5 Years Later, Marvel's Best Doctor Strange Story Remains Undefeated
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
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For the most part, What If...? was a wasted opportunity. Rather than using its non-canonical anthology structure to explore genuine what-if scenarios changing the outcome of an iconic movie — for example, what if the other half got snapped? — What If...? just put the Avengers in cowboy outfits and surrounded them with zombies and sent them back in time to 1602. It devolved into a typical, formulaic Marvel superhero adventure in which the Watcher is putting together a team: the Guardians of the Multiverse. This supposed anthology even had a main character, Captain Carter, whose adventures took up an inordinate number of episodes.
But, despite the overall disappointment, What If...? did still deliver the occasional gem. The Marvel Zombies episode was strong enough to launch a spinoff, the Marvel 1602 episode was visually stunning (if a bit underwhelming compared to the beloved comic it’s based on), and the Star-Lord T’Challa episode was a banger.
What If...? actually handled one character better than the MCU’s own Sacred Timeline. In season 1, episode 4, What If...? gave Doctor Strange a better character arc than Marvel has given Benedict Cumberbatch in the live-action movies. “What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” may not be a part of the mainline canon, but it is the MCU’s best Doctor Strange story to date.
What If...? Told A Better Doctor Strange Story Than The MCU's Sacred Timeline
“What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” is one of the few What If...? episodes that actually lives up to the show’s promise and reimagines how a familiar storyline from a Marvel movie could’ve turned out differently. In Doctor Strange, Stephen Strange gets into a devastating car wreck and loses his hands, sending him down the road to discover the art of magic and become the Sorcerer Supreme. But What If...? wonders how the movie would’ve played out if, instead of losing his hands, Strange lost the woman he loves, Christine Palmer.
The story hinges on the fridging of Strange’s girlfriend, which isn’t a great start, but it kicks off one of the darkest character journeys in Marvel history. After Christine’s death, Strange becomes laser-focused on using his newfound magical powers to bring her back. It leads him down a very self-destructive path, building to a Black Mirror-esque twist ending that leaves Strange all alone to live with his grief and guilt.
While it’s a lot darker than the Sacred Timeline’s Doctor Strange story, it’s also a lot richer and stronger and more interesting. The first Doctor Strange movie is a more or less conventional superhero origin story (albeit with some of the trippiest visual effects you’ve ever seen), but Strange’s What If...? episode is a haunting tragedy.
The MCU Has Embraced The Darker Doctor Strange From What If...?
Ever since What If...? showed us how awesome a dark Doctor Strange could be, Marvel Studios has been embracing a darker side of Strange. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brought in visionary horror director Sam Raimi to come up with gonzo visuals, like zombie Strange flying on wings made of the souls of the damned to fight the Scarlet Witch at an ancient mountaintop temple, and even visited a Strange variant who might as well be a live-action adaptation of What If...?’s Strange Supreme.
In a universe destroyed by an incursion, Strange meets a version of himself who succumbed to the allure of the Darkhold. This character is Strange Supreme is all but name; he’s been using the Darkhold to dreamwalk in the hope of finding a version of himself who’s living happily with Christine, so he can take their place. It made me want to see a full live-action feature film based on that What If...? episode.
What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?
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