Speculations have been rife about what will be the nature of the upcoming Avengers film, Secret Wars. Fans have been fleshing out multiple theories around the likes of Loki and Doctor Strange, and how the film might function. Whether it will follow the original Secret Wars run from 1984, or lean more towards the run of the story in 2015, featuring Doctor Doom as the principal antagonist, is yet to be seen.
However, if the Doctor Doom route is taken by the franchise there is one dilemma that the MCU will need to solve: the absence of Molecule Man. Molecule Man had been destroying universe after universe, causing Strange to hunt down versions of the character and execute them. However, not only does the MCU lack a Molecule Man, but it also flips the script on Doctor Strange.
Doctor Strange and his variants could be hunted across the multiverse
Across the Multiverse of the MCU, we have seen Doctor Stange be corrupted by magic again and again, causing him to destroy his home reality on more than one occasion. This could lead to whoever is sitting at the center of the multiverse to spring their enforcers on the Sorcerer Supreme, given that Strange, as pointed out by Reed Richards, might be the biggest threat to the multiverse that we know of.
The question that is then posed is, if Doctor Strange is to be hunted in each universe, who will go across the multiverse to do the deed? In the absence of Molecule Man, the theory casts Strange as the enemy, so the enforcer will need to have similar powers to that of Doctor Strange. It could be an alternate version of Wanda Maximoff, one that is not consumed with finding her children across the multiverse. It could also be Jean Grey, given her similar powerset and the mobility the Multiverse Saga brings to the MCU.
Depending on who makes the world into Battleworld, Doctor Strange could be fighting multiple opponents
Currently, as the MCU stands, Loki finds himself governing the multiverse by letting each timeline grow, rather than using Kang’s method of keeping the Sacred Timeline intact. Sylvie would be a good match for Doctor Strange and his variants if Loki were to put out an order to hunt them across the multiverse. The TVA could also be put to task to find and capture variants of Strange before their respective universes succumb to the sorcerers’ whims.
However, since we are talking about the multiverse, The Avengers and their allies are not the only ones who could reorganize the universe. Jean Grey from either of the X-Men timelines is also a perfect candidate for taking control of the multiverse, given that the Phoenix Force is considered to be a multiversal threat in its own right.
It could also be the fact that Clea can be assigned to hunt Doctor Strange, and could actively be in the process of doing that as we speak. The end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness could be a way to lure Strange into the Dark Dimension, the only universe that could perhaps capture and keep Strange imprisoned, preventing him from destroying his home universe via incursions.
