So, a few months ago, I finally had the chance to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and I thought the film to be decent for the most part, mainly because I liked Sam Raimi's direction and there are some impressive visuals, such as the multiversal travel scene or Zombie Strange. However, there are some issues within the film's plot; Wanda becoming the villain is a great idea in concept, but the film leaves a lot to be desired, because the movie ruined her. While her motivations are understandable, she wasn't convincing as a villain and The Illuminati, save for Xavier and Black Bolt and Reed to an extent, are a bunch of self-righteous assholes. Also, the title is a bit misleading, as the film feels more like Wanda's film instead of Doctor Strange's.
However, there are some things that I really enjoyed, like the visual style, the action sequences, especially the fight between Doctor Strange and his evil counterpart, and its exploration of darker themes, such as grief and anger, despite being an MCU film. I surprisingly enjoyed the addition of America Chavez, who despite being MacGuffin, had a personality of her own and liked her interactions with Strange and not taking away from his story. Strange himself also had a decent arc of his own and I wish the film explored that often and tied it better with Wanda's story.
For a few months, I had planned to make an MCU multiversal story featuring many characters from non-MCU films, such as Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Wesley Snipes' Blade, teaming up with Strange to defeat Maximoff and save Chavez. However, this didn't come to fruition, as I couldn't find a way to bring all of these heroes together without leaning into fanservice. Though I had conversations with Aragorn II Elessar about this story, such as having Strange use the Darkhold to contact the heroes, some of them wouldn't be much help in the final fight, like Brainstorm Sorcerer told me, so in the end, I had only picked Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider, as he was the only non-MCU character who served a purpose in the story.
The story takes inspiration from Aragorn's wonderful one-shot "The Devil on Her Shoulder", which also has a similar premise where Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider helps Strange defeat Scarlet Witch and defeat Mephisto. This story will take place near the end of "Multiverse of Madness", where Strange possesses the body of Defender Strange, and it will be a crossover with Columbia Pictures' Ghost Rider films. In this fic, the events of "Multiverse of Madness" take place five months after "No Way Home".
Disclaimer: I do not own the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Ghost Rider. They belong to Marvel Studios, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures, Stan Lee and Kevin Feige.
Stephen Strange was once a brilliant surgeon blinded by his own pride until he was involved in a car accident that damaged the nerves in his hands. Unable to find a cure his hands, Strange embarked on a journey to Kamar-Taj, where he encountered a mysterious wizard called the Ancient One, who taught him the ways of the Mystic Arts. These lessons would shape Strange into becoming the protector of the Sanctum Sanctorum and defend the Earth from inter-dimensional threats. His enemies call him... Doctor Strange!
Over the last five months, Strange had been receiving multiple visions of a forthcoming battle that would bring about the destruction of the multiverse. As he had inadvertently opened the gates to the multiverse and messed up with the fabric of time and space, Strange's actions began taking effect on his home reality.
One day, Strange encountered a young girl from one of his visions named America Chavez, who had the ability to traverse through the multiverse. He learned that Chavez was hunted down by Strange's former ally, Wanda Maximoff, who sought her powers in order to live out her perfect life with her children.
Maximoff had been corrupted by a mysterious object named the Darkhold, the Book of Sins, following her attack on Westview. As she used the Darkhold to dramwalk into her alternate selves and be with her children, she became obsessed with living the ideal life with her family and sought to destroy anyone who got in her way.
Strange teamed up with Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, in order to protect Chavez from Maximoff. However, after Maximoff attacked Kamar-Taj while seeking Chavez, Chavez and Strange traveled through the multiverse and ended up in an alternate universe where it was protected by a secret society called the Illuminati.
Meanwhile, Wong was able to destroy the Darkhold with the help of a fellow Master of the Mystic Arts, but Maximoff, distraught by the book's destruction, forced Wong to bring her to Mount Wundagore, where it housed a castle built under the image of the Scarlet Witch and served as the source for the Darkhold's creation.
Using the castle's powers, Maximoff dreamwalked into her variant, where she tracked down Strange and Chavez and took out the Illuminati on her way. With the help of an alternate Christine Palmer, Strange and Chavez were able to find the location of the Darkhold's anthesis, the Book of Vishanti, which Strange recognized from one of his visions.
As they were close to getting the Book of Vishanti, Maximoff caught up with them and destroyed the book, throwing Strange and Palmer to an alternate reality and taking Chavez with her. Strange and Palmer ended up in an incursioned universe, where an alternate Strange tracked down and killed his other variants of himself after losing his Christine.
After defeating his variant, Strange retrieved the Dakhold and used it to dreamwalk into the corpse of his variant, the one who aided Chavez in his vision, to head to Mount Wundagore and rescue Chavez. The fate of the multiverse was in his hands now...
Mount Wundagore, Earth-616
Doctor Strange, now in possession of his deceased variant's corpse, had arrived on Mount Wundagore to save America Chavez and defeat Wanda Maximoff. As Strange looked around, he witnessed a giant castle beneath the fog as a heavy blizzard of snow was covering the mountains. This was the Darkhold Castle, the place where the Darkhold was created many centuries ago by the demon Chthon. As Strange was looking at the Darkhold Castle, he suddenly began hearing sirens in his hand and felt the variant's body cracking. A black aura was surrounding the variant's corpse and Strange looked around to see his hand moving out of control. He knew what was happening.
Then, a black spirit came out of Strange's hand and began flying around Strange. Multiple spirits began coming out of Strange's variant's corpse, surrounding him as they flew around. These were the Spirits of the Damned, ancient demons inhabiting the Darkhold who confronted those who used the Darkhold's forbidden spells.
"Stephen Strange! Possessing a dead body is forbidden!" One of the Spirits told Strange, as he was dreamwalking into his dead variant.
The Spirits began grabbing the possessed corpse of Strange's variant. Strange tried to fight back, but found himself overwhelmed by the Spirits as they were preventing him from trespassing.
"Cease your dreamwalking or face the eternal consequences!" One of the Spirits warned him.
Surrounded by the Spirits, Strange felt his soul was being sucked into oblivion by these creatures. Unable to move his body, Strange began accepting his fate and lost his conciseness as The Spirits drowned him in the black hole.
New York Sanctum, Earth-688
Christine Palmer reached out to Strange's unconscious body and tried to wake him up. "Stephen? Stephen!"
Strange woke up and reached Palmer's hand, scaring her as she was worried that Strange might not come back. However, just as he woke up, Strange began feeling dazy and going into shock. Palmer stayed by his side, trying to help him up. She placed her hand on Strange's forehead to check his heat, but backed her hand away as she felt pain.
"Hang on, hang on, hang on." Palmer told the unconscious Strange as she checked on him.
Just as she opened Strange's eye, she heard the Spirits' screams and saw one of them charging at her, coming out of Strange's eye and pushing her to the ground. The Spirit began attacking her just as the Spirits began coming out of Strange's body and began overwhelming her. She pushed one of them aside to the clock, but ended up being overtaken by the Spirits. She knew this was the end, as she felt Strange wasn't going to get up and get through these spirits. All hope was lost.
Suddenly, Palmer heard an explosion coming out of the Sanctum. A wave of amber fire passed through the room and overwhelmed the Spirits, turning them into fiery ashes. Palmer breathed a sigh of relief before seeing Strange's unconscious body shaking up. Palmer rushed by his side.
"Stephen." Palmer said as she grabbed Strange's hand. "I got you. Stay with me."
Just as Palmer was trying to help out Strange, she began hearing footsteps coming from the Sanctum. Palmer looked around and saw a mysterious person stepping in. The man was clad in an all-black leather attire, with his head being a skull full of amber fire and a chain wrapped around his chest, as well as a silver cross necklace around his neck. He also had metal spikes coming out of his gauntlets. Palmer backed away from Strange as she was intimidated by his appearance and saw the figure looking down to him.
As Strange opened his eyes, he saw the figure standing in front of him. He knew who this person was, having studied him and being aware of a spirit called Zarathos, but he could tell this was a different version of the man.
"Ghost Rider."
The Ghost Rider reached his arm and Strange grabbed it, being helped up. Palmer was confused about what was happening in front of her eyes.
"Will you help me?" Strange pleaded.
"Yes..." The Ghost Rider said, the tone of his voice was just as chilling as it was scary just as his Hellfire was expanding.
"Okay, what's going on? And why this guy has a flaming skull?" Palmer asked, being confused about this situation.
"Don't worry, he's with me." Strange assured Palmer before turning back to the Darkhold. "Now, there's something I need to do."
Mount Wundagore, Earth-616
Strange, now saved by the Ghost Rider, took possession of his variant's corpse again and pushed the Spirits away from him, before summoning all of the Spirits and grabbing each of them with his powers, forming a cloak using the Spirits and placing all of them around him. The next moment, he saw the Ghost Rider teleporting to the site in front of him and realized that Zarathos probably had that kind of power, as he was able to travel the Multiverse as well.
Ghost Rider placed his fingers on his mouth and blew a whistle. Suddenly, a fiery motorcycle came out of nowhere and appeared next to the Ghost Rider. This was the Rider's signature bike, the Hellcycle. As the Rider hopped on the Cycle, he revved the engine of the bike and drove at a high speed, leaving a fiery trail behind as he jumped into the Darkhold Castle.
"YEEEHOOOOO!" The Ghost Rider screamed.
"Well, this is where the fun begins." Strange smirked as he used the cloak made from the Spirts to fly off to the castle, following the Rider's trail.
And that's the end of the first chapter of the story. Like in "The Devil on Her Shoulder", the Ghost Rider is also Nicolas Cage's version and his story picks up where "Spirit of Vengeance" left off. Just imagine had Cage appeared in "Multiverse of Madness". It would have added to his winning streak alongside "Pig" and "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" and redeemed himself in front of Marvel fans, but alas, it was never meant to be. Hell, Cage once said in an interview that he wanted to work with Benedict Cumberbatch at some point.
As for the Ghost Rider's Multiversal powers, I'll be using Aragorn's idea that he gained access to these powers from Zarathos and it will consist of him teleporting while in Ghost Rider form.
The recap at the beginning takes a cue from the comics, where on the front page, you'll see a recap of the character's story and past events before getting to the main story.
So yeah, the Ghost Rider is finally here to help out and in the next chapter, we'll see Strange and the Rider fighting against Wanda and Mordo alongside Wong's help in the Battle of Mount Wundagore.
Let me know your thoughts on this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it. Stay safe everyone and take care.