Dr Strange

2022 - 6 - 22

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Image courtesy of "Screen Rant"

Why Doctor Strange Gets A Third Eye At The End Of Multiverse Of ... (Screen Rant)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness reveals that Strange now possesses a third eye. These are the potential reasons why it happened.

On the other hand, Doctor Strange only used the Darkhold as a last resort to stop Scarlet Witch. Granted, he committed the sin of Dreamwalking in the corpse of one of his multiversal variants, but that doesn't justify why his body was affected to the point of growing a third eye. Doctor Strange's next MCU appearance simply needs to confirm whether or not this is the case. This seems to suggest that the third eye is a direct consequence of using the Darkhold and that the Doctor Strange variant from universe 616 is doomed to go down a similar path. Instead, it may have accelerated the development of a special ability that only sorcerers as powerful as Doctor Strange eventually get to unlock. It pulled Agatha Harkness and Scarlet Witch into villainy, and Doctor Strange grew a third eye despite limiting his exposure to it. However, Doctor Strange's third eye, a tool that the Ancient One only hinted at during their first encounter in 2016's Doctor Strange, had never really appeared in the MCU before the Master of the Mystic Arts' battle against the Scarlet Witch.

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Image courtesy of "Collider.com"

'What If' Gets Doctor Strange and Christine Palmer's Romance Right (Collider.com)

What If did justice to Dr. Strange's romance with Christine Palmer while Multiverse of Madness faltered.

Whereas Multiverse of Madness followed Wanda’s search for power in order to be with her children, What If? gave Dr. Strange a proper solo story that delved into his ultimate love for Christine Palmer. In many ways, the What If? episode was more of a direct sequel to Doctor Strange than the live-action one, which was more concerned with the Scarlet Witch’s emotional arc than Strange’s own. Rather than spending the rest of his life studying the mystical arts to save his hands, he instead searches for a way to save Christine. It isn’t Strange’s arrogance or pride that leads to his search for power, which is what set him off on his journey to Kamar-Taj in Doctor Strange, but his love. That Christine’s death is an absolute point is significant to this Dr. Strange and every Dr. Strange in other universes — Christine is his absolute love. On the other hand, “What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” puts Strange’s love for Christine at the center of its story. His appearances in the MCU since then — Infinity War, Endgame, and No Way Home — never explored what had happened to Christine. And while he gets to spend some more time with an alternate Christine in Multiverse of Madness, in a universe where he also comes across Marvel’s Illuminati, she is merely a plot device to help Strange and Chavez get to the Book of Vishanti. Even when Christine sticks around to help keep Strange’s body stable while he takes control of a zombie Strange in 616, the scene echoes her role in the first Doctor Strange in which she also keeps Strange’s body stable as he fights in the astroplane. While there were a number of rumors surrounding how director Sam Raimi would approach the Doctor Strange sequel — especially since Multiverse of Madness was his return to Marvel since the original Spider-Man trilogy with Tobey McGuire — there were still a number of surprises for fans. Of course, Stephen’s love for Christine still plays a part in the film, albeit a comparatively minor one. But love is a more human motivation, one that grounds the Scarlet Witch in a more sympathetic light, even as a villain. But for more dedicated fans of the MCU, the multiverse was already being teased in the multiple Disney+ series on streaming, from Wandavision, Loki, and more explicitly in What If? The Watcher, played by Jeffrey Wright, explores the various tangential paths across the universe, one of which is titled “What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” In it, Strange loses the love of his life Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) in the car accident rather than suffering hand injuries. In many ways, part of why Multiverse of Madness does a disservice to Strange and Christine’s relationship is that it doesn’t focus on Strange at all. And it’s Strange’s heart that was surprisingly missing in Multiverse of Madness, a film that continued to underserve Adams’ performance as Christine Palmer and pushed her romance with Strange to the sidelines. For many audiences, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was everything they were waiting for since Spider-Man: No Way Home opened up the Marvel Cinematic Universe to other universes.

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Image courtesy of "Gizmodo"

Doctor Strange Has a New Multiversal Nemesis (Gizmodo)

I don't want to spoil his identity, but his name rhymes with "Mizza Moppa."

When the MCU’s Strange tells Pizza Poppa to back off, the Poppa gets ready to squirt mustard on what he believes is an imposter and a thief, only for Strange to magically cause Poppa to squirt the mustard in his own face and then begin punching himself in the face... But in his jaunt through the multiverse, Strange managed to create a new foe—one that might test him to his limits. If you’ve seen Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, you know the Marvel hero faces a bevy of villains—Gargantos the tentacle monster, the mentally unbalanced Scarlet Witch, and even an extremely evil version of himself.

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Image courtesy of "Jesuits.org"

Dr. Strange & the Multiverse of Priorities (Jesuits.org)

Strange – portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch – is a great character: powerful but flawed; compassionate but prideful. When he features in a movie that bears his name, you can be sure that it's not only his magical powers that will be tested. The good doctor ...

– I invite you to consider what path you have set down: the one of pride, or the one of humility. We see it, too, in ourselves, in the mirror, in our own prayer and discernment. Are we seeking solely after riches, honors and pride, and in so doing demanding that the world look at us, look at me? We see it on the big screen in fictionalized sorcerers; we see it in our daily lives in neighbors and colleagues. And yet, we can’t help ourselves from wandering down this path – even with the best of intentions. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the Spiritual Exercises, gives us two standards with which to interrogate our impulses. … For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. He’s a hero in the eyes of many. In one such podcast, in preparation for the recently released “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the hosts were discussing how Dr. Stephen Strange – the surgeon-turned-sorcerer – is really too powerful. We, too, are faced with the question – Are you happy? They literally need to put Dr. Strange in a different dimension so that Spiderman can be the protagonist of his own movie.

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