Marvel Heroes: Dr. Strange
Dr. Strange was one of my favorite movies back in 2016, primarily because of its mind-bending visual effects. I mean, that one opening scene where the Ancient One uses the mirror dimension and fights Kaecilius and his followers was literally mind-bending, considering that I watched this in 3D Imax.
The movie also has a unique take in exploring the trippy realm of the multi-verse, Dormammu and the mystic arts. Then there’s Dr. Steven Strange’s hero’s journey, from the arrogant neurosurgeon to a humbled man and later, the Sorcerer Supreme.
I watched Dr. Strange again, this time after watching the epic Avengers: Endgame and kinda realized the reason as to why the Ancient One saw great potential in him, as part of his hero’s journey.
So how did he get to be the Sorcerer Supreme? Let’s begin with the first stage of the hero’s journey, applying this to his story.
Side Note: Dr. Strange was created by the legendary Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in 1963.
His origin story in the comics, which is similar to that of the movie.
In the film, we begin to see how he perceives himself as better than all his peers at work by showing off his trivial knowledge on obscure songs, while doing brain surgery and telling off Dr. Nichodemus how wrong he is about the critical health a patient that he thought was caput and later after that, demeans his love interest, Dr. Palmer and invites her to a “date” which is a talk that he’s giving and that he would be receiving an award.
Not to mention also another scene where we see his accolade of awards, his expensive watches, and his awesome Lamborghini. In short his opulent and comfortable lifestyle.
This first scene of the film just portrays what Dr.Strange is all about, his self-image and self-centeredness. He wants to prove to everyone around him how brilliant he is. In the first stage of the hero’s journey, this would be his initial ordinary life.
It’s only until his road accident that destroys his hands. This when he was driving his Lamborghini, faster and overtaking those who weren’t driving fast enough, representing how he sees himself as more important than those around him. And the cause of the accident in the first place was because he was driving recklessly while looking at potential patients on his tablet.
In addition to that, he doesn’t want to cure those patients, not because they are beneath him but because those cases are not “…worth his time” and he doesn’t want to “screw his perfect record”, which is something I’ll mention later in this article.
The tragic accident, changes his life for the worse, in his perspective, because of the fear of the loss of his reputation as the neurosurgeon. This is his call to adventure. Still arrogant, he tries all sorts of medical means to fasten the healing process of his hands but to no avail. Christine tries to give him hope by saying, that there’s still more to his life, (something that the Ancient One will later tell him), but he rebukes her.
At his lowest point, he goes to Kathmandu after being directed to see the Ancient One, who healed one of the patients that he didn’t attend to. Here, his physical appearance is completely different, unshaven and unkempt hair, compared to the neat dapper person he was in his previous life.
One might think that at this point he was humbled, but when he finally meets the Ancient One after being directed by Baron Mordo, he starts showing off his medical jargon prowess as every answer to what she was saying about healing. When she talks about chakras and mysticism, Dr. Strange belittles her, showing his massive disappointment. This was his refusal to the call.
Of course, we know what happens next, the Ancient One punches the astro-form out of him and sends him to a mind-bending trip of the multiverse, showing him how much he doesn’t know. At this point, Dr. Strange is humbled.
He realizes his arrogance, begging to learn from her. He transforms from the arrogant self-centered genius to what we see he really was, a desperate man with no idea of what to do.
He feared the loss of his self-image and what other people would think of him. That’s why, in an argument with Christine, he scoffed her about the idea of a ‘Fundraiser for Poor Dr. Strange’.
And with that, he says these words, “Teach Me!” He doesn’t receive the lessons of the mystic arts immediately. He gets kicked out of Kar-Ma-Taj but doesn’t leave, something the Ancient One knew. The fact that she gives him extra attention in teaching him the Mystic Arts proves that she knew he would be the Sorcerer Supreme, even though she never told him directly. He receives teachings from the Ancient One, his mentor.
But after getting teachings of the mystic arts, he’s still egotistical. Before he got the accident, he mentioned that he didn’t want to attend a patient who had a complicated medical malady because he didn’t want to “screw up his perfect record”, probably out of fear of failure. But this fear of failure is a form of pride, something that the Ancient One tells him after him and Baron Mordo were attacked by Kaecilius and the Zealots at the Sanctum Sanctorum:
His life was all about his successes as the doctor, it was all about him. Towards the end of the movie, in the last moments between the Ancient One and Dr. Strange, in their astral-projection forms, the Ancient One says,
“You always excelled, but not because you crave success, but because of your fear of failure.”
Dr. Strange admits that this is what made him a better doctor, after which the Ancient One tells him,
Personally, this struck me in that, in my experience, I focused on the number of readers who have clapped an article that I have posted on Medium and used this as my main measure for success. This backfires on me if I didn’t get any of that and I end up thinking of not doing this stuff anymore, even though I’m passionate about comic book characters.
Life doesn’t have to be viewed from that self-centered perspective. But rather, ask yourself, whose life can I change for the better or whom can I motivate, even if it’s just one person. No matter how minuscule that difference that is, it’s still a difference you have made to someone’s life. It shouldn’t be about you.
Having learned that there is a wider universe around Dr. Strange, and that he is/could be a major player in it, “failing” takes on a much deeper meaning than just being unable to perform surgery.
He could still get back that his old life after healing his hands, but the Ancient One tells him:
“…the world would be all lesser for it”
This signifies that there’s more that he could do, even after he healing his hands. This is the potential of goodness that the Ancient One saw in Dr. Strange. She knew the potential that lies in Dr. Strange ahead of time. This shows his almost indispensable importance in Avengers Infinity War and Endgame in defeating Thanos.
I think Dr. Strange is one character who has an interesting hero’s journey, from the arrogant neurosurgeon to one desperately wanting to learn about the Mystic Arts but later questions things, getting thrown into the battle with Kaecilius and his followers and later, Dormammu.
We get to see him sacrifice himself by dying in a time-loop that he created with the Time Stone, so that everyone on earth could live, when he confronted Dormammu in the Dark Dimension, keeping in mind that this guy was a self-centered jerk.
