Doctor Strange had never been one of the popular comic book characters in the yesteryears of Marvel Comics. However, that doesn’t make him any less important to the Marvel comic book Universe. With the introduction of Benedict Cumberbatch playing him on the big screen in 2016, his popularity suddenly skyrocketed.
The movie has maintained Christine Palmer as his complicated love interest, for the most part. The latest instalment of Doctor Strange movies, Multiverse of Madness teases the appearance of Clea, a potential love interest. Let's explore some of the strangest romances of the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-616.
Marjorie Brink
While Stephen Strange was studying medicine, Marjorie Brink was a librarian who had a brief, intense romance with him. She observed that her body had remained unchanged for some time after that and came to the conclusion that she was immortal.
She ran with Strange again several years later and requested his assistance in understanding her situation. He tried to conjure a vision, but instead sent them both thousands of years into the future, to a time when the Earth was threatened by a demon-possessed Sun.
There, Marjorie met with her future self, who had preserved the knowledge on how to combat this threat to humanity, which satisfied her. Meeting your ex can be traumatizing and awkward, let alone travelling to the future with them. However, strangely enough, Strange made it work.
Amanda Payne
Doctor Strange, like other heroes, has had his ups and downs. This involves having imposters try to take over his life. Doctor Strange returned to Nebraska to recover after one such episode.
He reconnected with a childhood friend named Amanda Payne when he was there. What they had was a pretty usual affair. However, Strange was distracted by Baron Mordo, left, and never mentioned her again!
Having healthy coping mechanisms isn’t something Dr Stephen Strange is particularly known for. Therefore, it isn’t very surprising that he had a brief rebound-cum-fling and completely forgot all about it later on.
Victoria Bentley
A recurring character in Dr Strange Comics, Victoria Bentley was the daughter of a wealthy professor, Sir Clive Bentley. When Baron Mordo impersonated her deceased father to summon Doctor Strange, Strange arrived to investigate. Mordo had set up a vapour trap, and he confronted him.
Thanks to her latent magical skills, Victoria was able to intercept Strange's mystical plea for assistance. Victoria's potential was spotted by Mordo, who stated she would be a threat if she ever learned to use it. Mordo was beaten, and Strange encouraged Victoria to live her life as she saw proper. Mordo would almost probably strike again, therefore he opted against taking her on as an apprentice.
Over time, Victoria often helped out Strange with various tasks and adventures and developed feelings for him. Strange, however, never seemed to notice Victoria at all, let alone reciprocate her feelings.
Madeleine De St. Germain
Madeleine St. Germaine worked for the United Nations as a linguist and translator. Madeleine was injured and transferred to New York Hospital, where she was treated and saved by Dr Stephen Strange, a brilliant neurosurgeon. They became lovers. She left him after a thrilling romance due to his increasingly materialistic mentality.
Years later, they reconnected under the strangest of circumstances where Strange was brainwashed to almost using her as a blood sacrifice. As reunions go in the Marvel Universe, this is still pretty normal.
The Night Nurse
The Night Nurse is a moniker shared by a few in the Marvel Comics. The one significant to Strange in the comics is Dr Linda carter, a general practitioner by profession.
Linda provided medical services to the Marvel heroes. After briefly working with Strange, she moved her work to Sanctum Sanctorum for a while. They dated for a while but then parted ways just as quickly.
In the movies, a similar role is taken up by Christina Palmer who incidentally plays another Night Nurse in the comics but is not a love interest to Strange.
Morgana Blessing
Morgana Blessing was Doctor Stephen Strange's author, friend, and potential love interest. During a time when the Doctor was thought to be dead, she wrote and released a book on his life. She had an undercurrent of a romantic rivalry with Clea going on.
However, the rivalry died down as Morgana started dating Victor Strange, Stephen’s vampire brother. Morgana took the "If you can't have him, date his brother instead" approach to love life.
Martha
In the Defenders series, Doctor Strange was madly in love with his supervisor, Martha, when he was a graduate student. They broke up, and Martha went on to marry and have children. She died of ovarian cancer later.
Doctor Strange never got over her death and years later discovered a technique to resuscitate her. Despite this, she eventually left him. Strange later used his power to undo a lot of things, including her resurrection, so none of that happened. Now that one takes care of any awkward run-ins with your ex in a pretty foolproof way!
Dead Girl
Member of the X-Statix team, Dead Girl is an X-Men character. Her unique mutant abilities allow her to communicate with the dead and even resurrect the recently deceased for a few hours. Stephen Strange and Dead Girl joined forces for a mission where they shared a brief but awkward romance.
This pairing died down as quickly as it formed and for good reason as it would never have been a popular one. The romance between Dead Girl and Strange was purely circumstantial and had no base to exist outside of a one-off thing.
Clea
Clea is “the one”, the epic love to Doctor Stephen Strange! He first met her on his first excursion to Dormammu's Dark Dimension many years ago.
Clea was a mysterious woman who helped him while he was there (so mysterious that it took several issues for him to learn her name), and he developed a crush on her. She was eventually let to escape the Dark Dimension, and she became Strange's student. They were lovers as well.
They've gotten back together a few times over the years, but they've always been separated for one reason or another, largely due to her role as the ruler of the Dark Dimension.
Long-distance relationships are often hard to maintain and here we are talking of an inter-dimensional one! Still, Clea is for all intents and purposes, the love of Strange’s life and we may get to see that soon in the upcoming Doctor Strange movies!
