Although the student population at Strange Academy appears to be over 100, this series follows the exploits of eleven core students who are part of the first year class.
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Emily Bright
- The Ace: She tends to pick up new spells a touch faster than her classmates.
- Audience Surrogate: She introduces Dr. Strange's new academy to the audience. We actually see why she receives an invitation to join and being magically escorted by an Academy staff member to the school in New Orleans.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: A rare unintentional example in that the ring Doyle gave her was intended to keep the dark magic she siphoned from killing her, but it turns out to have the unintended side effect of helping said dark magic bond with her and thus causing her to go crazy!
- Healing Hands: She apparently has some ability with healing. When her dog, Emma, is hit by a car she is able to push death away and heal Emma. However, the experience left her hurting deep inside more than she ever felt so it's not yet clear that she knows what she's doing.
- Interspecies Romance: Her boyfriend is a demon made of fire and brimstone.
- Living on Borrowed Time: She siphoned too much magic for her body to handle in issue 6 and it nearly kills her. Hoggoth is able to remove most of the excess magic from her but not all of it. To keep what's left from killing her she wears a Ring of Power made from a piece of Doyle.
- Meaningful Name: Her last name is Bright and she's generally does well in her magical studies.
- Rough Overalls: When not in uniform, Emily is seen wearing overalls as her main outfit. When she starts wearing the bib and straps down its a tell of her Face–Heel Turn
Shaylee Moonpeddle
- Amazing Technicolor Population: She's got pink skin. With hair and features that imply that her dad was probably black.
- Berserk Button: While generally one of the nicest students, Shaylee gains one of these in issue 10 after she and Toth become a couple; plainly put, don't ever mess with her boyfriend. It gets to the point that the group has to cut their field trip to Asgard short because of Shaylee making a brawl-in-progress even worse when she attacked a group trying to mess with Toth.
- Genki Girl: Shaylee is incredibly energetic and very excitable.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Her mother is a fairy while her father was a man from Brooklyn.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Fairies aren't supposed to fall in love and have children with humans. So Shaylee's mom was forced by the council to break up with her dad and he obeyed the ruling to give their daughter the best life he could.
- Winged Humanoid: As expected from a fairy, she has wings that allow her to fly.
Alvi and Iric Brorson
Iric (Front) and Alvi (Back)
Two Asgardians who come to train at the Academy.- Betty and Veronica: Iric is the Veronica to Doyle's Betty and Emily's Archie.
- Big Brother Instinct: Alvi is the only person Iric's not a Jerkass to. In fact he insisted they sleep in the same room.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Iric. If there is an irritable teacher to banish you to some hell dimension, or a strange beast to eat you and then vomit you up, he's the person that will happen to. Given he's a smug asshole people aren't that likely to sympathise with him either. And his Asgardian physiology makes it very unlikely for him to actually get hurt.
- Hypocrite: Iric makes fun of Doyle for being the son of a supervillain but as we later find out, his mother is Amora the Enchantress.
- Parental Issues: Their father is a palace guard who has difficulty finding time to spend with them (though Iric at least thinks he's a good father) and it turns out their mother is Amora the Enchantress who is (understandably) imprisoned, which Iric is very ashamed of.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Although identical twins, Alvi is a nerd and Iric is a Jerk Jock.
Guslaug aka "Gus"
- Cute Giant: Unlike the brutish-looking adult giants, Gus has a friendly and pleasant face and is almost always smiling.
- Flat Character: While he is one of the core eleven students he has very little characterization or backstory. He is frequently with the group and has an occasional line or two but little else. The current depth of his character is that he's a young giant, with blue skin, and white facial tattoos. Because of his giant size, he is usually shown looking in through a window because he's too big for the classroom.
- Gentle Giant: He's a literal Giant but a pretty nice, even-tempered guy.
- The Quiet One: Really doesn't say much but is quite polite when he does talk.
- Sizeshifter: Once Scarlet Witch demonstrates how, he begins regularly using magic to shrink his size and be around smaller people easier. Sometimes he'll go even smaller and sit on someone's shoulder.
Doyle Dormammu
- Abusive Parents: In issue 12 he mentions that he has "daddy issues". Not surprising given who his father is.
- Back from the Dead: He is killed by a group of magical tree people known as "The Hollow" in Issue 6 but he is brought back to life in the following issue.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Iric's Veronica and Emily's Archie.
- Character Tics: Doyle's flame turns a pinkish color whenever he gets flustered, sheepish or embarrassed. Naturally, this happens rather often when he's around Emily, who he has a crush on.
- Flaming Hair: Inherits his father’s fiery facial features.
- I Am Not My Father: He greatly fears turning out just like his father.
- Insecure Love Interest: To Emily.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His intention behind giving Emily a ring made from a piece of his bounding crown was to keep the dark magic from killing her, except the ring is actually helping the dark magic bond with her, thus causing her to go nuts!
- One Degree of Separation: He's Dormammu's son, who's the archenemy of Dr. Strange, who was married to his cousin Clea.
- Secret-Keeper: Issue 10 has him learn that Alvi and Iric's mother is Amora the Enchantress, but he keeps it a secret because he himself gets a lot of flack from people who know his father is Dormammu.
- Sins of Our Fathers: The Mindless Ones working at the school don't like him because his father enslaved them. It comes to a boil in Issue 9 when the Mindless Ones attack Doyle and Calvin has to save him.
- Special Person, Normal Name: What more can be said about being a son of Dormammu named Doyle?
- Touched by Vorlons: He's Dormammu's son in the sense that his mother brokered a deal to save him from an inoperable brain tumor that involved implanting a portion of Dormammu's essence within him.
- The Worf Effect: When he reaches his Rage Breaking Point in Issue 17 he wipes the floor with his whole class (minus Emily).
Zoe Laveau
- Dark Secret: While personal mystery abounds among the students of the academy, Zoe's goes pretty deep in that she's actually undead, using an enchanted necklace to appear as a normal, living girl. Ironically, it doesn't remain a secret very long as it is revealed to reader and then the rest of her classmates within the first few issues.
- Dreadlock Rasta: Her hair is full of dreadlocks.
- Interspecies Romance: She's a Zombie and her girlfriend is a demon.
- Our Zombies Are Different: She's fully sapient and doesn't eat people but she was brought Back from the Dead by her ancestor Marie Laveau and now has the appearance of a rotting corpse. She's the only student at the school who's allowed to go to the Zombieverse implying they'd recognize her as one of their own.
- Same Surname Means Related: As a black, magic practitioner from New Orleans with that last name it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise to people that she's a descendant of Marie Laveau.
- Twofer Token Minority: Black lesbian, and by the fantastical standards of the Marvel Universe, a zombie.
Calvin Morse
- Black Eyes of Evil: In Issue 9, a glimpse into Calvin's back-story shows that when he taps into his jacket's powers it brings out a cruel and violent side to his personality and his eyes turn almost completely black with just a faint pin-prick of color where his iris would be. These are "inherited" from the jacket's consciousness, Mister Misery.
- Canon Character All Along: his jacket is actually Mister Misery, a pre-established Doctor Strange villain.
- Clothes Make the Superman: It's revealed that his magical powers come from his jacket.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: First with his jacket, then when he losses it he becomes addicted to Gaslamps dark magic upgrades.
- Evil All Along: As the series explores the nature of his magical powers, some unpleasant truths are revealed. His jacket is the source of his power and is actually Mister Misery.
- Fantastic Drug: He starts using dark magic upgrades from Gaslamp, who he meets in a dark alley and gives him the first one for free. When he can't pay for any more he works off his dept. by selling it to other students in school.
- Flat Character: While one of the core eleven students he still has little characterization or backstory compared to the others. The current depth of his character is that he's a foster child moved from one home to another, has been mistreated by at least one foster family, has a good appetite, and has an enchanted jacket that seems to be bonded with him and brings out a dark, violent side of his personality when he taps into its power.
- In the Hood: Wears a hoodie underneath his magical jacket.
- Living Clothes: His jacket is shown to be alive to the point where it can join him in playing video games. It can grow eyes or use the eye designed pins on the collar as one.
- Orphan's Ordeal: We see that at least one set of foster parents have been abusive to him so he doesn't have much hope for the foster system. He views Strange Academy as yet another foster situation albeit a positive one and he's determined to enjoy it while it lasts.
- Sad Clown: He often acts upbeat but it's revealed that being an abused orphan has had a huge toll on his emotions. This is why Mister Misery was capable of bonding with him.
- Shipper on Deck: In Issue 9 he makes it clear that everyone knows about Doyle's crush on Emily and encourages Doyle to tell Emily how he feels.
Despair "Dessy"
- Goth: She acts like one, but since she's a demon from Limbo literally named Despair, she has a real reason to do so.
- Horned Humanoid: She has two curved horns, as expected from a demon.
- One-Winged Angel: She morphs into an absolutely monstrous form while fighting Mister Misery.
- Secret-Keeper: Is this for Zoe, keeping her Dark Secret from the other students.
Germán Aguilar
- Astral Projection: As a Nahual, Germán is able to enter the animage state, in which he can create animal projections.
- Flat Character: While he is one of the core eleven students he has very little characterization or backstory. He is frequently shown with the group and has an occasional line or two but little else. The current depth of his character is that he has a father and mother, comes from Guanajuato Mexico, identifies himself as a Nahual, and can project magical energy constructs of various animals. Little more than this is known and even this information wasn't introduced until Issue #5
- Power Tattoo: His body is covered in markings that signify his Nahual powers.
Toth
- Flat Character: While he is one of the core eleven students he has very little characterization or backstory. He is frequently shown with the group but never speaks. The current depth of his character is that he comes from the swamplands of Weird World, is a Crystal Warrior / Man-Thing hybrid and likes swimming.
- Gemstone Assault: Toth has the natural ability to generate, shape and manipulate crystals.
- Literally Shattered Lives: He is shattered in issue 11, but it's more a case of Not Quite Dead as it has happened to him before. Toth can be restored with the right spell provided all of his essential pieces are put back together which happens in the following issue.
- Nice Guy: Toth is easily one of the nicest students, quite mellow and generally going with the flow of things without letting anything get to him, to the point that he quickly and readily accepts becoming Shaylee's boyfriend when she asks him to out of the blue. Toth's first reaction to meeting Calvin again after being attacked and shattered by his jacket was to give him a hug.
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: His mother is a Crystal Warrior while his father is a Man-Thing. The result is a small but lanky Man-Thing (Teen-Thing?) that's made of crystals.
- The Voiceless: We have yet to see him actually talk in the comics, but his roommate, Germán, once indicated that Toth wanted to see the different animal spirits he could project implying that he has some means of communicating.
