21 fun facts about Marvel’s Doctor Strange you might not have known

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How much do you know about the good doctor, who is played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the latest Marvel film? If you don’t know all that much about his comic-verse self, read on...

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Struck by the strangeness of Dr Strange? We'll sort things out right quick with a basic guide to comic book lore.

Do you need a refresher on Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts? Here are 21 fun facts to know and tell about Doctor Strange:

1 Doctor Strange debuted in 1963 at Marvel Comics. Initially he looked Asian, but progressively became more Caucasian. He looked to be 30-something, but he doesn’t age. According to the Marvel Wiki, he was born in 1930 …

2 … in Philadelphia. Though his family is actually from Nebraska.

3 Strange’s family consisted of a sister, a brother and both parents, all of whom died before he was 30. This was revealed in flashback in the 1980s. It was further revealed that Strange had frozen his brother Vincent, who had died after being hit by a car. Strange tried to revive his brother by using a tome of white magic called The Book of the Vishanti, but bungled it. Vincent revived as a vampire. Whoops.

4 They don’t mention ol’ Vincent much anymore. But Strange did have a knockdown, drag-out with Dracula once. It ended in a draw (since both were starring in their own books).

5 The Book of Vishanti has an opposite number, a book of evil magic called The Darkhold. It is currently playing an important role in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on TV.

6 Ghost Rider is also an important part of this season’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ghost Rider was part of a loosely affiliated team of mystical characters in the ’90s called the Midnight Sons, a team that included Doctor Strange.

7 The Vishanti are three mystical entities that Strange calls upon to give him power in combat, consisting of Agamotto, Oshtur and Hoggoth. Agamotto has also contributed an amulet Strange wears, which can do just about anything the plot requires, but mainly its light shows only the truth. Strange also uses the Orb of Agamotto.

8 Strange also wears the Cloak of Levitation, which not only allows him to fly, but is also semi-self aware and can fight for him independently if need be. (Although not terribly effectively. It is, after all, a cloak.)

9 Strange calls upon lots of other mystical critters, including the demons of Denak, the winds of Watoomb, the illusions of Ikonn, the rings of Raggadorr and so forth. In his early days he called upon Dormammu, who turned out to be a really bad dude from the “Dark Dimension,” and eventually Strange’s arch-foe. Strange doesn’t call on Dormammu any more (but he shows up anyway).

10 Other baddies include Nightmare and Baron Mordo. Nightmare is from the Dream Dimension, and is the embodiment of nightmares who draws energy from, yes, nightmares. Mordo was a fellow student with Strange under the tutelage of the Ancient One, a disciple who went rogue. He’s a good guy in the movie (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), but we’ll see how long that lasts.

11 In the comics, the Ancient One was an incredibly old Asian guy, but in the movies is an androgynous sort played by Tilda Swinton. Some fans were angry over this, especially those who feel that Asian characters should be played by Asian actors. I’m sympathetic, but at the same time, Strange’s origin – white man goes to another place, becomes the best at what the locals do – is one huge mass of cultural appropriation. Varying a bit from the cliche of the white guy learning hidden knowledge from a mystical Himalayan city is to my mind a welcome relief.

12 The Ancient One was the Sorcerer Supreme of our dimension, charged with protecting it from all the extra-dimensional baddies that would like to enslave humanity (or just snack on us). When he died in the 1970s, Strange became the Sorcerer Supreme. Before that, Strange was billed as the “Master of Black Magic” or “Master of the Mystic Arts.”

13 One of the mystical entities Strange calls upon is Cyttorak. It turns out that Cyttorak is the power behind X-Men foe The Juggernaut.

14 Strange calls his house in Greenwich Village, New York, his “Sanctum Sanctorum.” That’s lifted from Judaism, a Latin phrase essentially meaning “Holy of Holies,” the most sacred place in a temple. The address is 177A Bleecker Street. From the outside, the Sanctum is a brownstone, but the inside is much larger (and much stranger).

15 In the latest Doctor Strange series, Strange explains his place to a visiting librarian: “The Sanctum Santorum is the greatest concentration of occult esoterica and mystical phenomena in existence. It should go without saying, but do not touch anything you see, except the floor. And be careful where you step. In this house, simply opening the wrong door could literally unleash hell on Earth. And that’s just the refrigerator. … Basically, do not look at anything for long unless you want your eyeballs to melt out of your skull.”

16 The place is run by Wong, son of Hamir, the latter being the Ancient One’s manservant. Now Wong is Strange’s manservant. Or at least he was, until someone realised how dreadful that term was. Now Wong is referred to as Strange’s friend and ally. Here an Asian is played by Asian in the movie, an actor coincidentally named Benedict Wong.

17 At one time, Strange’s girlfriend was Clea, the niece of the dread Dormammu. It didn’t work out.

18 At another time, Strange had a disciple named Rintrah. I don’t recall where he was from, but he was a minotaur. That didn’t work out, either.

19. It has been revealed that Strange has long been a member of a hidden group called The Illuminati, along with Black Panther (representing Wakanda), Reed Richards (the Fantastic Four), Tony Stark (Avengers), Sub-Mariner (Atlantis) and Charles Xavier (X-Men). They had banded together to push humanity in the right direction to avoid major catastrophes. That didn’t work out very well, either.

20 The first team Strange joined (that we know about) was a group called The Defenders. In 1971 he summoned the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner to fight a sudden menace. Originally The Defenders was called a “non-team,” in that it only came together in an ad hoc fashion. Later it began to resemble a more traditional team, but the “membership” fluctuated wildly, eventually including dozens of Marvel characters.

21 There has already been a Doctor Strange movie, a made-for-TV film that aired in 1978. The doctor was a psychiatrist who had a way with the ladies, no doubt due to his curly hair, creepy moustache, turtle-neck shirts and bell-bottom pants. Was it awful? Oh, yes.

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