From a strength perspective he has (and I can probably reproduce close to the exact phrase without looking it up) the normal strength of a man of his age and size who engages in moderate regular exercise. I am unaware that he has ever used his magic to increase his physical strength. He is this dimension’s Sorcerer Supreme (unless things have changed) and as such has access to a wide array of personal mystical power along with being able to call on a wide variety of entities to “lend” him power. I recall a storyline where one or more of those entities, in exchange for all the loans over the years, tried to enlist Strange in a mystical war but I stopped reading before the resolution of that storyline (but Wiki says something about how he made some sort of deal or something and it’s all just too complicated).
The Silver Surfer and other entities with access to the Power Cosmic can use it to augment their physical strength.
Again, the two things are different concepts. When Marvel talks about strength levels, they are purely talking about how much the person can physically lift unaided. Doctor Strange is much physically weaker than the Silver Surfer but it would be a fair fight because of the non-physical power Strange can bring to bear.
(Of course in actuality Marvel seems to adhere to what some fans call the Firelord Rule, meaning that a character is as strong as he needs to be to beat whoever he’s fighting)
It’s kinda funny in a way, since the original five X-Men were supposed to have rough power parity with each other. Cyclops and Iceman could, for example, could battle toe-to-toe without a conclusive victor until both were exhausted (admittedly, Cyclops wasn’t trying to smush Iceman, though he probably could) and none of the five had Earth-shattering ability. Likely Spider-Man could’ve trashed 'em all. Gradual power inflation got to them, just as it did to Superman, to the point where writers have to come up with contrived ways for them not to wrap up the battle in less than five seconds.
Hell, Spider-Man trashed the new X-Men in Secret Wars without breaking a sweat.
Actually, with the notable exception of Jean Grey/Phoenix/What-the-fuck-ever, they stayed pretty consistent in power levels for quite a long time. Angel, Cyclops and Iceman didn’t have any big power boosts, really, ever until Angel got turned into Archangel. They just got better at using the powers they had. Beast went blue and hairy after he injected himself with an experimental serum but I’m not sure how much stronger he actually got.
I wish I had access to my old comic collection. My Google-fu is failing me, but I seem to recall an issue of The Defenders penciled by Keith Giffen (which means it sucked) where Dr. Strange was taken over by something. He was using his powers to defeat his teammates, and at one point used sorcery to augment his physical strength to match the Hulk’s (or maybe it was Silver Surfer). It seemed like if Stephen Strange wanted to, he could use sorcery in all the ways a cosmic powered being could manipulate matter, plus more so - what with the sorcery & all. If he wanted to use his powers that way - and normally he didn’t - he could do just about anything much the same way Phoenix could do just about anything, once she got to that power level and lost all her inhibitions.
Y’know, I think this is why I like DC. Yeah, it has lots of faults, but at least they don’t get into massive “Cosmic One-Upmanship” of continual power/threat inflation (New Gods were 30 years ago, and since then they’ve failed to introduce any more “massive universe-destroying threat that can only be beaten by massive universe-destroying hero!!!one!”).
Iceman got a massive power boost when he got his total ice form. He has control over moisture and can reform his body from any form of moisture, including urine. Yeah, it really has come up.
Angel lost his metal wings, then he lost his blueness (tired of smurf jokes I guess). Now he can heal people with his blood as long as the blood types are compatible. This means that he can heal people that are important to the plot. Minor characters just don’t have the right blood type.
It seems to me that the concept of Omega-level mutants is suffering from shifting goalposts. As described, Omegas are basically gods, able to bend the universe to their will. In this case, Iceman is definitely not Omega-level, unless he has additional powers that are currently unknown. He’s really more of an Alpha level guy, with the potential to be as powerful as Magneto. I’d say that Magneto, Apocalypse, Pyro, Professor X, Iceman, Storm, and probably Nightcrawler would be Alpha-level.
As I understand it, immortality has always been an omega level ability. They can’t die. Period. They will always be back. Galactus could eat the world and everyone in it and Mr. Immortal and Iceman will be floating in space, alive if not happy. Phoenix could rip apart every atom of their being and they’ll just reappear. Omega level doesn’t have to mean cosmos shattering.
Right, what I said was that none of them got a power boost until Angel turned into Archangel. Angel —> Archangel was first, Iceman’s power boost came after that, as, obviously, did Archangel’s losing his metal wings and gaining ::: shudder ::: healing powers.
Although technically Iceman’s first big power boost was when Loki mucked with his powers and a belt that previously damped his powers completely started scaling them back to normal levels.
He did? I thought Spidey stumbled onto Magneto and went bouncing by in a ball made of girders while commenting to the X-Men, “I’ll let you guys handle this one” - meaning that the X-Men were on a totally different power level from Spidey.
With regard to the comics - the Phoenix is not a part of Jean’s mutation. It’s an independent cosmic entity that existed before Jean was born and will continue to exist after she dies. It’s had other hosts. Yes, they changed it for the movie.
Yeah, well, in the movie Phoenix was sort of an after thought and a plot device rather than a character.
Speaking of which, was X3’s budget so low that they couldn’t afford some convincing hair dye for Famke? She was a much more convincing redhead last time around. However, her gothgirl dress looked pretty yummy on her.
Been a while since I’ve read the series but as I recall Spider-Man (I really hate the nickname “Spidey”) somewhere around issue 7 stumbled across those X-Men who were there, off by themselves planning on being stand-offish and all “mutants are doin’ it for themselves.” When they realized he was there they tried to take him down but he took them out and skedaddled.
Oops, my mistake. Looks like it was issue 3 and it ended with Professor X mind-raping…excuse me, mind-wiping Spider-Man so he couldn’t spill their plans to join up with Magneto.
Fortunate, that, since her dye job was completely botched from the get-go and the glow of the Phoenix-force gave her such a lovely radiant zombie complexion.
(No, I’m not bitter about the movie, why do you ask…?)
On topic with the OP: IIRC, Jean was a pretty powerful telepath/telekinetic by herself before the Phoenix took over–maybe a Class 4, at Xavier’s level. Maybe I’m mis-remembering, though…