Posing as the High Lama, the Ancient One trains Druid to become Doctor Druid. After a car crash, Stephen Strange seeks assistance from the Ancient One to cure the nerve damage in his hands, only to angrily refuse when offered to be the Ancient One's apprentice instead. The Ancient One then accepts Strange as a student when Strange discovers Mordo and Dormammu had become collaborators and that Mordo had perpetrated an attack against the Ancient One. Unaware of the Ancient One's awareness of the threat against him, Strange confronts Mordo about his treachery only to be bound by restraining spells to prevent him from warning the Ancient One or physically attacking Mordo. Alarmed at these developments and concerned for the old man's safety, Strange concludes that the only way to help him would be to learn magic himself to gain a hope of stopping Mordo. When Strange is driven by this selfless purpose, he approaches the Ancient One to accept his offer. The pleased mentor promptly frees Strange from his restraints and explains the whole situation. Mordo leaves the palace shortly afterwards and Stephen becomes the Ancient One's successor under the name Doctor Strange. The Ancient One often assists Strange. But when the extra-dimensional monster Shuma-Gorath tries to invade Earth through the Ancient One's mind while the latter is in the Crypts of Kaa-U, the Ancient One prompts Strange to destroy the portion of the Ancient One's mind in which the ego, or sense of self, exists. While such action blocks the way for Shuma-Gorath, trapping him within the Ancient One's mind, the Ancient One's physical body is also destroyed. The Ancient One's corporeal existence is over, but his soul subsequently achieves transcendence, becoming one with the universe and Eternity. Strange then inherits the Ancient One's title as Sorcerer Supreme. The Ancient One demonstrates his existence following the death of his physical body by manifesting himself as an avatar of Eternity, intervening in a struggle between Doctor Strange and Eternity. He also briefly regains his corporeal form, during which time he lives as an alcohol-dependent derelict in the Bowery section of Manhattan, New York, United States. He resumed his oneness with the universe upon Doctor Strange's defeat of the Creators. During Hercules' journey to the underworld in the "Dark Reign" storyline, the Ancient One was seen in Erebus gambling for his resurrection. As explained to Hercules, the afterlife has become a shambles, due to various entities not paying attention. During a demonic invasion of New York via the Eye of Agamotto, Iron Fist finds himself transferred into a white void when he comes in contact with the Eye, resulting in a face-to-face confrontation with a form that appears to be the Ancient One; the form claims that both he and a currently-unidentified associate are responsible for the demonic invasion due to his anger at Strange's recent "failures".