Origin
When the Trinity of Ashes, a trio of malevolent spirits, declared war on the Vishanti and the Seven Spheres, Doctor Strange was pulled from his reality to lead the armies and his age was stopped so that he could lead them for as long as he needed. That turned out to be 5,000 long years, with Strange’s spirit hardened over time. He slowly became General Strange, the necessary evil the army needed to win, eventually scaring the Trinity of Ashes into negotiating for peace and The General’s imprisonment. To end the War of the Seven Spheres, the Vishanti pulled all of that experience and trauma from Doctor Strange and saved it in a crystal that was kept on a shelf in the Sanctum Sanctorum. When Doctor Strange briefly died, those memories seized the opportunity to escape his crystal confines and rebuilt himself a body with foreign matter, thus hiding him from the Vishanti’s gaze
Creation
General Strange debuts in Doctor Strange (2023) #5 by Jed MacKay and Pasqual Ferry.
Major Story Arcs
The General Is In
In addition to The General escaping his confines, the death of Doctor Strange allowed magicians from multiple dimensions to immigrate to Earth. Strange, Clea, and the understaffed WAND did their best to maintain a peaceful relationship with these magicians, but The General is dead set on slaying them all. To help him, he started abducting Earth children to forge into his magical army. He did this by turning the Strange family farm in Nebraska into his training grounds.
When he learned that Tiboro and Umar had a new daughter, The General believed he could do great things by adding a Faltine child to his army. This meant revealing himself to Doctor Strange and Clea who were attending the wedding of Tiboro and Umar. After successfully whisking Tiboro’s unnamed newborn to his Nebraska training grounds, he was eventually tracked down by Clea. The General was vulnerable to Clea’s advances, leading him to believe she disagreed with Strange’s tactics and was willing to defect to his side. However, she tried stabbing him with a mysterium blade.
Although the mysterium blade should have an effect on magic, The General’s new body was immune. He easily walked off the injury and was ready to kill Clea when Strange appeared. He had made a deal with the Trinity of Ashes to give him an edge against The General. The General was still able to overwhelm him, but he never got his chance to defeat Strange. WAND with their Psycho-Zeppelin came to his rescue. They dosed him with Doktor Zee’s psychedelics which open The General’s mind enough for Strange to surgically graft part of his soul on to him. This caused The General’s newly formed compassion and empathy to become permanent.
Now racked with guilt, The General was invited to stay in the Sanctum by Strange who promised they would work through his PTSD together.
Progress
When Varnae possessed Blade and used Atlantean magic to block out the sun, Doctor Strange was forced to ally with Doctor Doom, who knew of a way to bring back the sun. To do it, though, Doom needed to be the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange made a deal with Doom that he could be the Sorcerer Supreme long enough to save the world, however, Doom did not consider the world saved by his standards so kept the title.
Angry, Strange went to The General hoping to let him loose on Doom. He found The General happy and healthy working with The Cobolorum, a sentient role playing game that Strange gave to him to play with to stop it from taking over the world. Strange was ashamed he even thought of using the General’s worse self seeing how good he is doing.