Fanboys Anonymous

If you've read the latest installment of Cullen Bunn's Fearless Defenders #9 (SPOILER ALERT), you know that Doctor Strange and Clea have come to a critical moment in their long-standing marital union. In a flashback, we discover that upon returning to Earth, Clea finds her husband fooling around with three scantily clad mistresses. This culminates in the final confrontation act of the issue when Clea asks Stephen for a divorce.


If you know me, you know that I have some major issues with how Stephen Strange is being written in more modern comics. One of the aspects I find unsettling about the contemporary approach to Strange is the perpetuation of the idea that the Doctor is a womanizer. Yes, that may have been the case back before Stephen became a sorcerer, but we all know that he did a moral one-eighty after meeting and training with the Ancient One.

Furthermore, the relationship and love between Doctor Strange and Clea is perhaps one of the strongest in the Marvel universe that I know of. The two have been through a hell of a lot together, from saving the world multiple times over to organizing an extradimensional coup d'etat. Stephen is crushed when Clea leaves him so that he can pursue what she perceives to be a "truer love," and this event proceeds to give birth to perhaps the best issue of Doctor Strange ever: Doctor Strange Vol. 2 #55. Time and time again, the two are separated, but issues pre-dating the past decade have had Stephen acting as the ever faithful husband.

Despite all this history, though, contemporary writers insist on "hooking up" Doctor Strange with a string of female characters such as the Night Nurse (The Oath), a college student (Defenders Vol. 4), and a bunch of lowly escorts (Fearless Defenders). In the past decade or so, Doctor Strange has become less of the noble and virtuous character he used to be and has turned into something akin to something out of House or Grey's Anatomy. This, to me, is a severe departure from the established personality of Doctor Strange and his relationship with Clea, and I find it extremely distasteful and disappointing.

Looking through Tumblr and some other social media, it's clear that there is an overall negative tone to peoples' reactions to Stephen's recent transformation into a playboy that has been simmering for some time. It would also seem that Cullen Bunn has received some feedback from fans with regard to the newly christened Strange/Clea fallout, and Bunn has very cryptically replied that there is certainly "more out there to explore" with these two. I sincerely hope that there is a possibility for reconciliation for these two in the near future, because it would be a great shame to let this relationship fall into the abyss of failed marriages in the Marvel Universe.

Let me know what you think! Tweet me @DrStrangeMD or comment below!