With Doctor Strange dead, his wife Clea takes on his many magical duties – but her tendency for destruction invites massive legal troubles.
Warning: contains spoilers for She-Hulk #4!
The wife of Doctor Strange may be one of the most powerful magic users on Earth, but even she can get in serious trouble with the law – and even a powerful sorcerer like Clea must enlist the services of She-Hulk. Clea is not from Earth and isn’t even human, which means she is occasionally unaccustomed to human practices. in She-Hulk #4, one of Clea’s many recent mistakes has landed her in serious legal trouble – but unfortunately, she believes herself above such matters.
In current comics continuity, Doctor Strange is dead; his present self died twice and his past time remnant (a contingency plan in case of his murder) sacrificed himself to save the Earth from a terrible magical entity known as the Child. Now that Doctor Strange has died three times over, his ex-wife Clea assumes Strange’s magical responsibilities, if not his title (she is not technically the Sorcerer Supreme, but believes herself more than worthy). But Clea’s new enemy, the Blasphemy Cartel, proves troublesome, and she commits massive property damage and public disturbances while attempting to take them down.
In She-Hulk #4, written by Rainbow Rowell with art by Luca Maresca, the Thing hears Jennifer Walters is in need of clients – so he sends nearly a dozen her way. Captain America, Nightcrawler, Reed Richards, and even Shang-Chi (in for fighting the Avengers) all wait in her office and quickly overwhelm Walters with their many request. Among those present is Wong, who is almost certainly in the office on behalf of Clea. Unfortunately, the fact that Clea herself isn’t present betrays her true thoughts.
From the first issue of 2022’s Strange (Clea’s new series), it’s clear that Strange’s successor cares very little for the machinations of the human world. She eschews all magical responsibilities that aren’t directly related to resurrecting Doctor Strange (her main goal) and hasn’t even met with the Avengers. She doesn’t even have time to figure out why the Blasphemy Cartel have used racks of servers, or for what reason; she tosses them aside in another room of the Sanctum instead. Thus, Wong visits She-Hulk himself because he has most likely reasoned Clea will need legal protection and is there in her stead. It’s highly probable that Clea is unaware Wong is in She-Hulk’s office at all.
Clea cannot solve every problems with her magic, powerful though it may be. Stephen Strange lived in both the mystical and mundane world and balanced his life accordingly. Clea does not – perhaps even looking down on the mundanities of everyday life – and so She-Hulk remains her strongest ally if (or rather when) said “mundane” humans sue her for all the damage she has done in the name of bringing Doctor Strange back from the dead.
