Why Doctor Strange’s Car Crash Isn’t His Absolute Point In Time

Stephen Strange was set on the path of becoming Doctor Strange after a fateful car crash in both Doctor Strange and Marvel’s What If…?, but the crash itself isn’t actually his absolute point in time. In the fourth episode of What If…?, “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?”, the arrogant neurosurgeon evades injury in his infamous car accident, but his love, Christine Palmer, perishes. This leads Strange down a similar path to his mainstream counterpart, becoming the Sorcerer Supreme and saving the world from Dormammu. Years later, however, Strange attempts to change the past so that Christine survives, but learns, tragically, that the event cannot be reversed as it’s an absolute point in time.

In the classic Doctor Strange origin from the comics and MCU Phase 3, Stephen is driving alone when he crashes, and the accident permanently damages his hands, ending his career as a neurosurgeon and leading him to seek out The Ancient One in desperation. What If…? changes his motivation to a different kind of grief, and in his desperation to bring back Christine, Strange not only becomes a villain but inadvertently destroys his native reality. This version of Strange, tragically, learns the consequences of tampering with absolute points in time and the importance of accepting even the most devastating loss.

Using the Eye of Agamotto, the What If…? version of Doctor Strange travels back in time to try and prevent the death of Christine Palmer. Each time he does this, she perishes another way, no matter how seemingly improbable in What If…?‘s time loop torture. What it reveals is that it’s really Christine’s death that is the absolute point in time, rather than the car crash itself. The reason is that the universe needs Stephen to become Doctor Strange, and his journey to becoming the Sorcerer Supreme always begins with devastating loss regardless of universe. In What If…?‘s universe, that loss is Christine Palmer and the grief her death creates. Without losing what matters most to him, arrogant neurosurgeon Stephen Strange would never have become Doctor Strange.

As demonstrated throughout the MCU and directly stated by The Ancient One more than once, Stephen Strange has the greatest potential power of all sorcerers, making him an invaluable protector of Earth and his home reality. Strange mastered his mentors’ teachings in less than a year, single-handedly fended off the almost omnipotent Dormammu in the Dark Dimension with another time loop trick, and was instrumental in the ultimate defeat of Thanos. It’s not surprising that any event that would facilitate Stephen’s path to learning sorcery would be an immovable object in his reality, The tragedy of What If…?‘s Strange is that he could only reach his potential by losing the love of his life.

The mainstream MCU’s Doctor Strange became a sorcerer after losing the use of his hands and desperately seeking any means to heal them. The car crash isn’t the mainstream iteration’s absolute point in time, either; if the main MCU Doctor Strange were to hypothetically go back in time and prevent his fateful car crash, he’d likely find himself permanently injuring his hands some other way. Whether it’s the work of He Who Remains, a conqueror variant of his, or some other cosmic force, Marvel universes need Stephen to become Doctor Strange, so one way or another, he does.

Doctor Strange’s importance to the MCU (and other realities) has only begun. While Thanos is dead, but other, potentially even greater threats remain. Strange’s next solo film will see him patching together the multiverse, which was thrown into chaos at the end of Loki. Moreover, the next great villain of the MCU appears to be Kang the Conqueror, and Strange will be invaluable to the Avengers’ efforts to defeat him. By illustrating it’s not the car crash that matters, but what comes of it, Marvel’s What If…? shows just how important Doctor Strange is to holding the entire universe together.

About The Author

David Miller
(626 Articles Published)

David Miller is a staff writer for Screen Rant, indie comic writer, and life-long lover of all things Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. He was born and raised in New York and has a degree in English from Rider University. He relates to Peter Parker maybe a little too much.

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