Doctor Stephen Strange first popped up in the panels of Marvel comics back in 1963 in
Strange Tales issue 110, created by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee with the intention of bringing
a different kind of character into the company’s roster of superheroes.
And just like many of his peers in the Marvel Universe, Strange has plenty of various alternates
that have popped up in the pages of comics that explored the multiverse.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of them with our list of the top 10 alternate
versions of doctor strange.
10 Zombie Strange – Earth 2149 The Zombieverse is one of the more wild alternate
realities in the Marvel Universe.
It asks the simple question – what if there was a zombie apocalypse in the Marvel universe?
Well, this version of Doctor Strange ends up becoming a zombie on Earth 2149, despite
being the one superhero who has likely fought the most supernatural foes in his time.
He still suffered the same fate as many other heroes did in this universe thanks to the
plague’s outbreak, but at least he managed to do some good before becoming undead – he
destroyed a dimensional doorway that could’ve allowed the zombies to travel to other realities.
Despite being a zombie, he can still access his powers, and even uses them to look into
alternate realities for more victims.
9 Earth X (Earth 9997) In 1999, Earth X was published as a limited
series, exploring a dystopian version of the Marvel Universe, in which many of the population
have become mutated.
Strange is searching for a cure, and has magically made his hands appear normal due to vanity.
Doctor Strange in this universe was killed in his astral form by Clea – who in the
Earth 616 universe is the sorcerer supreme of the Dark Dimension, and also one of Strange’s
love interests.
She had fallen in love with Loki due to her and Strange’s relationship being under strain.
Strange’s body, which is still kicking around, is looked after by Wong, all while his now
dead astral form guides the original Captain Marvel through Death’s Realm.
Keeping his body alive was all part of a plan to keep Strange out of Mephisto’s way.
Mar-Vell would later restore his astral form in order to bring Strange back to life.
8 Regular Stephen (Earth 70105) Earth 70105 is the home of Bullet Points,
a limited series that came out in 2006 and 2007 under the Marvel Knights imprint.
It’s whole schtick is that it follows the Marvel Universe in a world where Dr Erskine
is killed before Steve Rogers is given the super soldier serum to become Captain America.
In this reality, Stephen Strange never becomes Doctor Strange.
Instead, the genius level intellect surgeon ends up working for SHIELD after his accident
instead of going to Tibet and seeking out the Ancient One.
In exchange for working for SHIELD, they restore his hands, and later, he ends up getting claws
that resemble those of Wolverine’s.
7 Pirate Strange (Earth TRN130) This Doctor Strange lives on an alternate
earth that takes place in the 17th century.
Or, rather, still lives in the manner of the 17th century, since everyone is a pirate but
there’s still certain aspects of modern technology that exist in it.
It’s one of the realities that Reed Richard had discovered when studying alternate realities.
Not much has changed or deviates in terms of Strange’s abilities, and he dies in the
same issue he appears in, but also, he has long pirate hair, so that’s pretty darn
great.
6 A-Babies vs X-Babies A-Babies versus X-Babies is a limited series
parody of the Avengers versus X-Men story arc.
And since it’s a parody, you can probably tell the stakes are a little less high than
they are in AvX.
On this Earth, Earth 71912, Doctor Strange is one of the Avengers members who Nick Fury
summons to fight against the X-Men.
The root of the conflict?
Cyclops has stolen Captain America’s teddy bear, Bucky Bear.
Despite being a baby, he’s got a moustache and a shock of white hair.
There’s also some pretty great Doctor Strange variant covers that feature baby Strange,
too.
5 Mangaverse – Earth 2301 This Doctor Strange is a part of the mangaverse
– a reality in which all of the Marvel characters are drawn like manga characters.
This version of Stephen unfortunately didn’t play a huge role in the Mangaverse, but has
some pretty interesting notable details – for starters, his assistant was Tigra.
He’s got a shock of spikey white hair at the front of his head rather than on the side
of his head.
His glasses have some serious manga vibes, and he’s got a revamp outfit that varies
quite a bit from his 616 counterpart.
Unfortunately, the reason why we don’t see much of him in this reality is because he
was vaporized in the New Mangaverse the rings of fate issue 1, 4 years after he first appeared
in 2002.
4 Disciple of Dormammu From What If issue 18 vol 1 from 1979, this
version of Strange ends up fighting for the side of evil rather than good.
After his accident, he ends up getting his hands healed by Baron Mordo, and never is
trained by the Ancient One.
Mordo eventually coverts Stephen into being one of Dormammu’s disciples because of it.
But he’s still got some good in him – when he finds himself caught between Dormammu and
the Ancient One, he ends up choosing the Ancient One’s side, switching allegiances.
3 Venomverse For those of you unfamiliar with the Venomverse,
it may come as a surprise that Doctor Strange played a key role in the story event.
Strange, on his earth of TRN644, is the host of Venom.
His earth is eradicated by the Poisons – a race of aliens who are predators of the Klyntar,
the race that the venom symbiote is.
When his planet is taken out, he calls up Venoms from various different earths in order
to fight the Poisons in an attempt to prevent the indignant aliens from consuming more of
them and transforming them into part of the Poison’s hive.
His plan to wipe out the Poisons is successful, and he manages to teleport all of the remaining
Venoms back to their home Earths, although his fate is actually unknown.
2 Stephen Strange – Earth 938 This one is technically an alternate of the
Sorcerer Supreme, although it isn’t Stephen Strange.
Well, sort of.
In 1993, vol 2 of What If issue 52 asked the question, what if Doom became Sorcerer supreme.
And in it, Doctor Strange still ends up in a car accident that disfigures his hands,
and he still seeks out the Ancient One’s help, only to come face to face with Victor
Von Doom.
Doom chops off Strange’s hands and replaces them with robotic ones.
Strange goes back to his life as a surgeon, and Doom takes his place, learning from the
Ancient One, eventually becoming Sorcerer Supreme when the Ancient One dies.
Doom is then fatally injured in a battle with Dormammu, so he calls up surgeon Stephen Strange
to operate on him, all while covertly using his doombots to transfer his brain waves into
Strange.
So essentially, he’s Victor Von Doom in Stephen Strange’s body, still wearing his
Doom armour.
This was to all ensure that Doom’s successor would be an exact copy of himself, and that
he’d be able to continue his legacy for years to come.
Classic Victor Von Doom.
1 Doctor Strangefate Hailing from Earth 9602, Doctor Strangefate
is an amalgamation of multiple characters – ones from the Marvel universe, and one
from the DC universe.
Initially from the Marvel versus DC series, Strangefate is a product of the Amalgam Universe
– amalgamations that were part of the DC Marvel crossover back in the mid 90s that
combined DC and Marvel characters into one persona.
He’s the combination of Doctor Strange, Charles Xavier and Doctor Fate.
He’s incredibly powerful in the Amalgam universe, and holds the title of Sorcerer
Supreme.
So what can he do, exactly?
A whole lot.
Get ready for the laundry list people.
He’s got Doctor Fate’s abilities, meaning he’s an incarnation of Doctor Fate (it’s
a mantle that passed along), so he has superhuman strength and durability, telekinesis and is
capable of flight.
His sorcery allows for intangibility, transmutation, teleportation, mystic energy bolts, banishment
of people or demons to other dimensions, protective shields, time manipulation dimension travelling,
item conjuring, channelling of divine sources, cosmic awareness, hypnotism, levitation, superhuman
growth, invisibility, dimensional manipulation, post cognition to view the past, psychometry
to see possible futures of an object, magic detection, superhuman speed, and telepathy.
We’re talking Charles Xavier of Earth 616 levels of telepathy.
So overall, dude is super OP.
Plus he’s an expect surgeon and occultist with a genius level intellect and military
training.
There we have it friends!
What other versions of Doctor Strange can you think of?
Should we do a part two of this list?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know!
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