8 Ways Doctor Strange Is Basically The New Iron Man

5. Similar Origin Story

Doctor Strange Underwater.jpg
Marvel Studios

Both Stephen Strange and Tony Stark began their origin movies in a similar position. Each character was at the top of their game, dominating their respective fields of work and becoming overly self-involved as a result. Both had the enviable ability to come across as arrogant yet charming at the same time, and both valued money and material possessions over anything more substantial, like friendship and love.

Both characters ended their origin movies in a similar position, too. Each were victims of life-threatening injuries, and each sought radically advanced, left-field and unconventional treatments in order to combat their growing desperation. Fortunately, said treatment was a success in both cases, addressing both the physical issues with the characters while transforming them into better, more respectful men.

The parallels between the two origin stories are uncanny; Doctor Strange is almost a reboot of Iron Man, albeit with a more magical touch. Marvel knew that the latter movie worked - after all, it was the film that catapulted their cinematic universe to unprecedented success - so why shouldn't they use a similar story to help further that success with a new hero for the next eight, ten years?

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!