One way portal. Its strange, I know.. but thats why hes the stranger!!! :P
look. I'm reaching for straws here. I pretty much already admitted this is the only real scenario for the poor white haired guy!
__________________ Quotes from Hia8:
"I claimed that the science is sometimes faulty."
"You don't understand. This is fiction. That means none of this stuff really happened."
"There is no writer to purposely ignore a character's natural ability just because it suits the story."
"in some cases because the writer knows that Character A will dominate Character B easily and refuses to allow this to happen for the sake of the story."
Strange whipped IB the first time they fought. When you say "He needed help from C&O to win", it sounds like he got a cheap win. But he didn't.
He simply has way more various power reserves than IB. Suffice it to say, if Strange invokes C&O against anyone chances are they get killed.
Plus, Strange fought IB twice. Once was the time he beat him and the other was when LT new Strange's power was unbalancing the multiverse so he sent IB to kill Strange. LT even boosted IB's power and stripped Strange of his power and yet Strange still basically stalemated.
in-betweener is considered a low-end abstract whereas the stranger is not...
in scenarios of universal destruction, he appears in equal stature among his peers, such as Lord Chaos and Master Order, whose servant, ironically is the in-betweener...
he has his share of low-end feats, but who doesnt? even LT, galactus, and eternity get punked...
well, he did imprison the eternal overmind in a single mote of dust, and overmind>>>>>>>>>iceman, what i mean is that most characters suffer from inconsistencies...
he has also been offered by the LT to become his fourth face which would somehow show his eminence or stature in the cosmic heirarchy...
in silver surfer(2) #31, the Living Tribunal encountered the Stranger who INSISTED that the Stranger has an unrevealed HIGHER purpose in the cosmic grand scheme of things...