Doctor Strange first appeared in the 1963 Marvel Comics anthology Strange Tales as a crippled neurosurgeon apprenticed to a wise Tibetan sorcerer, the Ancient One. After ascending to the position of Sorcerer Supreme, Strange went on to defend Earth from magical attackers and, eventually, chill with the Avengers. As recently as 2011, Strange was loaning the Avengers his manservant, a Chinese man named Wong. It was kind of fucked up.
Now the action-packed, eye-popping Doctor Strange movie reboots Dr. Stephen Strange’s origin story, and Marvel is finally trying to make good on that bad. This Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) learns about eastern mysticism from an Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) who’s now Celtic, and who lives at a monastery in Kathmandu. And now, as Strange ascends to Sorcerer Supreme and sports his jaunty red cape, he butts heads with the monastery’s librarian, Wong (Benedict Wong).
