Warning: Doctor Strange (2023) is a direct sequel to events in Strange (2022), so Late Arrival Spoilers for that series are unmarked on this page.
The Doctor is in.
Doctor Strange is a 2023 comic book from Marvel Comics, a relaunch of the titular Doctor Strange, written by Jed MacKay and art by Pasqual Ferry. It's a Sequel Series to MacKay's Strange (2022) and continues the Doctor Strange Myth Arc he began with 2021's The Death of Doctor Strange. The relaunch is also part of Stephen’s 60th Anniversary.
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, the series continues Stephen and Clea's storyline in the wake of Stephen's resurrection at the end of Strange, as they navigate married life, mystical threats, and a new mysterious foe targeting Stephen's enemies.
The first issue was released on March 22, 2023.
Doctor Strange provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Stephen's first appointment after his return involves Spider-Man, who asks Stephen for help in getting his soul back from a demonic card dealer.
- Absurd Phobia: Stefano Stiletto is terrified of toys (more specifically stuffed animals, which is called out in story as ludilophobia), screaming when Donna animates toys to lunge at him. Gym-nasty lampshades the absurdy of someone afraid of toys joining a circus-themed band of supervillains, but Chief Beef claims that Stefano is a fan of exposure therapy.
- All for Nothing: General Stephen Strange is outraged that thousands of years of being forced to betray his principles by killing untold scores of people across countless planes ends in the Vishanti and the Trinity of Ashes suing for peace, as both of them are terrified of the mad dog that the War of the Seven Spheres turned him into.
- Anti-Magic: Mysterium is a unique material that nullifies magic on contact, working even against the Faltine. It is anathema to sorcerers like Clea and Stephen, who risk losing access to their powers if they're impaled by a mysterium weapon. Clea attempts to use a mysterium dagger to murder General Strange in hopes of sparing Stephen the pain of doing so.
- The Archmage: Stephen and Clea are the Sorcerer Supremes of their respective home dimensions, making them to premier magical authorities on Earth and the Dark Dimension respectively. As such, the superheroes of the Marvel Universe know who to turn to when there's a magical problem in need of solving. But even they are outstripped by the likes of General Strange, who honed his skills for thousands of years and became a merciless "warrior without compare".
- Bait-and-Switch: The first arc of the story centers around a mysterious assailant powerful and skilled enough to assasinate the likes of a Sorcerer Supreme. When Aggamon is killed, his dying words are his surprise that "Strange" is coming after him. Given how Clea emphasized how she's taking Stephen's last name, all eyes fall on her given her penchant for Paying Evil Unto Evil. The truth is far worse than that, as the mastermind is none other than General Stephen Strange, the version of him who fought in the War of the Seven Spheres and terrified the Trinity of Ashes into suing for peace.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the end of the comic's first major arc, Stephen is no match for his foe, who declares that Stephen can never defeat him. Stephen agrees, but replies that unlike General Strange, he has friends. Cue the arrival of Wong and the Freaky Doctor Zee, who bombard General Strange with magical psychedelics that incapacitate the crazed sorcerer. This creates an opening for Doctor Strange to transplant a portion of his conscience into the General, who is soon overwhelmed with guilt over his actions.
- Born of Magic: As part of their marriage, Umar and Tiboro create an heir in the form of a daughter they gestate in a magical womb.
- Care-Bear Stare: How Stephen manages to defeat General Strange. Knowing he could never win, even with a power boost, he surprises the General with a magical psychedelic trip from the Freaky Doktor Zee. He then performs Psychic Surgery while the General is incapacitated to transplant a portion of his own conscience into him. This paralyzes him with restored guilt over his actions, and Stephen resolves to spend however long it takes to heal him completely.
- Continuity Nod: While investigating the battlefield in Nightmare's realm in issue #2, Clea mentions the ass-kicking Nightmare received from the X-Men while Stephen was dead. Stephen wryly remarks Nightmare picking a fight with Jean Grey of all people wasn't very smart of his old foe.
- Continuity Overlap: The relaunch is running parallel to MacKay's concurrent run on Moon Knight (2021). Unsurprisingly, Marc Spector guest stars in the preview
for the second issue. - Costume Evolution: As seen in the pre-release art for covers and preview pages, Stephen will be sporting a new, revamped costume designed by Alex Ross (who will also be serving as the cover artist).
- Crystal Prison: When the Vishanti split General Strange into a separate being, they stuck his memories and magic into a crystal.
- Day in the Life: Much of the first issue is devoted to Stephen getting back in touch with all his old friends and acquainteneces while settling back into the role of Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. Namely, helping everyone with their magical problems.
- A Day in the Spotlight: Issue #4's an interlude, focusing on Wong and Pandora Peters as agents of the newly reformed W.A.N.D.
- Entertainingly Wrong: In the previous series, Clea declared herself the Warlord of Manhattan and that all of its magical denizens are under her protection. This leads those same magical races to consider Clea the true ruler of New York City. They're on the verge of staging a rebellion against the "pretender", Mayor Luke Cage, until he asks Stephen to clear up this misunderstanding.
- Godzilla Threshold: To defeat General Strange, Stephen resorts to drastic measures that involve courting "madness itself". He tells Bats to leave the room before starting a ritual to broker a deal with the Trinity of Ashes for the power to match General Strange even briefly.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Every year, Stephen and Dormammu have a "Parley Day" during which they do nothing but hang out and mosey around New York City. Of course, Dormammu has to go and make it awkward(er) by always possessing one of his human worshippers for the occasion, smug in his belief that Stephen will be unable to prevent the Possession Burnout.
- Goo-Goo-Godlike: Donna is Umar's daughter with Tiboro and thus descended from a Faltine and a Sorcerer Supreme. As a creature of magic, she has an enormous natural affinity for it, enough to animate toys to do her bidding, manipulate snacks into attack animals, and fly purely on instinct. Even Stephen and Clea struggle to find Donna when the girl teleports herself away. Donna goes so far as to mask her magical signature by bouncing it around like a paranormal VPN, befuddling two Sorcerer Supremes.
- Humiliation Conga: Discussed. When Dormammu possesses a mortal host as part of his yearly "Parley Day", Stephen makes a point of reciting all of Dormmamu's past and humiliating defeats to him. Only, this was not to pester Dormammu but to reach his host, Everett Stone. By reciting all of Dormammu's failings, Stephen helps shatter Stone's faith in Dormammu as an omnipotent god, enabling Stephen to exorcize Dormammu and save Stone's life.
- Killer Game Master: Baron Mordo gets his hands on Cobolorum's game book and immediately summons a dragon to attack the Secret Defenders, who have taken the roles of players.
- Marriage of Convenience: Umar tells Clea she married Tiboro because she hopes he'll distract the mysterious killer long enough for her to get away.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Stephen and Clea's renewed marriage after their original relationship's collapse, the erasure of Clea's memories during the Mark Waid era, and Stephen's death.Jed MacKay: [Stephen’s death] has brought them together after every power in the world conspired to keep them apart. In bringing Stephen back, our heroes have a fresh start. What remains is seeing how they use it.”
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Strange always refers to his Secret Defenders as his friends (and Taskmaster).
- Not Me This Time: When Aggamon is assassinated by an unknown magician, all eyes fall on Clea given how openly she advocates for violent retribution against murderers. She even assumes that Stephen suspects her as well, but she insists she didn't do it. Though not for lack of trying. She later admits she was about to do the deed herself, but General Strange simply beat Clea to it and vanished before Clea could figure out what happened.
- Official Couple: Stephen and Clea's new status quo coming off of Strange.Jed MacKay: I think there’s a certain gravitas in the two of them together — neither of them are young, fresh, unseasoned,. Stephen Strange is an elder statesman in the Marvel universe, the person that’s always brought in when magic intrudes into lives of other heroes, and Clea is every bit his equal: an alien warlord who possesses great power of her own. I think Clea and Strange are a power couple in every sense of the word...
- Off with His Head!: Aggamon, Warlord of the Purple Dimension, is decapitated by a mysterious attacker at the end of the first issue.
- Outside-Context Problem: As Sorcerer Supremes, Stephen and Clea are far above the Super Weight of the average NYC supervillain. When an upstart tries to reform the Circus of Crime, she makes the mistake of chasing after Donna, Clea's sister who is currently in Clea's and Stephen's care. The Circus isn't even treated to the dignity of a fight, as the next page shows the Stranges back at the Sanctum Sanctorum and returning Donna to her mother, Umar.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: While Stephen and Clea are usually on the same page, they differ in temperament and their priorities in dealing with villainy. Stephen is level-headed and methodical. As a doctor, he's sworn to protect life however possible and prefers non-lethal and peaceful measures. Clea, having survived the treacherous Dark Dimension, is far more temperamental and far less merciful. She's a fervent believer in paying evil unto evil and advocates for asassinating evil-doers before they can do more harm. She is outraged that Stephen would let Aggamon get away with murdering innocent life in the short-term and storms off in a huff.
- Retcon: It was originally stated that Stephen remembered his time in the War of the Seven Spheres and, though struggling to reintegrate into his old life, succeeded in becoming his old self. Here it's revealed that all his memory of the war was expunged into a distinct identity and sealed away so he could be reset to before he entered the war at all.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The first issue sees the British government striking a bargain with the alien warlord Aggamon and deporting refugees to his dimension. Clea and Stephen disapprove and intervene. This echoes the real British government's controversial scheme to deport refugees to Rwanda, which was in the headlines at the time.
- RPG Episode: Issues #13 has a sentient RPG transform New York into a fantasy world. To save the day Stephen forms the Secret Defenders with Black Cat, Taskmaster, and Hunter's Moon, a rogue, a fighter, and a cleric to go with his wizard.
- Sequel Series: The series is a direct sequel to Strange (2022), which ended with Stephen coming Back from the Dead. Writer Jed MacKay continues his run, becoming the initial writer on the new series, but with a new art team.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: While they are married and in love, Stephen and Clea are also still very much ideological opposites. While they are both compassionate, Stephen believes in reconciliation and focuses on doing minimal harm. But Clea's upbringing in the Dark Dimension has taught her that evil must be nipped in the bud, favoring retribution and vengeance upon villains who abuse their powers.Jed MacKay: We’ve seen in the past how Stephen’s background as a doctor is something that informs his every action, while we’ve also more recently seen Clea carve her way through [the Blasphemy Cartel] with little concern for bloodshed. How will these irreconcilable philosophies clash?
- Totally Trusting Love Interest: When the warlord Aggamon is assassinated at the end of the first issue, suspicions fall on Doctor Strange's wife Clea (who had in fact pledged to kill Aggamon after he murdered a refugee). Even Clea expects Stephen to suspect her, but he immediately believes her when she says she didn't do it.Clea: Well? Are you going to ask me, Stephen?
Doctor Strange: Have I reason to, love?
Clea: No. I did not kill Aggamon.
Doctor Strange: Your word is all I require, Clea. As ever. - Trauma Conga Line: General Strange was driven mad by being forced to participate in a war for thousands of years. To win said war, he betrayed every principle he had, participated in the deaths of untold numbers of people, and was betrayed by his closest allies. This reduced the staunch healer Doctor Strange to a ravenous war-hound obsessed with ending the war by any means necessary.
- Vigilante Man: According to the press release, somebody will be targeting Stephen's enemies and enacting their own brand of dark justice. The first victim of this new vigilante is none other than Aggamon, whom Stephen refused to engage lest the Kalumeshi refugees be harmed in the crossfire.
- Who You Gonna Call?: The first issue is largely devoted to Stephen getting back into the swing of things, helping the superheroes of New York City with the magical problems out of their wheelhouse. This is also invoked in the pre-release marketing to describe the 'services' Stephen offers.Marvel: Have your children fallen into a deep nightmarish slumber? Are demonic refugees invading your home? Is your husband possessed by a satanic entity? Then call Doctor Strange!
