The Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps expanding, with each and every release more and more
information gets revealed, showing off more and more of the universe.
This is still relevant with the latest release, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,
a film exploring the titular multiverse.
Directed by the legendary Sam Raimi, known for Drag Me to Hell, the ever-iconic Evil
Dead trilogy, and the original Spider-Man trilogy.
But don’t be fooled, while this is a marvel movie, this was marketed as and quite literally
is a horror movie.
Every horror movie has a massively evil figure that is responsible for the most death and
destruction, it’s still the case here, but who is that evil foe and who’s the best
character in the film?
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge and this is Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness: Good
to Evil.
Also, obligatory spoiler warning, we’ll be going over the main plot of this film,
it’s connective tissue with earlier films and shows as well as possible spoilers for
later movies and shows.
So not only do we give a spoiler warning for this movie, but spoilers for Wandavision,
What-If, and the general MCU, go watch the movie if you haven’t and then come back
here.
Secondly, we also have to issue a potential blood and gore warning because this movie
is probably the bloodiest MCU project to date, and that’s coming off the very bloody Moon
Knight.
Also, we have to mention that this movie has sort of changed the official MCU universe
designation, so in our No Way Home video where we refer to MCU Peter Parker as from Universe-19999,
he would technically be from Universe 616 now, we felt it necessary to bring up.
So, now we can start by talking about the best of the best, these are The Good.
Earning the Gold medal of good is franchise newcomer America Chavez.
America is a multiversal traveler from a place known as the Utopian Parallel which is outside
of the multiverse.
She has the ability to open multiversal portals, and when she first opened one, both of her
moms got sucked through and lost throughout the multiverse.
In this film, she is being hunted down by Wanda for her powers.
She tries to get help from a multitude of Doctor Stranges to stop Wanda’s monsters
because she can’t control her powers.
America is shown to be a bit headstrong at times but her focus always seems to be safety.
She grabs gold because in the end she is the one who saves the day and not by killing Wanda
but by giving her what she needs, seeing that her children are safe in other universes,
even if she doesn’t get to have them.
Taking our Silver medal of good is Billy & Tommy Maximoff from Universe 828.
Billy and Tommy are the young twin sons of Wanda and Vision, originally created by Wanda’s
grief in the Hex from Wandavision.
It turns out that in other universes they are real people and not just magic illusions,
one such case is Universe 828, the main secondary universe in the film.
Billy and Tommy don’t have a lot of screentime but in that screentime they are shown to very
much love their mom, even trying to protect their Mom from the 616 version of Wanda, even
if they didn’t really have powers to do so.
This bravery is what grabs them the silver medal because they don’t do anything bad
in the movie.
Grabbing the Bronze medal of good is the Sorcerer Supreme, Wong.
Wong is a major character in the film and part of the defense of Kamar-Taj when Wanda
attacks.
Wong became the sorcerer supreme due to Stephen’s dusting and takes that duty very seriously.
Wong did everything he could to protect Kamar-Taj and tries to stop Wanda from obtaining the
spells from the Darkhold, even losing many close friends in the fight.
He does relent to Wanda’s torture, but that was to save the sorcerors who remained alive
from the fight.
Wong does everything he can during this movie to save as many people as possible which is
why he grabs Bronze, even if he does try to sacrifice people for the greater good at times.
Ranking next on our list is Doctor Stephen Strange from Universe 616 or our main Doctor
Strange we’ve followed since the 2016 film.
Stephen is undoubtedly one of three main characters in this film, alongside Wanda and America.
In this film, he helps America escape from Wanda at every twist and turn, killing Gargantos
and trying his best to hide America away from Wanda.
This leads to the multiversal travel the team goes through to stop Wanda.
He tries initially to calm Wanda down and reason with her but it doesn’t help.
He does turn to the Darkhold to stop Wanda which is hypocritical, but he does it to save
America even knowing the risks.
Throughout the film he acts as sort of a father figure for America and treats her quite well,
showing quite the growth from previous films.
Stephen is still kind of an arrogant person and not the greatest guy all the time, but
he’s trying to be better which stops him from falling lower.
Up next on the list is Wanda Maximoff from Universe 828 or “Gray Shirt Wanda”.
Wanda in this universe seems to have had Tommy and Billy physically instead of creating them
out of magic like 616 Wanda.
We don’t see a lot of this Wanda regularly, as she is controlled by 616 Wanda’s dream
walking for most of the film, and we don’t hold those actions against her.
Why she ranks so high is not only does she seem like a good mom, but she even forgives
616 Wanda for what she did, and tells her the boys will be safe.
The fact that 828 Wanda is willing to forgive 616 Wanda after forcing her to brutally murder
a bunch of people shows a lot of good faith, and she definitely deserves to land here.
Rounding out the good section of our list is Christine Palmer from Universe 828 or “Baxter
Foundation Christine”.
Christine in this universe is a member of the Baxter Foundation created by Reed Richards
and the Illuminati.
She is the head authority on alternate universes, including being the one who named both Universe
828 and 616.
She works for the Illuminati and doesn’t seem to question them until Wanda comes in
on a destructive rampage.
She helps Strange during his dream walk and helps him get over 616 Christine at the end
of the film.
She actually even helps them get to the Book of Vishanti to defeat Wanda, which shows she's
a very good character.
However, she still does imprison Strange, America, and the Cloak of Levitation under
the Illuminati’s orders and doesn’t believe them when it comes to Wanda’s destructive
powers.
Now, with our goody two-shoes out of the way, we move on down to the Gray Area.
Starting off the gray area is The Illuminati from Universe 828.
The Illuminati is a highly powerful group above even the Avengers and SHIELD in Universe
828.
It consists of Baron Mordo (who we’ll get to later), Monica Rambeau AKA Captain Marvel,
Captain Carter returning from What if, Black Bolt, leader of the Inhumans, Reed Richards
of the Fantastic Four played by fancast dreamboat John Krasinski, and Patrick Stewart returning
as Professor Charles Xavier.
In all honesty, these characters don’t get a lot of screentime and are there as great
cameos to show the expanding MCU and also show Wanda’s extreme powers.
The group pulled Stephen in for a trial and were very cocky that they could handle Wanda
if she were to show up, however, they are very quickly killed, and like in the comics,
their hubris stops them from really doing the greater good.
Now, the thing about this is they did defeat Thanos and saved the world more than once,
but they did also lie to the public about Strange and lie to the other Avengers about
their identity, cementing them here.
Ranking next on our list is the final member of the Illuminati Baron Karl Mordo from Universe
828.
Mordo has the most characterization out of the Illuminati members because he appears
slightly longer than the rest and had major appearances in the trailers.
Unlike in 616, he is not shown to have tried to kill all sorcerers or even hate Strange,
even if Stephen uses this to make him angry.
However, he does drug and kidnap Strange and Chavez and has no problems trying to kill
Strange during his trial.
However, he thought what he was doing was for the greater good, which as we know, the
road to hell is paved with good intentions, hence his ranking.
Rounding out the Gray Area is Doctor Strange from an Unknown Universe AKA “Defender Strange”.
Named as such because not only was he America’s initial defender but his outfit is that of
Doctor Strange in the Defenders comics.
Now, he only really appears at the beginning of the film, where he is leading America to
the Book of Vishanti.
He seems to be better than 616 Strange due to his more obvious mastery of spells and
willingness to protect America.
However, it becomes quite obvious he is more than willing to sacrifice America for the
greater good by absorbing her powers, even repeating a line from No Way Home.
He is then killed and his corpse is used by 616 Strange to defeat Wanda at the end of
the movie.
Much like Mordo, he thought he was doing the right thing, but as we see, America was the
only one who could stop Wanda.
But, our Gray Area is finished, and we now speak about the immensely important Bad to
Evil category.
Starting off the bad section and bogarting the Bronze medal of evil is Doctor Stephen
Strange from Universe 828.
This version of Stephen only appears briefly but we get a hefty explanation of his past.
When Thanos came to Titan in Earth 828, Stephen turned to the Darkhold to Dreamwalk and try
and find a possible solution in the multiverse.
Becoming addicted it seems because he continued to do so regardless of the dangers and caused
an Incursion that caused trillions of deaths.
For those out of the know, an Incursion is when two universes collide and cause massive
damage.
It got to the point that Stephen’s fingertips grew black like Agatha and Wanda who also
used too much dark magic and became corrupted by it.
He is swiftly killed before he can cause more damage and that’s what stops him from falling
lower, especially since he tried to make things right.
Snatching our Silver medal of evil is Wanda Maximoff AKA “The Scarlet Witch” from
Universe 616.
Wanda is undoubtedly the main villain of this film, she is the Jason Vorhees, the Michael
Myers because she is the main slasher of this horror film.
Wanda’s goal is to absorb America Chavez’s powers so she can travel the multiverse at
will to be with her children.
But, this leads to issues, because she will kill any and everyone in her way to get to
America, even if they are other versions of her, versions of her friends or other loving
parents and heroes that protect the world like the Illuminati.
She slaughters dozens in this film and her goal is understandable but still pushed too
far.
However, she has one saving grace, at the end of the film she realizes that her mission
to see her children is a problem because they aren’t her real children and they’re safe
with their version of Wanda.
She not only destroys the Darkhold in EVERY dimension, but she also destroys the place
where it was written and supposedly dies, but we’re not sure how dead she is yet.
Wanda manages to save herself from the bottom but only very barely.
Grabbing the Gold medal of evil is the final Doctor Strange from an Unknown Universe AKA
“Sinister Strange”.
This version of Doctor Strange is slightly based on but not exactly the same as “Heartless
Doctor Strange” from What-If.
He is the keeper and protector of the Darkhold in a universe that went through an Incursion,
being the only known survivor.
Originally he seems just like a depressed and defeated Strange who lost an unknown war.
However, What ends up happening is that he realized that most of Stranges aren’t happy
with what happened with Christine.
This somehow leads him to become a serial killer of alternate universe Doctor Stranges.
It’s unknown how many he killed but it’s said to be a lot and he is definitely dangerous,
although he is swiftly killed by 616 Strange.
Unlike Wanda, he doesn’t redeem himself in the end so we can’t rank him lower than
her.
But, we’re not done with this film, because we have some Sinner Medals to hand out.
Earning our Darwin Medal is 828 Reed Richards AKA “Mr. Fantastic”, now this has already
been memed on to death, but he is technically responsible for the death of Black Bolt by
revealing his powers and thinking he could stop Wanda.
We will defend him by saying we think it was arrogance like in the comics and not stupidity,
but it’s kind of hard to tell.
The Envy Medal goes to 616 Wanda Maximoff who is looking through the multiverse for
her children, willing to possess or kill other Wandas if that meant she gets to be with her
children.
Taking the Wrath Medal is also 616 Wanda Maximoff who kills dozens in this film on her quest
and doesn’t care who she hurts to get what she wants.
Taking our Gluttony Medal is 828 Tommy and Billy Maximoff mostly as a joke, because most
of the time we see them, they’re asking for ice cream, it’s quite simple.
Salaciously snatching the Lust Medal is Sinister Strange, whose entire serial killer run is
because of his love for Christine, and he tried to offer the Darkhold in exchange for
“ownership” we assume of 828 Christine.
Finally, our Pride Medal goes to 828 Captain Marvel, who completely disregarded Stephen’s
warnings because she was more than confident the Illuminati could handle Wanda, and we
saw how that went.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking.
And tell us what we should cover next.
Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist.
Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies.
But most importantly, stay wicked.