Warning: contains spoilers for Strange Academy #17!
The Voldemort of Marvel Comics is revealed, and this version is a much more fleshed-out character than his Harry Potter counterpart. Arriving from the Doctor Strange franchise, Doyle is a seemingly-innocent child who holds phenomenal power; he can easily fight anyone at Strange Academy. Strange Academy #17 finally shows Doyle’s true colors…but there’s more to this evil character than meets the eye.
The Strange Academy is a Hogwarts-like institution in which various magical characters from the Marvel Universe train the next generation of sorcerers and magic users. Humans, Asgardians, monsters (at least from a human standpoint) and dozens of other students from across the universe are summoned and trained in a private school setting. But as is the case with Hogwarts, Strange Academy plays hosts to plenty of dangers; magic is incredibly difficult to learn and even harder to master for many students, but not for Doyle Dormammu.
Doyle Dormammu is the son of Dormammu, one of Doctor Strange’s most powerful and deadly foes. As such, Doyle is teased about his heritage. While he himself has no desires to take over the world, he certainly has the power to do so (or at least take over Strange Academy). He strikes up a friendship with the human magic user Emily and even asks her out to the school dance, but when she decides to help another student the night of the occasion, a sullen Doyle sinks deeper into depression. He finally explodes in Strange Academy #17, starting a fight in the dining hall (and easily defeating all others who stand against him).
“We can finally stop pretending that you were ever going to be anything OTHER than you father!” taunts a student mid-fight. Like Doyle, Voldemort quickly became one of the most powerful students at Hogwarts that the teaching staff had ever seen (and the two very much enjoyed school). But Doyle is much more well-rounded than Voldemort, and has plenty of reasons for turning evil – he’s consistently bullied, he feels betrayed by his closest friends, and his glimpse into the future terrified him enough to temporarily leave the school.
Voldemort is a memorable character, but is rather one-dimensional in his villainy. In the real world, people are much more morally-grey, but with Voldemort, this is not the case. Fortunately, Harry Potter’s greatest foe is written with more nuance in the Marvel Universe, leading to a more believable turn to the dark side.
