I LOVE Dr. Strange. Went for him at Halloween once.
Strange is the epitome of a "Plot level power" characters.
For every time he's fighting Shuma Gorath and Eternity, he has trouble vs some low level mystic, or a crook.
Or has his hands crushed by the Hulk.
Dr. Strange as a base level average of all his feats is below someone like Silver Surfer or Gladiator, because if he used the powers he had at his highest showings... he'd never lose. That and a lot of his best showings tend to require long ritual times.
Really, when talking heroes. If there was one character I could say that could beat Mr. Manhattan and be classified as the strongest in the world it would be...
Squirrel Girl.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SquirrelGirl
She "technically" is as powerful as TOAA, but a good guy.
It just depends how you view "joke" characters.
