Doctor Strange (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Dr. Stephen Strange is the titular protagonist of the 2016 Marvel film Doctor Strange. He is a powerful sorcerer and leading member of the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Originally a brilliant yet arrogant neurosurgeon, Strange suffered a car accident that resulted in his hands being crippled. When Western medicine failed to restore his hands, Strange embarked on a journey that led him to the Masters of the Mystic Arts as well as the discovery of magic and alternate dimensions.

He is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, known for playing Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock.

Personality
Prior to his accident, Strange had a massive ego that fueled his career. Strange only took on patients that he believed would help benefit his status, even refusing to heal a US Army Colonel's back. His work was also driven by a desire to control death and time, which led him to refuse even looking into any patient he perceived to have little chance of recovery. This, however, changed after the accident, which left Strange a broken man. After the accident, he blamed the doctors for ruining his life, refusing to accept that he did it to himself due to not paying attention to the road.

Strange has shown extreme determination, as he spent most of his money in 7 different surgeries to attempt to heal his hands, remained outside of Kamar-Taj's front door for five hours after being initially thrown out, then spent most of his time at Kamar-Taj studying and improving his abilities even going as far as studying while sleeping through his Astral projection. He even allowed himself to be killed by Dormammu countless times until Dormammu gave into his demands.

Upon visiting Kamar-Taj, Strange initially maintained his narrow-minded arrogance and stubbornly refused to believe that the Ancient One was telling the truth, until she forcibly demonstrated astral projection and sent him across multiple dimensions to prove her point. Despite his own exceeding inquisitiveness and willingness to break rules, he was nonetheless still angered that the Ancient One breaking her own rules of gaining power from the Dark Dimension, and initially felt that he had been tricked into having to fight against mystical threats rather than being allowed to heal his hands.

However, this was not to say that he was a completely changed man. Despite being trained in combat, he was initially doubtful of his own skills when cornered by the Zealots, and he continued to fight the more experienced sorcerers with all his training, and later on confronted Kaecilius himself in combat, out of desperation to save himself instead of wanting to contribute to a greater cause. Nonetheless, he proved to be more quite creative when confronting seemingly unwinnable situations, seen as how he caused the death of Lucian when they where fighting in their Astral Forms, as well as later bargaining with Dormammu to condemn the Zealots to being fatally merged with the Dark Dimension. Trained as a doctor to save lives instead of to take lives, he was nonetheless at first disgusted by his actions in killing Lucian, though the Ancient One saw this as his lust to master death instead of having respect for life, as she deemed it unrealistic to not have to kill while fighting to defend reality—a truth in himself which he had come to acknowledge, and a point of view he had come to accept.

Despite having a newfound appreciation for the natural order of things due to his studies of the Mystic Arts, and becoming more humble, he retained a cocky attitude when dealing with people and things nonetheless, as seen in how he behaved when he went to borrow books from Wong. This coupled with his inquisitiveness and willingness to break rules, made him an odd one out in Kamar-Taj and constantly an eyesore to many of his peers. However, due to this nature of his, he was also more willing to compromise and be somewhat flexible with his principles—quickly accepting that the Ancient One broke her own rules to do what was deemed necessary, and had come to be willing to do so himself, which, when combined with his natural and unusual talent in the Mystic Arts, had the Ancient One name him as the Master of the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, despite his relative lack of training and inexperience.

Ultimately, Strange has always had good intentions despite coming off as arrogant and selfish. During his talk with the Ancient One before her death, he admitted that his fear of failure is what pushed him to be a successful neurosurgeon. After his talk with Kaecillius, Strange began to see his own failings reflected in Kaecillius and started showing signs of self-improvement. He repeatedly and genuinely apologized for his past treatment of Christine Palmer and showed a newfound trust in former rival Nicodemus West. When Strange faced Dormammu he showed strong selflessness, allowing himself to be killed over and over in order to keep Dormammu trapped in the time loop so mankind could live and came to stop fearing failure.

Strange has a habit of making sarcastic comments and jokes when talking to others, similar to Tony Stark.