Doctor Strange: Ranking Every Character From Worst To Best

Going from a sprawling, multi-limbed monster like Civil War is a jarring experience in away: there's nothing like the weight of characters, there's less dialogue, less dynamics to keep track of and fundamentally more space to fill. Luckily, the effects work and the designs of the universe - so closely modelled on the work of Steve Ditko - floods into that space, becoming a character in its own right. And if it were a real one, it would be the winner of this ranking by some distance.

But what of the human (and humanish) characters? How do they stand up next to so much CGI and so much very welcome distraction? Have Marvel avoided their past issues with balance, with drawing realistic, worthy female characters and with establishing villains that can actually rival Loki at the top of the ladder?

And were Marvel right to hold out for Benedict Cumberbatch rather than going with second choice Joaquin Phoenix? All this and more will be explored in this comprehensive ranking of every character in Scott Derrickson's intoxicating fantasy epic. And you're definitely going to be surprised by how well some of the cast rank.

Here are how the characters in Doctor Strange rank, in order of awesomeness...

Every good villain needs mooks to do the dirty work: Loki had the Chitauri, Ronin had his fellow Kree, Malekith had the Dark Elves, Ultron the Iron Fleet... Okay, so maybe the villains there aren't all "good" but the sentiment about their cannon fodder underlings remains pertinent.

Unfortunately for the "zealots" under Kaecilius' command (so unimportant that only one of them has an actual name, and it's not actually used in the film), they're the living embodiment of mostly pointless cannon fodder. They're there to take the big bumps and sell Doctor Strange and his cohorts' fighting powers by dying or being beaten up. That's why they don't even need names, and that's why you'll never really remember them for anything positive.

You'll remember them for being idiots, but that's sort of inherently part of their role.

Actually, pretty much all of the Sorcerors other than Wong, The Ancient One, Strange and Mordo are on the exact same level. They're supposed to be great at magic, but they're little more than a production line of targets.