Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1
The mystical magic of Avengers. Doctor Strange was recently murdered, with the heroes of Earth unsure as to who killed him. As Marvel's heroes face a Strange-less world, many things about the sorcerer have come to light including some of the practices of his darkest magic.
In The Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 by Jed MacKay and Marcelo Ferreira, Ben Reilly and Black Cat are forced to deal with the fallout of Doctor Strange’s death by completing a number of tasks he is responsible for across the city. The two swing around town stopping several supernatural threats that Strange’s existence would have neutralized, though upon his death they have reared their ugly heads once again. Amid their night of house calls, Ben Reilly's new Spider-Man and Black Cat look back on their previous experiences with Doctor Strange, with Ben thinking back to a time when he witnessed the Sorcerer Supreme beating the Devil half to death, a sight that he says utterly terrified him.
Doctor Strange proving to be more powerful than the Devil is just the tip of the iceberg in of his horrifying dark magic usage. When the Hulk threatened the lives of everyone on Earth during World War Hulk, Doctor Strange tapped into evil magic in an effort to stop him. Strange merged with the evil entity Zom to harness enough strength to defeat the Hulk. Strange opened himself up to the influence of a demonic force because he thought it was a necessary action to defeat a world-ending threat, and while the Hulk ended up overpowering the dark magic-wielding sorcerer, fans still witnessed the extent Doctor Strange is willing to go for the sake of the planet.
Doctor Strange is so comfortable dipping into evil magical forces that he even had a hand in redeg the hierarchy of hell itself. After capturing Mephisto in a mystical prison in Las Vegas, Doctor Strange convinced Johnny Blaze’s Ghost Rider to take the Devil’s place as the King of Hell, a position Blaze held until Mephisto was King In Black crossover event and regained control of the underworld.
From tapping into evil powers to stop the Hulk, to beating the Devil half to death, and even choosing a new one to rule over the darkest corner of the multiverse, Doctor Strange has proven time and again that he has no problem using dark magic when he deems it necessary. While the usage of evil magic has more often than not flown under the radar of the other heroes, the comment made by Spider-Man in the latest installment of the murder-mystery crossover proves that the usage of unsavory magic by Doctor Strange has been noticed, and it Avengers.
