Doctor Strange’s 10 Most Impressive Displays Of Power In The MCU

Though there are several incredibly powerful heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange stands firmly as one of the strongest. Introduced as one of the world’s foremost surgeons, the brilliant Doctor Stephen Strange seeks out the wisdom of Kamar-Taj to restore functionality to his hands after they are damaged in a brutal car accident. Of course, Strange gets even more than he anticipated, becoming a full-fledged student of the Ancient One and the eventual Sorcerer Supreme.

This prestigious title isn’t given out lightly, as Strange’s eidetic memory allows him to learn magic at an unprecedented pace. After mastering the mystic arts, Strange joins with wider superhero community ahead of Thanos’ arrival and is instantly one of Earth’s most powerful Avengers. However, not everything Doctor Strange does is equally difficult, and a few feats stand out as particularly incredible displays of power.

10 Doctor Strange Binds Thanos With The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak

It goes without saying that Thanos is one of the most powerful villains in the MCU, likely topping the list when equipped with the Infinity Stones. While Doctor Strange didn’t fight him one-on-one with a full gauntlet, It’s still impressive that he was able to use his Crimson Bands of Cyttorak spell to temporarily hold Thanos in place. It took Thanos activating an Infinity Stone to break free, showcasing how strong the spell is.

9 Doctor Strange Rewinds Time In Hong Kong

The Eye of Agamotto, which contains the Time Stone, grants Doctor Strange the ability to control time to some degree. While the Sorcerer Supreme is apprehensive about using it without good cause, he’s left with no choice in the final act of Doctor Strange. Chasing Kaecilius to Hong Kong, Strange arrives too late. The local Sanctum has been destroyed, and a rift has opened to the Dark Dimension. However, Strange rewinds time in a visually stunning sequence and grants himself another chance at victory.

8 The Runes of Kof-Kol Make The Whole Planet Forget Peter Parker

A single-target memory spell seems powerful enough, but Doctor Strange is able to affect the entire planet (and possibly more), forcing them to forget about Peter Parker. The Runes of Kof-Kol spell goes awry early in the movie as Peter interferes with Strange as he casts it, but it’s effective in the end, leaving Peter ultimately alone but saving reality from devastating multiversal rifts. It’s unknown if the spell will make an MCU appearance again, but it seems like a powerful tool to make villains forget the harm they’re trying to cause.

7 Doctor Strange Sees Millions Of Futures

There was never any doubt that Thanos would prove to be a tough foe for the Avengers in the MCU, but Doctor Strange reveals just how slim the team’s chances are with the help of the Eye of Agamotto. Strange looks into the future to see the outcome of every decision the team can make and discovers that, out of the 14,000,605 possibilities he views, only a single one leads to victory. Given that the path to victory was filled with small, temporary defeats, it seems likely that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes would never have found the winning path without Strange’s visions.

6 Doctor Strange Traps Loki In A Freefall

In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor and Loki visit New York in an attempt to find Odin. Doctor Strange intervenes, choosing to trap Loki in an endless loop of falling between two Sling-Ring portals. While teleporting someone seems like a far cry from Doctor Strange’s strongest feats, it’s particularly impressive that he trapped the God of Mischief for 30 minutes without the god being able to do anything about it.

5 Doctor Strange Enhances Spider-Man’s Suit

Iron Man may have been the original hero to power up Peter Parker’s suit in the MCU, but Doctor Strange takes over in Spider-Man: No Way Home. When Peter’s villains from across the multiverse all end up in the mainline MCU, Doctor Strange imbues Spider-Man with some magical capabilities to aid in their capture. Teleporting other beings is impressive enough, but the fact that Doctor Strange can give others the ability to transport powerful foes to prison cells is something else altogether.

4 Doctor Strange Dreamwalks Into His Own Dead Corpse

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness not only featured several great cameos but also introduced several new and powerful ways for Strange to use magic. One is Dreamwalking, a dark power that enables the user to hop into the body of one of their variants across the multiverse. While Wanda uses it to hunt down America Chavez, Strange finds a bit of a moral loophole. Instead of taking bodily autonomy away from a living person, he reanimates the dead Defender Strange from the movie’s opening. The move showcases Strange’s creativity with the mystic arts and his willingness to blur the line between good and evil in a compelling way.

3 Doctor Strange Defeats His Powerful Variant With Music

In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Strange finds himself in a grim reality ravaged by a massive incursion. There, he finds a sinister version of himself, and the two eventually engage in a magical duel. While Strange’s magic proves powerful, the scene succeeds most in showcasing the Sorcerer Supreme’s incredible wit. Instead of just shooting magical blasts at each other, Strange is able to grab musical notes out of sound and turn them into dangerous projectiles. And may not actually make much sense, but it’s exactly the kind of bizarre magic that’s perfect for a Doctor Strange movie.

2 Doctor Strange Withholds Blasts From All 6 Infinity Stones

What If…?‘s version of Doctor Strange may be a variant of the one in the mainline MCU, but, until after the defeat of Dormammu, he has the exact same history and story as main Stephen except that Christine Palmer dies in his formative car accident. This strange, who has been corrupted in his pursuit of absolute power, attains it at a high moral cost. However, his strengths is put on full display when he creates magical armor capable of withstanding blasts from Ultron wielding all six Infinity Stones.

1 Doctor Strange Holds Dormammu Captive

While Kaecilius is the primary antagonist of Doctor Strange, he draws his power from Dormammu, an incredibly powerful being from the Dark Dimension. Doctor Strange knows that he has no chance of physically overcoming Dormammu, even with the Eye of Agamotto, so he instead uses his wits in his most impressive display of power yet. Doctor Strange creates a time loop, which resets every time he dies. Dormammu, a being normally outside the confines of time, is powerless and is forced to negotiate with the Sorcerer Supreme.