Doctor Strange Unveils New God-Tier Super Power, And It's Disgusting

Once again, Doctor Strange shows why he's the one truly unbeatable hero in the Marvel Universe. One of Marvel's many paradoxes is that resurrection is commonplace, and at the same time, deaths are remarkably rare. Resurrection-prone characters like Jean Grey and Charles Xavier are famous for undoing their demise multiple times, while Wolverine and the Hulk inevitably survive injuries that should be impossible to heal from. And even when they actually die, the latter two come back thanks to external sources they can't even manipulate.

This quality makes several Marvel heroes virtually invincible. Wolverine, Hulk, Deadpool, and Mr. Immortal shake off almost any injury, whereas heroes as powerful as Thor, the Silver Surfer, Captain Marvel, and Sentry are so strong that they can't even sustain significant injuries in the first place. There's another type of unbeatable hero, however, which is composed of characters whose immense assortment of abilities allows them to play with the concept of death. Ghost Rider, Franklin Richards, Scarlet Witch, and Doctor Strange have countless mystical tools at their disposal, which they often use to manipulate time and reality to win their battles.

Of these mystical heroes, Doctor Strange is the one with the most advanced magical knowledge and the one most likely to render death meaningless.

Lord Strange Can Instantly Recover From Injuries Incompatible With Life

Doctor Strange #9; Written By Derek Landy; Art By Ivan Fiorelli, Dono Sánchez-Almara

Now devoted to his duties off-Earth, Doctor Strange benefits from his recent acquisition of the "Lord Strange" form, which lets him tap into dark types of magic no other heroic sorcerer can access. Thanks to this rare source of mystical power, Strange is able to survive complete decapitation after an attack from the assassin Downfall. Stephen's Lord Strange power allows him to simply pick up his head and reattach it without any pain or effort. All arteries, muscles, bones, and torn tissues heal instantly and with no long-term side effects.

Doctor Strange and many other magical characters are acquainted with reversible spells and techniques. Turning an opponent into an inanimate object or changing their molecular structure is usually a temporary attack. For instance, Thanos transforms Nebula's body into ribbons and Starfox's into cubes in The Infinity Gauntlet, only for Nebula to undo the effect. However, undoing a regular physical injury is a much rarer occurrence, otherwise magic would remove the stakes from most battles in the Marvel Universe. Only an obscure source of power, one that eventually requires great sacrifice in exchange, can save its user from life-threatening injuries so quickly and reliably.

Doctor Strange Is The Epitome Of The Rule Of Cool

Stephen Strange Is Exempt From Plot Holes By Nature

Magic gives Stephen Strange a flexible relationship with the rules that govern most superheroes. Even in a universe filled with all kinds of fantastical characters and concepts, everyone has reasonable limits. Thor can be killed, the Hulk can be caught off-guard, and death can't be reversed easily. Technically, Strange could use a small fraction of his magical repertoire to stop Knull all by himself, or to wipe the Sentinels off the face of the Earth. However, Strange always finds himself outmatched and unable to stop threats that should be easy to beat using one of his powerful spells. Otherwise, the Marvel Universe wouldn't need anyone else to protect it.

Strange's encounters with death provide perhaps the funniest demonstration of this flexibility. In The Death of Doctor Strange, Strange investigates his own death from beyond the grave. Yet, after experiencing death firsthand and discovering ways to circumvent it, Stephen still reacts to mortality with genuine fear in later stories. Other examples include Donny Cates, Nick Spencer, and Rod Reis’ Damnation, where Strange casually uses a spell to resurrect the entire annihilated city of Las Vegas and its millions of citizens, accidentally drawing Mephisto’s realm to Earth, only to struggle against far lesser magical threats in subsequent storylines. In the future, decapitation will likely be off the table for Strange.

Which Doctor Strange ability is overpowered?

Doctor Strange #9 is available August 12 from Marvel Comics