Hugo's childhood was scarred by trauma and grief, leading him to hone and direct himself, making the most of his ordeals to pursue higher goals. He was raised in an orphanage on Gotham City's lower east side, the neighborhood called Hell's Crucible. Growing up to be a well-respected mind in the scientific community, he became professor of psychiatry at Gotham State University until his tenure was suspended over increasingly bizarre theories in genetic engineering.
He would eventually become a respectable, brilliant but insane psychologist and scientist, driven by obsession to fight against Batman. Strange is famous for having discovered Batman's secret identity independently through deduction and striking at him emotionally, while using genetically engineered Monster Men as his own private army.
