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Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange, M.D., Ph.D. is a Master of the Mystic Arts. Originally a brilliant but arrogant neurosurgeon, Strange got into a car accident which resulted in his hands becoming crippled. Once Western medicine failed him, Strange embarked on a journey to Kamar-Taj, where he was trained by the Ancient One in the ways of Magic and the Multiverse. Although he focused on healing his hands, Strange was drawn into a conflict with Kaecilius and the Zealots, who were working for Dormammu and had sought to merge Earth with the Dark Dimension. Following the demise of the Ancient One and the defeat of Kaecilius, Strange then became the new protector of the Sanctum Sanctorum, seeking to defend the Earth from other inter-dimensional threats.
From his new position, Strange aided Thor in locating Odin, before he learned of Thanos' attempts to gain all of the Infinity Stones and cause a universal genocide. Since Strange was the protector of the Time Stone, he was attacked and captured by Thanos' Black Order, only for him to then be rescued by Iron Man and Spider-Man. Joining forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Strange battled against Thanos. However, as Strange had seen into the future and knew his only path to victory, he willingly handed over the Time Stone, allowing Thanos to wipe out half of life, including Strange. However, Strange and all the rest of Thanos' victims were resurrected five years later by the Avengers and battled against an alternate Thanos, ending in the Mad Titan's defeat.
Strange offered his aid to Spider-Man, whose identity of Peter Parker was unmasked by Mysterio, as he asked Strange to make the world forget this. However, due to Parker's interference, the spell went wrong, and Strange inadvertently unleashed enemies of Spider-Men from across the Multiverse. Capturing these enemies, Strange tried to use the Macchina di Kadavus to send them back to their universes to meet their inevitable fates, which Spider-Man had refused to allow, hoping to give these people a chance at redemption. Having been trapped in the Mirror Dimension during a duel with Spider-Man, Strange returned and fought to contain the Multiversal rift. With no other choice, Strange cast a spell to return the visitors back to their universes and close the rifts, but also at the cost of making everyone, including himself, forget Parker's existence.
Being heralded of new interdimensional threats, Strange came across America Chavez. While investigating these threats, Strange learned that Wanda Maximoff, who fell under the influence of the Darkhold, was responsible. As Kamar-Taj fell under attack by her, Chavez sent Strange spiraling through the multiverse, where they were eventually arrested by the Illuminati. With the help of an alternate Christine Palmer, Strange and Chavez escaped, only for Maximoff to abduct Chavez, banishing Strange and Palmer to an incursion-inflicted universe. Confronting that reality's Doctor Strange, Strange claimed the Darkhold, utilizing dreamwalking in order to rescue Chavez. Helping her gain full control of her powers, the two swayed Maximoff from the Darkhold's influence, before her apparent self-sacrifice to destroy all copies of the Darkhold throughout the Multiverse. In the aftermath, Strange and Wong took Chavez, who decided to stay in their universe, under their care and taught her in the Mystic Arts. Sometime later, Strange was confronted by Clea, a sorceress who enlisted his help in fixing a new incursion he had caused.
Strange went to medical school at Columbia University, and eventually graduated with an M.D. and Ph.D. at the same time, using his photographic memory to learn all of the information incredibly quickly.[1]
As an adult, Strange had begun specializing in neurological surgery and focusing his research on the formation of new nerve cells. Strange eventually became attracted to Christine Palmer, a fellow surgeon who had worked alongside him in the ER department of Metro-General Hospital where together they successfully invented a laminectomy procedure, something which Strange tried to take full credit for and even have named after him. The two later began a relationship; it did not last due to Strange's arrogance and his focus on his career, but the two continued to work with each other and remained friends, with Palmer even gifting him a watch.[1]
In 2012, Stephen Strange was present in New York City during the Chitauri Invasion,[6] performing a surgery at the hospital about twenty blocks from the New York Sanctum.[7] In 2014, Strange was deemed a potential threat to HYDRA, whose intent was to deploy Zola's Algorithm and eliminate the threats from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarriers. Thanks to the efforts of Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson who thwarted HYDRA's plan during the Battle at the Triskelion, Strange survived.[8] By 2016, he was one of the top surgeons in New York City, being scheduled on discussing life-saving techniques on an interview with WHiH World News.[9] However, Strange became more egotistical as his skills and craft increased.[1]
Strange took Christine Palmer out to dinner, at a restaurant which Palmer noted was surprisingly fancy, questioning if Strange had taken out another student loan to pay for it, to which Strange jokingly claimed to have sold a kidney that they had operated on the week before. Palmer then presented Strange with a gift, telling him congratulations, which Strange questioned what it was.
As Strange opened the box, he was shocked to see that Palmer had gifted him with an expensive watch, which had been engraved in the back with a message, telling Strange that time would tell how much Palmer loved him. Strange expressed his shock and gratitude to Palmer for the gift. Strange would go on to wear this watch as often as possible, despite building an expensive watch collection later in his life.[3]
While working at Metro-General Hospital, Strange and Christine Palmer developed a revolutionary technique for removing a vertebral bone, which would contribute to allowing paralyzed patients to walk again. This technique became known as the Strange Palmer method. Strange and Palmer would sit down for an interview with WHiH World News to discuss their work, with Strange reluctantly sharing the credit with Palmer, although noting that he usually did his best work alone.
When asked who the real brains were, Strange deflected from answering the question, with Palmer noting that they made a great team. When Palmer noted Strange was one of the best surgeons alive, Strange insisted he was the best, noting that Palmer was as well. However, the interviewer questioned if Strange's dedications to well-paid speaking engagements were his true focus, which Strange refuted, with Strange becoming annoyed and insisting that he was simply the one you would want holding the knife during a surgery.[10]
On February 2nd, 2016, continuing his neurosurgeon career, Strange performed another operation while at Metro-General Hospital, where he had watched a team of students who were all taking notes. While he was operating, Strange requested Billy to play music and have Strange use his impressive memory to guess the song, artist and year it had been released, which he was able to do each time, much to the great frustration of Billy and all of the other nurses.
Once he had completed yet another successful surgery, Strange was asked by his friend Christine Palmer to help with a patient who had been shot in a firefight. Leaving his nurses to finish with the operation without him, Strange met with Palmer outside the operating room where she presented the x-ray of her patient. While Strange joked that clearly, the issue she was having was that the patient had a bullet inside his head, Strange suddenly realized there was something wrong.
Despite Nicodemus West's objections, who wanted to start recovering the patient's organs immediately, Strange found a perfectly intact bullet and realized that it had been hardened by a poison that caused the patient to fail reflexes tests and enter a death-like state. Realizing Doctor West misdiagnosed brain death in the patient, Strange and Palmer rushed to stop West and prepared to perform immediate surgery to try and remove the bullet.
Although West requested to assist Strange in the operation, he refused the offer and instead told Palmer to come to assist him. As the operation went underway, Palmer thanked Strange for believing her. He prepared to remove the bullet freehand without the use of a machine, as there was such little time. Demanding absolute silence, which included West being told to cover his watch, Strange eventually managed to find and remove the bullet.
Immediately following the successful surgery, Palmer questioned if Strange really needed to humiliate West in front of all of the other doctors, although Strange confidently noted that he did not have to save West's own patient either, but sometimes he just could not help himself. When Palmer continued to defend West and called him a great doctor, Strange asked Palmer if she and West were sleeping together, claiming that the mere concept disgusted him. Palmer then denied the accusation, stating it was against the "Strange Policy," a policy against dating coworkers, which she named after him, which still pleased Strange to have something named after him.
They briefly discussed the laminectomy procedure they had invented together, with Strange still complaining that it had not been named after him yet. Strange proceeded to tell Palmer that he was set to speak at an American Neurological Association dinner later that night and invited her to accompany him. Palmer declined, stating that she never enjoyed going to speaking engagements and that the reason he went was that it boosted his already absurdly large ego.[1]
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