Earning a 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and $500 million worldwide in the two weeks since its release, the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth seem to be in agreement that Director Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange (starring Benedict Cumberbatch) is another solid victory for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For many, this film was their first introduction to Marvel’s quintessential surgeon-turned-sorcerer. However, outside of the big screen, the Sorcerer Supreme has a storied history dating all the way back to his first appearance in Strange Tales #110 in July of 1963.
Despite Strange’s numerous accolades over the past fifty plus years, there are many other figures that have demonstrated a far more superior mastery of the mystic arts in their own right. Whether they hail from the Marvel Universe or beyond, let us take a look at 9 Sorcerers who have proven themselves to be more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme.
Is there a wielder of magic you know of that didn’t make the list? If so, cast your own incantations in the comments section!
John Constantine
The character of John Constantine has been depicted in several variations, but for the sake of this list, the version we’ll focus on is the one published by Vertigo Comics. What makes Constantine unique is that despite his sorcery skills, he often uses them as a last resort, opting instead to use his cunning, his extensive list of contacts, and his ability to manipulate his opponents to win his battles. In other words, Constantine allows his humanity to act as a strength, while for Strange, it often serves as a weakness.
Still, when it’s time for the gloves to come off, Constantine is no mere stage magician. He is capable of black magic curses, necromancy, and illusion. In fact, he can even conjure magic circles, protecting him from both supernatural and physical attacks from omnipotent forces, which would render an attack from Strange useless. In the graphic novel Pandemonium, he even allowed himself to be killed, and then resurrected himself by simply ‘exiting the afterlife.’
Albus Dumbledore
The famed Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Dumbledore, of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has certainly cemented his legacy as a force to be reckoned with in the world of magic. His resume includes such feats as defeating Gellert Grindelwald, discovering the twelve uses of dragon’s blood, and he was most notably the only wizard feared by the evil Lord Voldemort.
Unlike Doctor Strange, who has been depicted as a man who constantly desires more power, Dumbledore was cognizant enough to realize that such a desire was, in fact, his very weakness. This realization led him to turn down offers for the position of Minister of Magic on several occasions.
Dumbledore was also highly skilled at non-verbal magic, further establishing him as a more superior sorcerer than Strange. Although Strange was able to cast non-verbal spells on-screen, in his comic book iteration, he typically requires the use of incantations to perform his mystical feats, giving a firm advantage to the Hogwarts Headmaster.
Doctor Doom
After losing his mother as a child at the hands of Mephisto, a young Victor Von Doom began combining sorcery and technology, hoping to find a way to free his mother’s soul from Mephisto’s clutches. When a failed experiment left Doom both physically and mentally scarred, his altruistic mission quickly took a backseat to his desire for world domination.
At one point, Doom created a Psycho-Prism, allowing him to harness the Purple Man’s mind control powers and elevate them to a global scale, manipulating the world’s governments into naming him Emperor of Earth. Years later, he played a part in increasing the Scarlet Witch’s power levels, which in turn led to her dismantling of the Avengers and the near-genocide of the mutant population (more on this later).
At the start of 2015’s Secret Wars, Doom used the power of the Beyonders to reshape the fragments of Earth-616 and Earth-1610 into Battleworld, declaring himself God Emperor Doom. It was during this time that Doom used his power to coerce Doctor Strange into serving him as Battleworld’s Sheriff. After being betrayed by Strange, the omnipotent Doom used his power to kill the former Sorcerer Supreme, thereby solidifying himself as the more formidable of the two.
Doctor Voodoo
Jericho Drumm, AKA Brother Voodoo, AKA Doctor Voodoo, became the Houngan of Haiti after his predecessor and brother, Daniel Drumm, passed away. After achieving proficiency in voodoo practices, his brother’s spirit was joined with his own, further increasing his power. This connection also allowed Jericho to call upon his brother’s spirit to possess other living beings.
Years later, when Doctor Strange was deemed unworthy to hold the title of Sorcerer Supreme, the Eye of Agamotto chose Jericho as Strange’s successor. Although his reign didn’t last long, the fact that he was chosen speaks greatly to the purity of Jericho’s soul.
Jericho’s powers, among others, include magic immunity and the ability to manipulate magical and mystical forces. This makes him essentially invulnerable against any harmful magic-based attacks. Even if Strange wanted to challenge Doctor Voodoo, his spells would surely be falling upon deaf ears.
Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)
After releasing Nabu, an ancient immortal from the planet Cilia, from suspended animation, Kent Nelson was gifted with incredible powers, as well as an amulet, helmet, and cloak. Taking on the name of Doctor Fate, Nelson helped foil an assassination attempt on President Roosevelt during World War II. At the request of the President, Fate and others banded together to form the Justice Society of America.
Both Doctor Strange and Doctor Fate’s powers are partially reliant on their attire; for Strange, it’s the Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto, while Fate requires the aforementioned amulet, helmet, and cloak. However, despite having similar power sets, Fate possesses abilities far beyond those of Strange. This includes invulnerability, enhanced strength, and absence of emotions. Although Strange is technically immortal, per se, he can still be killed by physical attacks, which gives Fate an upper-hand should he and Strange ever decide to go cloak-to-cloak.
Zatanna Zatara
When your lineage includes the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Nostradamus and Nicholas Flamel, the bar for familial greatness is set pretty high from the start. However, that never stopped Zatanna from making a name for herself as an incredibly gifted and powerful magician.
Originally a successful stage illusionist, Zatanna discovered the true nature of her mystical powers while investigating the disappearance of her father. Eventually, Zatanna was granted membership in the Justice League of America. Despite all of her heroic commitments, Zatanna still continued her stage career and even wrote a book titled Hex Appeal: The Modern Girl’s Guide to Magic.
Like Doctor Fate, Zatanna and Doctor Strange share many abilities, but Zatanna has several tricks up her sleeve that could certainly give her the one-up in battle. Her antipathy allows her to reverse physical trauma so all damage that comes to her will hit her target instead. She also has the ability to manipulate her size, as well as transformation abilities that she has used to turn bullets into paper airplanes. Should Strange fire off an energy blast, Zatanna could easily transform it into a cloud of glitter without breaking a sweat.
Scarlet Witch
Shortly after their birth, Wanda Maximoff and her twin brother, Pietro, were kidnapped and experimented on by the High Evolutionary. Returned to their home disguised as mutants, Wanda and Pietro eventually discovered they had developed unusual superhuman abilities. While Pietro was gifted with super-speed, Wanda was imbued with the power of Chaos Magic, allowing her to manipulate and warp reality at will, and even subconsciously at times.
After suffering a nervous breakdown, the Scarlet Witch used her powers to lash out against her fellow Avengers, which resulted in several fatalities. To end the attack, Doctor Strange was forced to use the Eye of Agamotto to shut down the Scarlet Witch’s mind. Still, her chaos magic was so powerful that despite Strange’s efforts, its effects still persisted, even with the Witch in a comatose state.
Later, she used her abilities to warp reality into the House of M, a world where mutants outnumbered humans and Magneto ruled. However, just as quickly as she did this, she subsequently uttered the words, “no more mutants,” de-powering 90% of the mutant population and causing countless casualties along the way. After these events, Doctor Strange revealed to Beast that due to the complexity and strength of the spell, all of reality itself would implode should he attempt to reverse it.
Loki
When you combine sorcery skills with the power of an Asgardian God, the sky truly is the limit. Born to the King and Queen of the Giants of Jotunheim, Loki used his magic and trickery to coerce Odin into adopting him, where he would be raised alongside Thor. Growing jealous of his adoptive brother, Loki constantly schemed to use his possession of magical forces to destroy Thor and rule Asgard.
It was during this time that Loki dubbed himself the ‘God of Mischief.’ However, when looking at Loki’s power set, it’s important that we put emphasis on the word “God.”
Despite being a Frost Giant, Loki possesses Asgardian attributes such as superhuman strength, stamina, longevity, dense tissue and a regenerative healing factor. He is a skilled combatant, has a genius-level intellect and can communicate in countless languages.
On top of all of this, Loki’s magic him allows him to bestow both living and non-living beings with superhuman abilities, which he can control telekinetically and telepathically. He also possesses shape-shifting abilities, and can even use his sorcery to further augment and enhance his aforementioned Asgardian attributes.
At one point, Loki’s power was described by the Silver Surfer as being capable of decimating an entire planet. If that planet happens to be Midgard, Doctor Strange may want to consider making the Astral Plane a permanent place of residence.
Merlin
No list of sorcerers is complete without the one name that started it all – Merlin. Obviously, this is a character that has been portrayed countless times in just about every medium there is, but for this list, we’ll be looking at the version of Merlin from the pages of DC Comics.
In the DCU, Merlin is the son of the demon, Belial, and half-brother of Etrigan. Merlin was the one who summoned his demon half-brother to Camelot to fight off its enemies and bonded him to the human body of Jason Blood.
As far as abilities go, Merlin possesses an incalculable level of mystical prowess, including immortality, hypnosis, flight, teleportation, transformation and more. With literally no limit to what he is capable of, it goes without saying that Merlin is by far the most powerful sorcerer to traverse the world of the mystic arts.