Warning: SPOILERS for Doctor Strange (2023) #1A new chapter in Doctor Strange's life begins as Marvel Comics launches a brand-new ongoing series starring not one but two Sorcerers Supreme: Stephen Strange and his wife Clea. After his return from the realms of Death, Stephen takes on a whole new role as a consultant in all matters of magic and mysticism for the other Marvel heroes.
Doctor Strange #1, by Jed MacKay, Pasqual Ferry, and Matt Hollingsworth, introduces readers to a new status quo for Stephen Strange. After fulfilling a bargain with Lady Death herself, helping her stop the threat of the Revenants, Stephen is granted new life, and he once again takes residence in his Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village, New York, sharing his home and duties as Sorcerer Supreme with his wife Clea. Strange decides to become a "consulting doctor", meaning that he offers his counsel and assistance to the many hero "colleagues" who have to deal with dangers of magical origins but lack the expertise and knowledge.
Doctor Strange Becomes A Magic Consultant After His Return From The Dead
Stephen died in The Death of Doctor Strange, a five-issues miniseries by Jed Mackay and Lee Garbett that saw the Sorcerer Supreme succumb to the machinations of Kaecilius, the apprentice of Baron Mordo. During that story, the mystical barriers protecting Earth weakened, allowing access to many refugees from other worlds, fleeing from the threat of the Peregrine Child, a predatory creature that feeds on magic. Even if that crisis was solved, it left a lot of magic-related problems behind, and the duty of solving them fell to Clea, who took over the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme, while desperately looking for a way to bring back her beloved deceased husband.
At the end of Clea's own series, Strange (by Jed Mackay and Marcelo Ferreira), it was revealed that Stephen's soul had been enslaved by Lady Death herself who turned him into her Sorcerer Supreme (the Harvestman), forcing him into a bargain. After fulfilling that duty, however, Stephen was free to come back to the world of the living. This new "consulting" role he assumes also makes perfect sense. Magic is a common presence in the Marvel Universe, even more after the recent crises. Most heroes are usually ill-equipped to deal with magic threats, because they are ignorant of its intricacies and consider it in the same way as any other power. Reed Richards for example admits that magic is his only weakness, because he fails to understand it, and he's the smartest man in the world.
In this first issue, Spider-Man, Daredevil, She-Hulk, and even the new Mayor of New York, Luke Cage, call upon Stephen to solve their magic-related problems. Meanwhile, he is also acting as a mediator for the increasing population of magical creatures that inhabit New York. This is a new interesting role for Doctor Strange, one that can help solidify his connection with the rest of the superhero community while also highlighting his unique position in the Marvel Universe.