Warning: contains spoilers for Dark Ages #1!
Marvel confirms Doctor Strange could have fought the android Ultron one-on-one - and defeated him easily. Fans of the character know that Stephen Strange can be immensely powerful - he is the Sorcerer Supreme after all - and his strength allows him to face otherworldly threats alone. Now, in Marvel's new Dark Ages series, the company confirms he can face terrestrial threats just as easily - but not without paying a heavy price.
In Dark Ages #1, written by Tom Taylor with art by Iban Coello, massive earthquakes rock New York and the entire world, devastating cities across the planet. Uatu the Watcher emerges before the Fantastic Four and warns that the Earth has hours left; a being called the Unmaker, once buried beneath the planet, has awakened and threatens to "unmake" the entire world. In desperation, a team is put together: Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Susan Storm, and the Thing all journey to the center of the earth to stop the Unmaker...but the battle doesn't go in the hero's favor.
The Unmaker is simply too powerful for any hero to overcome. The Thing is vaporized in seconds, and Scarlet Witch is "unmade" before Vision's eyes. With heroes falling all around him, Doctor Strange opens a portal to a dimension where no electricity can function, and the energy stretches from realm to realm. The Unmaker stabs Strange in the chest, but is shut down soon after. Out of the entire team, only Susan Storm survives, but Doctor Strange has single-handedly saved the Earth.
If Doctor Strange could defeat the Unmaker in this way, surely the same technique could be used against Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Of course, Doctor Strange's actions in Dark Ages led to the apocalypse on Earth: with all electricity out of the picture, airplanes (and flying superheroes like Iron Man dependent on technology) dropped out of the sky, medical machines ceased to function, and nearly all modes of transportation slowed to a halt. The MCU would be a very different place had Doctor Strange stopped Ultron using the EMP dimension. Unfortunately, the only reason why electricity stays off in Dark Ages is because after Strange's death, no one on Earth could close the portal.
Dark Ages has only just begun, and future issues might chronicle the efforts of the surviving heroes to close the portal and return light to the Earth. But the issue shows just how powerful the good doctor can be when faced with what appears to be an unstoppable foe. If Doctor Strange had arrived in Sokovia, Ultron would be entirely at the mercy of the Sorcerer Supreme.
