Did you know that Doctor Strange had a wife?
Marvel Comics fans know all about her, but casual MCU fans were likely confused by all
the hype about a certain cameo in "Multiverse of Madness."
Keep watching to learn all about Strange's powerful spouse.
Warning: Spoilers for the mid-credits scene in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"
ahead!
When the "Doctor Strange" film was released in 2016, many fans were disappointed to find
one major character conspicuously missing from the story.
Introduced in "Strange Tales" #126 back in 1964, the sorceress known as Clea has long
been one of Stephen Strange's most prominent supporting characters.
A magical user whose power and stature rival Doctor Strange himself, she's appeared as
the Sorcerer Supreme's partner, been the Sorcerer Supreme herself, and is certainly no minor
background character.
Though she's rarely thought of as one of Marvel's premier heroes, she's a key member of the
Sorcerer Supreme's inner circle, and has been featured alongside him outside of comics too,
appearing in video games, animated appearances, and toys.
She's even been seen on-screen in live-action twice now, believe it or not.
So what's Clea's story?
Clea is not of Earthly origin, despite her human appearance.
While Stephen Strange hails from New York City, Clea is the product of an entirely separate
dimension — the Dark Dimension.
"It's a place beyond time."
Home of the dread Dormammu, the Dark Dimension is a void within the Marvel Universe, an alternate
plane of existence described by some as hell itself.
It is a place of bizarre dark energies from which powerful ancient evils have arisen.
Other noteworthy residents of the Dark Dimension include Prince Orini, a disciple of Dormammu,
and Umar, an extra-dimensional energy being borne of magic known as a Faltine.
Umar is also Dormammu's twin sister.
Though Umar often clashes with her brother and is disdainful of his protege, she and
Orini were briefly bonded, and Clea is the product of their union.
Clea's birth, however, has ramifications for her mother, Umar, who is then trapped in her
humanoid form.
Umar clashes with her brother after being driven mad by her inability to return to her
true form and Dormammu — now a powerful ruler — banishes Umar to a pocket dimension.
Despite all the conflict in her family, Clea is raised with no knowledge of her mother
nor how Dormammu had exiled her from their home reality.
Clea is brought up to worship her uncle, the fire demon ruler of the Dark Dimension, and
eventually becomes one of his greatest admirers.
Growing up within the confines of the Dark Dimension, Clea knew little about what transpired
beyond its borders.
However, all of that changes when Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, arrives in her
home dimension.
Sent at the behest of the Ancient One, Strange is there to confront Clea's uncle, who has
designs on conquering Earth.
Clea is fascinated by the magician and wants to learn more about him and where he comes
from.
Enamored, she attempts to dissuade Strange from clashing with Dormammu, knowing that
the demon's wrath would not spare him.
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain."
After a battle between Doctor Strange and Dormammu, Clea is imprisoned by her uncle
for allying herself with the Earth-bound sorcerer.
However, when the Mindless Ones — a race of terrifying demons — are let loose in
the Dark Dimension, Doctor Strange aids Dormammu in apprehending them.
To repay him, Dormammu grants Strange's request that he set Clea free.
Following that first encounter, Clea begins to aid Doctor Strange in his many battles
with Dormammu, and each time she is punished for her treachery.
However, when Dormammu foolishly attempts to take down the almighty cosmic being known
as Eternity, the two entities seemingly destroy each other.
With Dormammu gone, Strange is able to free Clea once again, although the Dark Dimension
found itself without a king.
Unfortunately, Dormammu's supposed "death" is not the end of Clea's torment, as Umar
picks up right where her twin brother leaves off.
Once again, Clea finds herself at the mercy of the Dark Dimension's new ruler, and Doctor
Strange comes to her rescue.
With counsel from the Ancient One, Strange realizes that Clea will never be safe if she
remains in her home reality and arranges to remove her from the Dark Dimension.
Eventually, Clea joins Strange on Earth, and the extra-dimensional sorceress moves to the
Big Apple near the Sanctum Sanctorum on Bleecker Street.
However, after her encounter with her mother, Clea no longer has her incredible powers on
the Earthly plane.
Adjusting to bodegas and riding the subway is bad enough, but adapting to life without
her abilities is an almost insurmountable obstacle.
To help her acclimate to her new home, Strange becomes her mentor and teaches her the ways
of the mystic arts.
A common misconception about Clea is that she is simply a magician.
While she is certainly a powerful sorcerer in her own right, Clea is also half Faltine,
born of the Dark Dimension.
This gives her several natural abilities that eventually return to her, not the least of
which is the power of flight.
She can also summon the Flames of the Faltine at will, a mystical energy source that others
such as Doctor Strange must use magic to call forth.
However, Clea's skills as a sorceress help enhance her already-considerable demonic abilities,
and she is as capable with magic as Stephen Strange is.
This means that she too can astrally project herself outside of her body, summon force
shields, produce energy blasts, and call down other-worldly weapons with a wave of her hands.
Clea is also a powerful magical telepath who shares a unique connection specifically with
Doctor Strange as a result of their close bond.
She has even shown herself capable of implanting false memories in others while being able
to read thoughts and detect truthfulness.
Of course, her study of magic also includes learning any number of magic spells and incantations,
which make her, like Strange, a sorceress with a wide variety of abilities, including
resurrecting the dead.
"I don't even want to know!"
While they start as master and apprentice, the two slowly form a bond that transcends
that relationship.
Over time, Clea falls in love with Strange.
While Stephen clearly holds some affection for her, their feelings are not equal — at
least not at the start.
However, Strange's love for Clea eventually blossoms, and the two become a serious Marvel
power couple who adventure together, save the world together, and travel alternate realities
together.
Since they are both sorcerers, their relationship goes beyond a physical and emotional connection
and is nearly spiritual.
During their many years together, Doctor Strange and Clea are mystically bonded through vows
that could be considered a marriage.
In fact, while in her human form in New York, Clea even wears a traditional human wedding
ring to signify her union with Doctor Strange, and jokes that it was "the commute" that had
made him hesitant to commit.
Unfortunately, their blessed union wouldn't last forever.
Eventually, Strange's womanizing came between them, with Clea essentially asking for a divorce.
"You might have a gift for the mystic arts, but you still have much to learn."
As lovers, Doctor Strange and Clea obviously have a physical connection, but they've taken
theirs a step further than most.
In a key storyline, Stephen Strange is attacked by a villain called the Silver Dagger.
After being stabbed, Strange finds himself transported inside the Eye of Agamotto and
must find a way out.
At the culmination of the story, Strange's non-corporeal self escapes and discovers that
his protege and partner Clea is being tortured by Silver Dagger.
Strange learns that the villain sought the powers of the Sorcerer Supreme and is enraged
when he discovers that Strange is not only the Ancient One's newest disciple but has
recently taken up his mantle.
With Strange freed from the Eye of Agamotto, his soul inhabits the body of none other than
his protege and partner Clea, and the two defeat the big bad together.
Though they quickly separate, sharing a body takes Clea's relationship with Strange to
a new level.
When Clea begins to feel that her love for Doctor Strange isn't being reciprocated, she
resigns her apprenticeship.
At the same time, Clea learns that the Dark Dimension is now in the midst of an uprising
against its tyrannical ruler, Umar — Clea's mother.
Returning to her home plane of reality, Clea — along with Strange — joins the rebellion
and helps dethrone Umar.
It is during this conflict that Clea finally learns of her true parentage.
After Clea is victorious, she exiles Umar and her father, Orini.
Despite her misgivings over Strange's love, she asks that the sorcerer remain by her side
as she takes the throne of the Dark Dimension.
Strange declines and Clea is left to rule alone.
Clea and Strange have many future encounters, though, as Strange's nemesis — and Clea's
uncle — Dormammu fights to regain his kingdom, and the two team up to defeat him time and
time again.
When the world-devouring being known as Galactus is sent into a magical realm by a powerful
sorcerer, it leads to cosmic calamity.
Instead of remaining trapped there, Galactus begins consuming powerful beings from other
dimensions, threatening to destroy any number of different realms as he grows in power.
Doctor Strange soon becomes Galactus' herald while Clea recruits her mother Umar to build
a coalition of magical forces to try and stop this dimensional terror.
But it all leads to disaster, and before long Doctor Strange finds himself with little recourse
but to go to the devil Mephisto for help.
Striking a twisted bargain, Doctor Strange offers up a debt to be collected later if
Mephisto will help them defeat Galactus.
When all is said and done, Doctor Strange successfully resets the universe and reforms
all of time and space as it was before Galactus' threat emerged.
Once the dust is settled, Mephisto announces his price — Clea's memories of Doctor Strange.
Tragically, just before Doctor Strange casts the spell that will wipe her memory of him,
she tells him that she thought they could finally be together again.
Eventually, Clea's memories of Doctor Strange return, but only through yet another tragedy.
After being defeated by the sorcerer Kaecilius, every spell ever cast by Doctor Strange is
undone, which allows Clea to regain her lost memories.
With the help of a temporal remnant, Clea is able to find Stephen and resurrect him
to say goodbye once and for all.
However, Doctor Strange had one last surprise for his true love: gifting her the mantle
of Sorcerer Supreme in his absence.
She becomes a new and different kind of hero wizard as well, vowing to find a way of resurrecting
her ex-husband Doctor Strange.
In honor of her lost love, Clea takes the last name Strange and received her own new
comic book title, "Strange" which debuted in March 2022 – perfectly timed for her
first MCU appearance in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."
It may come as a surprise to fans of the MCU, but Clea's appearance in "Doctor Strange in
the Multiverse of Madness," where she debuts in a surprising mid-credits scene, is not
her first time appearing in live-action.
Though Charlize Theron is sure to impress as the sorceress when she returns to the MCU,
Clea was played once before by actress Anne-Marie Martin in 1978's "Dr. Strange."
You'd be forgiven for not knowing she made an appearance in the film, though, as while
she does share the character's moniker, she bears almost no resemblance to her comic book
counterpart.
In the film, Martin plays Clea Lake, a young woman who inexplicably shares a psychic bond
with psychiatrist Stephen Strange.
Released from magical imprisonment, the villainous Morgan LeFay possesses Lake's body as a way
of striking at Strange's mentor, Thomas, a stand-in for the Ancient One.
Once LeFay leaves Lake's body, the young woman comes under the care of Strange, which prompts
Thomas to teach him the ways of the mystic arts.
We have yet to see if Clea in the MCU will be a faithful interpretation of the comic
book version, but it can't be any further from the source material than what we saw
in the 1978 film.
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