Doctor Strange remains one of the most powerful magic users in Marvel Comics, and this means his most powerful villains have to bring something impressive to the table. For many years, Doctor Strange was the Sorcerer Supreme on Earth, meaning he was the most powerful sorcerer on the planet and was responsible for protecting the world from magical threats. While he is no longer in that position, he still built up a strong library of villains over the years that only he could stop with his massive magical powers. Strange debuted in a back-up feature in Strange Tales #110 (1963), the same issue that introduced his very first villain, Nightmare, and his villains have only gotten wilder over the years.
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From human sorcerers and dimensional ruling demons to outright eldritch abominations from before Earth existed, here is a look at Doctor Strange’s best villains, ranked by power.
10) The Empirikul
The Empirikul is a newer villain for Doctor Strange, debuting in “The Last Days of Magic” (2015) storyline by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo. These are villains who wanted to destroy everything that Doctor Strange is about, as they set out on a genocidal crusade with the hope of exterminating all magic in every dimension. In fact, when they reached Earth, they succeeded when the Imperator defeated Strange after the hero siphoned all Earth’s magic into himself, and this wiped out all magic on the planet.
This shows their immense power, as they didn’t just beat Doctor Strange, but they depowered all of Earth’s magical heroes and villains. They are science zealots who view magic as a cancer to be eliminated. The twist is that one of Doctor Strange’s most dangerous villains, Shuma-Gorath, sent them on their warpath since he executed the Imperator’s science-practicing parents. This group created the biggest change to Doctor Strange’s life in the modern era before Strange finally beat them.
9) Silver Dagger
Silver Dagger is one of Doctor Strange’s older villains, debuting in Doctor Strange #1 (1974) by Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner, and Dick Giordano. Isaiah Curwen was a Cardinal of Vatican City and a genuine contender for the Papacy, rejected by the College of Cardinals for his youth and fanaticism. This led him to seek to learn the black arts, and then he read the Darkhold. This turned him into a fanatic who wanted to assassinate all singular magic users.
Silver Dagger came close to killing Doctor Strange, attacking him while he was lying helpless in the Mists of Morpheus. With Strange helpless, Silver Dagger threw one of his daggers into Strange’s back, and it would have killed him if he hadn’t projected himself into the Orb of Agamotto. Silver Dagger, through it all, is a human villain who used his cunning and the use of silver blades blessed in holy water to attack people using magic. While Doctor Strange is a hero, Silver Dagger believed himself to be God’s chosen warrior against Satan.
8) Kaecilius
Kaecilius first appeared in Strange Tales #130 (1965) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, originally as an unnamed disciple of Baron Mordo. While he worked for Mordo at the start, he moved on to become a deadly villain in his own right. From the start, he was a dangerous enemy, as he fought Doctor Strange through the 1960s, including one battle where he stole the Cloak of Levitation before finally falling in defeat and losing all his knowledge of sorcery after a Strange spell.
However, this wasn’t the end for Kaecilius, as he ended up later banished to the Purple Dimension, only to return with much more powerful abilities and darkened eyes. He was so powerful after he returned that he killed Doctor Strange and made it look like Baron Mordo did it. In the end, he was a servant to Mordo, who soon outgrew this role and became a strong villain on his own, where he no longer needed to work for anyone. He is also one of Doctor Strange’s most well-known villains in the mainstream, since he was the main bad guy in the first Doctor Strange (2016) movie, played by Mads Mikkelsen.
7) Baron Mordo
Baron Mordo is often referred to as Doctor Strange’s arch-enemy, but most of that is because he is closest to Strange in power levels and abilities. Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo first appeared in Strange Tales #111 (1963) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, becoming Doctor Strange’s first recurring human villain. The first time they fought, Mordo, a fellow pupil of the Ancient One, sent his astral form to the Ancient One’s mountain retreat and mind-controlled a servant into poisoning the master’s food. Strange stopped him, kicking off their lifelong rivalry.
Baron Mordo is the dark mirror image of Doctor Strange, showing how two men with the same opportunities could become either a hero or a villain based on their decisions. Mordo chose ambition and the black arts over the mentor’s guidance, giving up the chance to be a hero. In the comics, Mordo eventually contracts terminal cancer as a side effect of his black magic and renounces evil just before death in “The Oath.” It was a genuinely touching end for the Silver Age villain.
6) Satannish
Satannish was a demonic villain of Doctor Strange, and was a perfect example of how the former Sorcerer Supreme has to defend the world from evils from beyond. Satannish is a Lovecraftian demon-lord of pure evil, who first fully appeared in Doctor Strange #174 (1968) by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan. He granted twisted magical power to a cult of wizards, the Sons of Satannish, and struck a pact with the human sorcerer Lord Nekron. This cult’s scheme is what first brings him into direct conflict with Doctor Strange.
Like most of Doctor Strange’s mystical demonic villains, he has powers beyond almost anything Strange would face on Earth. He’s one of Marvel’s true Hell-lords (in the same tier with Mephisto and Satan), a deal-making corrupter who works through mortal cults rather than direct assault. His power was so mighty that Strange tapped the Sons of Satannish’s magic via crystals and was able to defeat the fire-and-ice giants Surtur and Ymir.
5) Umar
Umar debuted in Strange Tales #150 (1966) by Roy Thomas and Bill Everett. She is a Faltine, a higher-dimensional energy being in human form, the sister of Dormammu, and the mother of Clea, who herself was Doctor Strange’s longtime love interest. This tied her to Strange more directly than most villains from his rogues’ gallery. Her power is always shown as something that exceeds Earth’s sorcerers, including Doctor Strange himself.
In Strange Tales #156, Strange only narrowly defeated her by summoning Zom, one of the very few entities whose raw strength rivals her own. Later, during “Cosmic Axis,” Umar and Dormammu combined their power to actually defeat the cosmic embodiment Eternity, something that had seemed almost impossible in Marvel Comics storylines. Her biggest stories are either as a villain for Strange or a nemesis for Dormammu, as she is locked in an eternal sibling war for the Dark Dimension throne.
4) Nightmare
Nightmare debuted in Strange Tales #110 (1963) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, which means he was the first villain that Doctor Strange ever fought. This was the same issue that also introduced Wong and the Ancient One to Marvel Comics. In their first fight, Doctor Strange investigated a case where a man was being tormented by dreams, and when Strange entered the Dream Dimension, he discovered Nightmare there and learned the dreams were from repressed guilt over a murder.
Nightmare is the ruler of the Dream Dimension and one of the Fear Lords, and he drags humans into his realm to torment them. While inside the Dream Dimension, he has near-godlike powers, making him nearly omnipotent. Nightmare once trapped Strange there to feed on his magic, and Strange only escaped by tricking him. To show his true power scale, he once corrupted the Hulk’s mind, degrading it to pure primal rage, so that the Hulk nearly leveled all of Manhattan. As long as people sleep and have fears, Nightmare is a threat.
3) Mephisto
Mephisto is Marvel’s most famous demonic hell-based villain. He made his first appearance in Silver Surfer #3 (1968) by Stan Lee and John Buscema. He is the most dangerous King of Hell, although he is actually an ancient extradimensional demon ruling a fiery netherworld of tortured souls. In his realm, he is all-powerful, and he has even fought Galactus to a stalemate when he was in Hell. As for his powers, he manipulates magic and reality, and he is best-known as a soul-trading deal-maker, rather than someone who wants to fight anyone.
However, when it comes to Doctor Strange, it is a case of two powerful magic users locked in a battle of wits. As a trafficker in souls and pacts, Mephisto is a recurring adversary for the former Sorcerer Supreme. In modern Spider-Man comics, Strange even bargains directly with Mephisto, gambling his own soul to try to save Spider-Man. Mephisto is behind some of the most infamous moments in Marvel history, including “One More Day,” and even when he loses, he somehow still comes out on top.
2) Shuma-Gorath
Shuma-Gorath made his first appearance in Marvel Premiere #10 (1973) by Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner. He was one of the Great Old Ones, a race of ancient eldritch beings that predate Earth. He had the most important feat among all of Doctor Strange’s villains, when the only way for Doctor Strange to stop the demon’s invasion was to kill the Ancient One with a spell to seal the portal. This helped the Ancient One become one with the universe, and it was this battle that made Doctor Strange the new Sorcerer Supreme.
This means Shuma-Gorath is the one who created the Doctor Strange that existed in Marvel Comics for the last five decades. In some fun trivia, the name Shuma-Gorath actually comes from Robert E. Howard’s story called “The Curse of the Golden Skull.” This is part of the reason that the Doctor Strange villain was renamed Gargantos in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He is a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination who is said to be even more powerful than Mephisto.
1) Dormammu
Doctor Strange’s actual arch-enemy is the demon known as Dormammu, who debuted in Strange Tales #126 (1964) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. This is the same issue that introduced Clea, who became Strange’s long-time love interest and who was also the niece of Dormammu. Like his sister Umar, Dormammu is a Faltine and the god-tyrant ruler of the Dark Dimension. In his first appearance, Doctor Strange actually went into the Dark Dimension and helped Dormammu repel the Mindless Ones, and in exchange, Dormammu swore he would never invade Earth.
This helped set up their debt-of-honor dynamic. However, in reality, Dormammu is still a threat to the life of the entire universe, and he has done unspeakable things along the way. He has fought Eternity in single combat, teamed with Umar in “Cosmic Axis” to defeat Eternity, and he eventually remade Earth into his own hellish domain. He is so powerful that Doctor Strange can’t beat Dormammu outright and has to use cleverness rather than magic to stop him time and time again.
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