- “How many nights did we sit in the Sanctum Sanctorum, Time Stone in the palm of our hand, knowing we could go back, gathering the courage? Well, I had the courage. I spent centuries, sacrificed everything for Christine.”
- ―Corrupted Strange to Temporal Paradox Strange[src]
Strange Supreme (real name Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange, also known as Doctor Strange and Corrupted Strange) is a character who appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe animated series What If...? He is an alternate version of Doctor Strange from a universe where his girlfriend Christine Palmer died in a car crash instead of Stephen injuring his hands.
Doctor Strange was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Background[]
At some point in 2016, Stephen was in a relationship with Christine Palmer, a co-worker of his at the hospital he worked at. The two fell in love and had a strong relationship. After failing to bring Christine back to life, Stephen went down a dark path, advancing his powers, but somehow still maintained good at heart. This also led to him forming the Guardians of the Multiverse with other superheroes, including Peggy Carter/Captain Carter, with whom he formed a good friendship with until his desire to use the multiversal forge to bring back his universe, along with Christine. However, he had a change of heart and sacrificed his life by destroying the forge and a new universe was created.
Role in the series[]
Season One[]
In the fourth episode, "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?", his lover Christine Palmer was with him in the accident and died in the car crash, with Strange struggling to accept her death.
Strange Supreme with his alternate self
One night, two years later, he is the Sorcerer Supreme and uses the Eye of Agamotto repeatedly to reverse time to the day the accident happened, in order to save her life. However, he never succeeds, and Christine ends up dying in all the attempts. Ancient One eventually tells him that Christine's death is an Absolute Point in time, thus it cannot be changed, or it will cause the end of their universe.
Ancient One tells Doctor Strange that he must just accept his lover's death, but Strange refuses and the two of them fight. Doctor Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to go back in time again with the intent to find the Books of Cagliostro, as Cagliostro was a person that knew how to alter an Absolute Point. He encounters the librarian O'Bengh and spends a long time studying. He discovers that he will be able to break the Absolute Point by absorbing the powers of other life-forms, so he summons many different mystic beings a uses his magic to force them to give their powers to him. While he is doing this, The Watcher of the multiverse states that he won't do anything to interfere, but this universe is doomed if Strange continues, and Strange is able to overhear this comment. Strange stays there for centuries. O'Bengh eventually becomes an elder and dies from old age while Strange uses his magic to freeze himself in time, so he does not age. Before dying, O'Bengh tells him that there is another Strange in their universe.
It is then revealed that when the Ancient One fought Strange and was unable to follow him after he gone back in time again, she used the power of the Dark Dimension to divide the timeline in two, splitting Doctor Strange. While the first Strange had gone back in time and spent years studying to find a way to bring Christine back, the second one in the same universe chose to accept Christine's death that same night and never used the Eye of Agamotto to revert time. When the universe starts to crumble as a consequence of the first Doctor Strange's actions, the two of them meet when the first one, now Strange Supreme, abducts the second. Strange Supreme says that they should merge to bring Christine back. They fight and the Doctor Strange attempts to convince Strange Supreme to move on from Christine, despite the love both of them still have for her. However, Strange Supreme refuses and eventually manages to combine them both.
Following this, Strange Supreme is successful in breaking the Absolute Point and revive the woman he loves, only to watch as she begins to vanish along with their entire universe. Desperate, Strange asks for the Watcher's help to save Christine and the universe, offering to be punished in their place. However, the Watcher says he cannot intervene and has no power to save them, because when Doctor Strange messed with time, he condemned this universe. The Watcher leaves and Strange Supreme sees everything around him disintegrating. Strange uses his magic and manages to create a purple gem around himself and his lover, but Christine ends up vanishing in his arms anyway. Alone, he cries in grief, regretting what he did.
Strange Supreme reappears at the end of the eighth episode, when the Watcher retreats from the battle with the powerful Ultron and falls inside Strange Supreme's mirror dimension. Ultron from one of the universes had managed to transfer his mind to his Vibranium body and later obtain all six Infinity Stones. After devastating his own reality, Ultron is now trying to destroy the entire multiverse. Strange Supreme smugly asks the Watcher if he is prepared to break his oath to not intervene with the universes. Having no other choice to save the multiverse, the Watcher asks for Strange Supreme's help.
Strange started an alliance with the Watcher as they gathered the heroes from across the Multiverse in a fight against Ultron. They brought them to an illusion of the Whip & Fiddle pub, that Captain Carter is familiar with. As Killmonger and Zola struggle for the stones after betraying the team, he began to realize their purpose and imprisoned them in the Mirror Dimension with the Watcher bringing him back to his remnant universe. After being brought back, the Watcher asked Strange to protect the pocket dimension from breaking in, which he happily accepts.
Season Two[]
Evil Supreme Strange in season 2
When Strange Supreme returns in the second season, he is a lot more sinister. He first appears at the end of "What if... Kahhori Reshaped the World?", where he meets Kahhori, a new superhero who gained superpowers from the space stone. Strange then returns at the end of "What if... The Avengers Assembled in 1602?", where he reconnects with Captain Carter, who is stranded in 1602, and tells her he has a story to tell her.
In "What if... Strange Supreme Intervened?", Supreme tricks Carter into thinking there is a big threat that is planning on destroying all universes, including Kahhori's. Kahhori tells Captain Carter that Strange is the real threat and wants to destroy several universes to restore his own, in order to live peacefully and bring back Christine Palmer once and for all. Strange battles Carter after she refuses to help him, to the point where he tricks her into thinking Carter is back in 1943, moments before she became a super soldier. However, Carter notices Strange's butterfly effect and realizes Steve telling her he loves her is a rouse. Strange and Carter fight, and he eventually sees the error of his ways. Strange Supreme sends everyone back to their own time and restores his universe, but at the cost of his own life. His universe and Christine are brought back, but it is now a world that Strange Supreme was not born into.
Season Three[]
Strange Supreme is mentioned in the series finale by the Order of the Watchers. When Uatu is defending his actions against the Watcher council, archive footage of Strange Supreme's downfall is shown and that Uatu worked with Strange to help fix the multiverse. Uatu also mentions Strange's sacrifice to destroy the multiversal core that he wanted to use to restore his own universe.
Captain Carter uses her last will to save Uatu and her allies by transporting them to his universe. The Eminence tries to kill the Watcher, only for Strange, now as a living universe, to strip him of his powers.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Miscellaneous[]
_POP.jpg "Doctor Strange Supreme (Glow) POP.jpg (52 KB)")
Trivia[]
- He has the opposite name to his 838 counterpart from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, whose name is Supreme Strange.
See also[]
- Doctor Strange
- Sinister Strange
- Defender Strange
- Doctor Strange (Marvel Animated Universe 2012-18)
- Doctor Strange (Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man)
External links[]
Strange Supreme on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki- Stephen Strange (Earth-91233) on the Marvel Database
Strange Supreme on Villains Wiki
