Addendum to the retweet, the most interesting thing about the new trailer isn’t the visuals, it’s BC’s American accent. I’m not sure it’s actually him without that Holmes voice…

Continuing the trend of focusing on characters I am fairly confident will not actually be showing up in the movie, we’re going to take a look at the Sorcerer Supreme himself, Dr. Stephen Strange!

A hero so nice, they alliterated twice!

So, as his title suggests, Dr. Strange’s powers are magic based and come with allll the toppings. His intelligence is extremely high as well. So high that, like Richards and Stark, he is a member of the Illuminati. When Tony Stark approaches this group weeks before the accident that starts the war, he already has the proposal in hand to start the SHRA. Stark asks the group to join him in accepting and encouraging the act. Strange’s response is interesting and telling: he teleports away.

This is interesting because at the level of power he sits, Dr. Strange could simply choose the side he thinks should win, sit with his legs uncomfortably crossed for a little while, then everyone across the world would simply go with whatever he wanted. It would be the only time they thought on the topic, it would no longer interfere with their lives, and they would live on, happy and safe, at least from that choice. Instead, he abandons the world, goes up to the greatest, snowiest north, and chills (ha, wordplay). He sits uncomfortably for really long time and fasts for a really long time and hopes for a really long time. When Uatu checks in he asks about his inaction he says he isn’t going to interfere. He knows he could reduce the mortality rate to zero. He knows he has the power to do it. So why?

See, the truth is, as dire as the consequences may be, as much as he loves his friends, as strong as his call to righteousness can be… Steve don’t care. Dr. Strange looks at the events surrounding the civil war and registration and sees both sides of it. He sees that, as much passion as both sides have, especially against each other, both sides have a point and a right but also a horrifying wrong. Both sides agree that their side is worth fighting for. Both sides agree that they cannot coexist. Neither side can be thought of as rash, even if they refuse to budge. If this had been a distinction of evil vs. good, Strange would have been there waving his hands to and fro, calling on the multi syllabic body parts of dead guys and fighting. As he says himself, though, it is a matter of perspective. There is no moral imperative there. For him to choose a side would mean that he would be attacking some friends because he liked other friends more. Or because he had blinded himself to a cause. He loves his country, I suppose, but for him this decision marks an important turning point in the continuing development of his super powered people. He cannot make the decision alone, thus, given his abilities, he cannot make the decision at all. It does mean that some people will get hurt. It means some may die. Even the really good people.

This post really turns out to be more about a lead up, it would seem. If you’ve been reading my Universe In Reviews, you may have run across my excitement when Lex in BvS tossed out the ol’ classic dilemma (although I learned it as a trilemma. Just a little more ‘lemma. Maybe its better, I dunno, not for me to say) “If God is all good, He can’t be all powerful. If He’s all powerful, He can’t be all good”. This is a step towards my answer to that. Here we have a mostly all powerful guy, facing a situation teeming with bad, overflowing even, and we see him do… nothing. Yet, we know the character. He is a good guy. He was an Avenger. I mean, we know it isn’t uncaring. We know it isn’t because he lacks the ability. We know he knows about the war. For him to do this, we know isn’t even out of character. It’s a father watching his children fight. He can’t stop all of their fights. At some point, they either learn to live together or they don’t.

The decision of how to move forward is theirs and to deprive them of that is an evil. It is exactly that reason that keeps Dr. Strange sidelined. It is hard to watch your friends fight, and I’ll bet even more frightening when they are all capable of destroying building. It gets harder when they turn that power on each other. I like this distinction, though. It isn’t lack of caring that sent Supremey Pants to this Fortress of Solitude (er, whatever. Close enough). It was a combination of power, respect, and perspective. He could stop the fight, but somethings are worth the fight. Part of respect is allowing those you respect to chase their interest over a cliff without interfering.

So he waits. He waits and hopes his friends live. He waits and hopes that it will be over quickly and for good. He’ll register if he has to. He’ll not if he doesn’t. But that is exceptionally small compared to having to look in a mirror and see the murder of a friend or the face of the man that manipulated the population in an intimate way. I mean, even magic mirrors have a way of always being honest, anyway. Or summoning Bloody Mary. Either way, you don’t want to piss the person on the other side off.

:::catchy sign off:::