SPIDER-MAN AND DOCTOR STRANGE: A CLASSIC TEAM-UP
By Kirsten Howard
Although Peter Parker and Stephen Strange are getting to know each other in Spider-Man: No Way Home, their Marvel Comics partnership goes back almost 60 years.
Spider-Man: No Way Home will see Doctor Strange take over as Peter Parker’s mentor after the death of Tony Stark.
In the upcoming threequel, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Master of the Mystic Arts will step up to help Tom Holland’s Spidey when he gets stuck in a tricky situation.
The events of Spider-Man: Far From Home left Peter’s real identity exposed to the world at large, and he becomes a pariah.
His friends and family are also in danger. The media have implicated him in the death of the villainous Mysterio.
But Spider-Man and Doctor Strange accidentally cause a multiversal catastrophe that brings old enemies back to the fore.
They may seem like an unlikely team, but the duo are a classic pairing in the pages of Marvel Comics.
Both characters were created by the legendary Steve Ditko, and they first met in 1965's Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2.
Their adventures were often multi-dimensional, with Spider-Man helping Doctor Strange fight the likes of Baron Mordo and Dormammu.
In 1992's classic story Spider-Man/Doctor Strange: The Way To Dusty Death, their mutual enemy Xandu tried to escape the Death Dimension and the two superheroes united to stop him.
Spider-Man became lost in his own timeline in Amazing Spider-Man #500, and it was Doctor Strange who guided him through it.
The more recent Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 saw Stephen preparing for his end by putting Spider-Man in charge of protecting New York from magical threats.
Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t the only forthcoming exploration of Peter and Stephen’s friendship.
The two will be thrown together in an upcoming episode of Marvel’s What If…? on Disney+.