Didja Know... Doctor Strange's Strangest Specifics

Didja Know digs into the fun facts, strange stories, and divine details that helped build the hallowed halls of the House of Ideas!

Next Wednesday, DOCTOR STRANGE hits the big 400...and we didn’t think he looked a day over 395! What’s that you say? Four-hundred issues? Oh, sure, we knew that!

Say, just to show that we take our Sorcerer Supremes serious, let’s stir the cauldron and conjure up a few tasty tidbits about the doctor. Sound good, bunky?

Well, then, by the Flames of the Faltine and the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, let’s do it!

Didja Know… Doctor Strange earned his Cloak of Levitation in battle?

Not long after Doc first appeared back in STRANGE TALES #110, he adopted a blue cloak to match his other azure accoutrements, but somehow it just wasn’t, you know, snazzy enough for a guy who ran around with the title of “Master of the Mystic Arts.” Something had to give, and so it did.

Strange struggled mightily in STRANGE TALES #127 to prevent the dread Dormammu from invading and conquering Earth. Weirdly enough, he ended up working wonders alongside his frightful foe to block the bulk of the mighty Mindless Ones and won Dormammu’s potent promise to never dip his toes into any of the planet’s pools ever again.

Returning to our plane, the doctor’s mentor the Ancient One awarded him the Cloak of Levitation we all know and love today. Red with golden trim and that groovy high collar, the wondrous wrap proved to be loaded with extras that have helped Strange out of many a pickle jar—heck, once it even grew bigger than the whole blamed solar system! What other fashionable frocks can claim that?

Didja Know… Doc once wore a mask and a Super Hero costume?

Not only that, but he added a hush-hush secret identity just for good measure! It all happened during a scuffle with the annoying Asmodeus in DOCTOR STRANGE #177. See, when the bad guy tried to take Strange’s title for himself, Doc whipped up a nifty new look to prove he still had the chops to strut his sorcerous stuff…and it worked.

Still sporting the new duds—which featured a mask and skintight pants—Strange also received another new wrinkle to his already amazing accolades: a new name. Yep, the being called Eternity knew Doc had accidentally slipped his real name to the public and so in DOCTOR STRANGE #182 he altered all of existence to change the Master of the Mystic Arts’ moniker from Stephen Strange to Stephen Sanders!

Alas, the Super Hero life just didn’t do it for the doctor and, after trying to retire in INCREDIBLE HULK #126, he finally returned in MARVEL FEATURE #1 to reclaim his house, his original clothes, and his rightfully righteous name of Doctor Strange. And frankly, friends, would we want it any other way?

Didja Know… Strange was once married to the niece of his greatest enemy?

Thus it is written in the Book of the Vishanti that “Even Sorcerer Supreme’s Shall Know the Pointed Barbs of Love”…or something like that. 

The lovely Clea entered Stephen Strange’s existence in STRANGE TALES #126 and it wasn’t too long until love latched on to ‘em both. Later, Clea discovered Dormammu to be her ugly uncle, but that and her eventual rulership over the Dark Dimension didn’t stop Strange from jumping off the love train and heading for the hills. Nope, True Believers, our boy proposed something better: marriage.

An Earth-shattering—or would that be Dark Dimension-shattering?—ceremony in 1999's DOCTOR STRANGE #3 cemented their relationship with vivid vows, but magic-makers are practically prone to heartaches, and Stephen and Clea later parted when she returned to her home plane to take care of the family business once more… But we’re not sayin’ they’ll never find that hallowed happiness together ever again! As always, stay tuned!

Peruse these eye-poppin' publications with Marvel Unlimited right now! Then visit your local comic shop to read DOCTOR STRANGE #10 (AKA DOCTOR STRANGE #400) next Wednesday!