In the fourth episode of Marvel’s What If…? series on Disney+ titled “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” we find out what happens when Stephen Strange loses the love of his life, Doctor Christine Palmer, and goes on a grief-fueled hunt for the magic to bring her back.
One of the key players in the episode is the mysterious O-Bengh, who claims to be the librarian for the books of Cagliostro. But who is Sorcerer Cagliostro and what’s his backstory? The episode does not tell us outright, but a few lines of dialogue tie into lore from the comics and may offer an answer.
Warning: full spoilers for What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?!
Who Is Sorcerer Cagliostro?
When Doctor Strange finds the location of the Lost Library of Cagliostro, he meets a mysterious man who stands guard over it. Assuming the obvious, Strange straight up asks if he is Cagliostro, but the man says he is named O-Bengh, librarian for the Books of Cagliostro. However, in the comics O-Bengh is supposedly the real name of Cagliostro.
In the comics, the man who would become Cagliostro was thought to have started out as O-Bengh, ruler of a kingdom in India way back in 1000 A.D. After an encounter with a time-traveling Doctor Doom, O-Bengh became obsessed with time travel and began his quest for immortal life–and he found it using everything from the dark magic of the Darkhold to vampire blood.
Over the course of his long life, O-Bengh made a habit of killing men and taking their names as his own. In 1500 A.D. he killed and reasserted himself as a powerful Egyptian sorcerer named Al-Tothas, and as Al-Tothas he had his first of many run-ins with another immortal, Dracula. In the 1700s, O-Bengh took the life of his apprentice Giuseppe Balsamo and assumed his identity, including Balsamo’s marriage to wife Lorenza. It was then that O-Bengh reinvented himself as an advisor to King Louis XVI and took on the name that would go on to become that of legend, Cagliostro.
Eventually Dracula got his revenge on Cagliostro when Lorenza was turned into a vampire and Cagliostro was forced to stake her. After suffering that loss, Cagliostro combined everything he knew about attaining eternal life into the Book of Cagliostro.
There are many parallels to be drawn between O-Bengh in the comics and the MCU that all but confirm O-Bengh is indeed Cagliostro. O-Bengh in the comics changed his name several times, so MCU O-Bengh may have done the same. Perhaps he went by Cagliostro at one point but decided to give up that name, which is why he “lied” to Strange about his identity. When Doctor Strange asks where he can find Sorcerer Cagliostro, O-Bengh cryptically replies, “Well, maybe here. Maybe there. Maybe nowhere.” which could be a hint that he may have been Cagliostro at one point but no longer.
While O-Bengh doesn’t divulge his backstory in the episode, he does impart some wisdom from his own life to Strange about how devotion to love can make one delusional and how having your heart broken can also shatter your mind. That certainly sounds like the advice of someone who found love, lost it, and went on a fruitless quest to try and get it back, hinting that O-Bengh’s tragic backstory from the comics where he was forced to kill his wife Lorenza is also MCU canon.
We’re left to fill in the rest of the gaps about O-Bengh with speculation. Perhaps after losing his wife, O-Bengh built a library and filled it with books about the magic he learned over his unnaturally long life. He stood guard over the library and granted Doctor Strange access, hoping to teach him lessons about life, love, and death so that his own mistakes would not be not repeated.
O-Bengh’s parting words to Doctor Strange before dying of old age were, “Even in our world, death is part of the plan.” But while Doctor Strange heard the words, he didn’t listen to them. He went on to harvest too much dark magic from various creatures (and his own self) and though he was able to use it to break an absolute point in time and briefly restore Christine to life, it cost him his entire universe. If only he had listened to O-Bengh.
For more on Episode 4 of Marvel’s What If…?, be sure to check out our review of What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? And don’t miss our deep dives on the other episodes of What If…? featuring evil Hank Pym and good guy Thanos.