Speaking of incursions, as we see in the new movie, when Strange travels to another universe with America’s help and comes face to face with the panel of influential super-powered beings known as the Illuminati. They tell the former Sorcerer Supreme that their version of Doctor Strange used the magic of the Darkhold and cause an incursion, an event where something causes two universes to collide and either one or both of them perish. Though the Strange before them thinks that he could use the powerful spells found in the cursed tome without consequence, the counsel including the First Avenger Captain Carter, King of the Inhumans Black Bolt, Professor Charles Xavier, Sorcerer Supreme Baron Mordo, Captain Marvel AKA Maria Rambeau, and genius Fantastic Four founder Reed Richards are concerned that he will initiate another incursion and kill countless people.

In the comics, Jonathan Hickman’s epic run on “Avengers” and “New Avengers” from 2012 through 2015 culminated in an event called “Time Runs Out.” This story finds Earth’s Mightiest Heroes trying to figure out ways to stop incursions. While the main title features more heroic solutions to save all the universes they can, “New Avengers” finds the Illuminati taking a more black ops approach to do as much good as they can for the multiverse while prioritizing their own universe. In the end, the Illuminati realize that their efforts would be better served if they focused on “not losing” rather than winning, so they build a “lifeboat” to save as many people from their Earth as they can. It’s all moot since the final incursion between the last two universes still affects everyone in the end. But the day is saved when the latest version of “Secret Wars” found Doctor Strange, the Molecule Man, and Doctor Doom using the powers of the Beyonders to create a new multiverse called Battleworld that all fell under the rule of the infamous Fantastic Four foe.