Countdown to Doomsday: Doctor Strange

The countdown reaches the MCU's first real foray into magic. Adam argues that Doctor Strange is one of Marvel's most visually stunning films, the Mirror Dimension, the reverse-destruction climax, a hero who wins by outsmarting rather than outfighting, and also one of its most structurally broken. Why the movie's whole arc about learning humility is undercut by a plot that rewards Strange for ignoring everyone, how that contradiction becomes the entire franchise's pattern, and why the endless lore-dumping turns a good movie into a textbook. A visually-carried 4 out of 5. Next up, things get colorful.