Even in superhero comics, the power of friendship is still strong. Time again, characters form the most unique and bizarre friendships that either last for decades or a few months. One of the many who has some of the strangest Marvel friendships is aptly enough, the Sorrecor Supreme himself, Doctor Strange.
From classic heroes to some of Marvel's most vile villains to a whole bunch of odd characters, Stephen Strange has made friends with some bizarre characters. While not all of the friendships have stuck, they still make for an interesting number of stories in the Marvel Universe mythos.
The Vision (Aarkus)
Any fan worth their salt knows of Vision, the android who's become a favorite in the MCU. However, not many fans seem to know of the other Vision, a Golden Age hero named Aarkus who could control air and cold. For a time, Aarkus vanished from comics after the Golden Age came to a close.
During the Marvel Now run of comics, Aarkus returned and was discovered by Dr.Strange. Restoring the original Vision after being gone for so long, Strange and the old hero formed a brief yet strange friendship between a long since forgotten hero and the magic-user.
Spider-Man
While Aarkus and Strange had a brief friendship, there are plenty of heroes who've had long-lasting albeit odd friendships with good Doctors. Everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is one such hero, who frequently visits the Doctor for help and assistance, a relationship the upcoming Spider-Man 3 will utilize.
It doesn't sound all that strange but as time has worn on, some of those requests got pretty weird. Their relationships have gone from Peter asking him to save his aunt to requesting a talk with a spider that turned oddly philosophical. As such, while the two heroes have gotten along, their relationships has always been kind of weird.
The Hulk
For most of his superheroic run, Stephen Strange has always been stepping in and out of teams. From the Avengers to the Illuminati, one of Stephen's more notable teams belongs to The Defenders, alongside Bruce Banner, the Hulk, and by all accounts a strained and up-and-down friendship.
While Stephen gets along fine with Bruce Banner, his friendship with the green behemoth is less so. From agreeing to launch Hulk into Space to taking him on time again, the pair are on shaky ground but still manage to team up and put their differences aside when the time calls for it.
Doctor Doom
Out of every hero and character in the Marvel Universe, the heinous Doctor Doom is not a character fans would expect to make nice with Doctor Strange. Beyond their magic usage and titles, the two are polar opposites, with Doom being a nefarious villain ruling a sovereign country and Strange the sorcerer supreme.
Yet, there are multiple times in comics where Doom and Strange worked together and became "friends" so to speak. From taking on the demon Mephisto in a bid for their souls and Strange coming to Doom's aid when Reed Richards/Mephisto went after him when Victor became Iron Man, the pair have crossed paths numerous times and have formed a loose friendship.
Kanna
A few years ago in comics, Doctor Strange was losing his magical abilities. In search of a new outlet, Stephen ventured off into space and came across a world full of magic and an alien named Pkzkrfmknna, Kanna for short, a technomancer who became friends with Stephen... until he erased her memory.
After encountering the time stone on a planet, Strange tricked Kanna and then erased her memory of the stone. When she found out, Kanna left enraged only to, a few issues later, seemingly do a 180 and forgive Stephen. Although there's some reasoning behind it, the entire act feels odd and almost random, serving as a quick way to repair the fractured friendship rather than staying enemies.
Cleopatra
Time travel in comics is always gonna lead to some odd encounters. For a while, there was a wizard named Zota of Pergamum who tried to rule over ancient Egypt with Cleopatra at his side. Instead, Cleopatra rejected Zota's advances and the enraged wizard transported the ancient Egyptian to the present day where she crossed paths with Stephen Strange.
Although the interaction was brief, Strange and Cleopatra formed a small friendship, with Strange traveling back in time and putting Cleo back in charge after Zota was defeated. While they never really met again, the friendship remained over the years.
Zelma
Due to the MCU movie, fans are more than knowledgeable of Strange's good friend and ally Wong. Beyond Wong though, Stephen did align himself with another human, Zelma Stanton, a librarian who ended up getting a supernatural infection, went to Dr. Strange for help, and who was subsequently made his apprentice.
Beyond that, the relationship between Stephen and Zelma just always felt odd. For all intents and purposes, Zelma was really only really helping Stephen because he gave her magic due to magical antibodies. Due to that, if anything, Strange is responsible for Zelma being his helper and in a way, upending her life.
Dead Girl
Mutants are always going to be some of the wackier heroes within the Marvel Universe. Moonbeam was once an actress living in New York before she was attacked and killed. Then her mutant gene activated and she became the character known as Dead Girl, who now serves as a zombie/ghost running around saving the world.
At one point, she and Stephen teamed up to stop a group of undead supervillains. While their adventure through Hell was off the charts bizarre, it was made all the stranger due to them having a bit of romance to their relationship. The friendship didn't seem to end there too, as, in the recent comic Strange Academy, Dead Girl appeared as a teacher, probably hired by Stephen himself.
Rintrah
Over the years, Stephen Strange has had plenty of allies and students like Zelma. While Zelma is one of the more notable ones, there's another one that many fans seem to forget: Rintrah, a green-skinned minotaur from a far-off planet who became friends with Strange.
As a whole, their relationship was always more than a little odd. Serving as a student of Stephen's over the years, the pair worked together time again. At one point, the pair even ended up sharing the same body with their consciousnesses which added to the weirdness of the situation but still, didn't take away from the hero's relationship.
Bats The Ghost Dog
In the world of comics, man's best friend can go beyond life and death. For a short while, Stephen stopped being the sorcerer supreme, with the title being passed onto the likes of Loki, and became a veterinarian. At one point, Strange came across an abandoned bloodhound named Bats who he gave the ability to speak. After a fight with Loki, Bat's suffered a heart attack and died although he kept on "living" in the form of a ghost.
While Bats is a fantastic friend to Stephen and adds great levity to the comics, the friendship between a ghost dog and a sorcerer is beyond weird even by Strange's standards.