Doctor Strange’s murky morality brings it close to being a supervillain origin story

Doctor Strange hit theaters just a few days ago, catapulting fans deep into the weird far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s brand-new territory for the long-running series; where superheroes like Iron Man and Thor already have fantastical abilities, they’re grounded in a reality that Strange and his mystical cohort can bend and even break at will. The walls between entire dimensions can come down when Strange is in the room, making him easily one of the most powerful beings Marvel has shown us on-screen.

That power raises the stakes for what to expect from Marvel’s outings going forward, especially as its heroes barrel toward Avengers: Infinity War. But with that comes an even hazier sense of what it means to be a hero in this universe. Marvel’s superheroes have gotten more and more morally compromised, and Strange is the most compromised yet. Watched in a certain light, Doctor Strange might actually be the closest Marvel has come to making a supervillain-centric movie.