out some of its hair]], which spread evil magic all over the world and also summoned the Living Tribunal, who threatened to destroy Earth unless Strange could remove all the evil magic he had unleashed; to gather together all the evil magic, he had to give it all to [[TheRival Baron Mordo]], giving him a tremendous power-up; to defeat the empowered Mordo, he had to use an ArtifactOfDoom given to him by the ObviouslyEvil entity Nebulos, which gave all the evil power to ''it'' instead. Finally, he aided the [[BigGood Living Tribunal]] in defeating Nebulos, and the Tribunal then declared Earth was safe, ending the chain.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: The Ancient One is barefoot in the animated movie.

- Chondu the Mystic, who appeared in 1960 as a criminal magician, has now reformed and runs a bar for mages.
- Monako Prince of Magic, who appeared in 1940 in Timely Comics (preceding Marvel), appears as a veteran magician.
- Casey Kinmont, who had briefly appeared as a sidekick to Dr Strange in 2010, returns for another brief appearance.
- Doctor Druid, Strange’s acquaintance, is set for a return in 2020.

** Strange was basically this for most of the 2000s. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski was supposed to write a regular Dr. Strange book, but for whatever reason the book never materialized, so Straczynski compensated by making Strange a supporting character in the SpiderMan book instead, suddenly being Spider-Man's closest superhero ally over Peter's more long-standing friendships, like with Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. It got to the point where Spider-Man fans groaned whenever Spidey came across some sort of mystical phenomena, knowing full well that he was going to make yet ''another'' trip to the Sanctum Sanctorum for help.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: To Creator/DCComics' ComicBook/DoctorFate, the most powerful magic user in [[Franchise/TheDCU his universe]].

* AristocratsAreEvil: Baron Mordo

* BadassMustache

* CityOfWeirdos: Greenwich Village, [[BigApplesauce New York City]].

* ExposeTheVillainGetHisJob: How he became The Ancient One's apprentice. The Ancient One already knew that his current apprentice was plotting to betray him, but he let Strange discover Mordo's treachery to [[SecretTestOfCharacter see what he would do]].

* FantasyKitchenSink

* {{Fingore}}: Strange's hands were badly injured in the car crash, and though they outwardly appeared to heal, nerve damage meant he could never safely operate again. [[DependingOnTheWriter Different writer-artist teams]] may or may not make his impaired dexterity obvious, and a few particularly sadistic ones have [[CallBack had his hands damaged again]].

* TheWitchHunter: Silver Dagger