History
While engaged in a deadly struggle against the Old Ones that had been released upon Earth due to a choice he had recently made, Dr. Stephen Strange cast a great spell to protect his friends Sara Wolfe and Wong by faking his death. As part of the spell, Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum on Bleecker Street was transformed into the Stephen Strange Memorial Metaphysical Institute where Sara was employed as the administrator. The spell of forgetfulness that Strange cast on Sara, Wong and everyone in the world made them perceive him as "Dr. Sanders" instead of as his true self.[1]
Sometime later, in order to help fund the institute, Sara Wolfe, as the executrix of Strange's estate, arranged the sale of a warehouse on Houston Street that Strange owned. She did this because she was unaware of the fact that that warehouse was where Strange had been keeping the cryogenically frozen body of his deceased younger brother, Victor Strange.[3] Soon afterwards, following the defeat of the Old Ones, Strange returned to the institute and partially dissolved the spell of forgetfulness, enough to restore the memories of Sara and Wong while maintaining the secrecy he needed for his work.[4]
With Strange returned to his home, the Stephen Strange Memorial Metaphysical Institute was made ready to move to bigger quarters uptown while the Bleecker Street mansion was to be left as an annex. Sara Wolfe and Wong both resigned as active members of its board of directors in order to resume their duties with Strange.[5]
The institute was soon settling into its uptown offices nicely and the tax-exempt authorization had gone through.[6]
Not long afterwards, "Dr. Sanders" visited the institute, met Dr. Corbett and exposed a man named Wally as a con artist whose amazing skill at predicting cards came from a hidden device. When Sara Wolfe invited Strange to sit in on a meeting, he declined and left, unaware that the person who had made the appointment and was waiting for Sara in her office was actually Baron Mordo. As part of his latest scheme to destroy Strange, Mordo kidnapped Sara by stealing her soul and placing it within a Sphere of Containment.[7] Hours later, Rintrah and Topaz arrived at the institute to retrieve Sara Wolfe's soulless physical body. After finding the inert body in the storeroom where Mordo had left it, the duo left the institute and took a cab to transport Sara's body to the Bleecker Street mansion.[8]
After the fact that Dr. Strange was still alive was revealed to the world, the organization was renamed the Memorial Metaphysical Institute.[2]Residents
Notes
- In Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #5, the building in which the institute was then located was shown to be in close proximity to a triangular skyscraper that may (or may not) have been the Flatiron Building in Midtown Manhattan. If so, then it would be "uptown" from Greenwich Village but not in Upper Manhattan.
- In Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #10, during an argument, Morgana Blessing pointed out that Strange had not been "shy and retiring" when he had Sara and Wong name the institute after him when he was still alive. Strange claimed that Sara had done that while she had thought that he was dead. However, that claim is seemingly inaccurate because that forgetfulness was part of the same spell that transformed the Bleecker Street mansion into the institute in Strange Tales (Vol. 2) #3.