WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality #3, by Peter David, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Frank D'armata and VC's Joe Sabino, on sale now.
Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality follows the adventures of Peter Parker as he is thrown into a different reality, where everything seems to be, well, different. In this new world, he finds that he is dating Natasha Romanov, now going by The Red Cat and is partners with Kraven the Hunter. Worse still, in this world, Stephen Strange is disgraced, stripped of his power and homeless.
In his place, the Hobgoblin has now seemingly taken the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme and has vowed to seek out and kill Spider-Man, the last person who knows the way the world is supposed to be. Things may look very dire, but if Peter can find the mystical artifact known as the Word of God, he may have a chance at restoring everything to normal.
In Issue #3 of this limited series, Peter teams up with the Red Cat and the disgraced Stephen Strange to learn the ways of the mystical arts. In order to do so, Strange takes them to the place where he first began studying magic. Once inside Kamar-Taj, not only are the heroes safe from any outside detection, but time also moves very differently. Strange states that a year inside the temple only equates to a week or two in the outside world.
That said, time is still of the essence and he will not be able to fully train Peter in the mystic arts. Instead, he will only have time to teach him basic defensive moves. These skills will make sure that Peter is not overly vulnerable to magical attacks, but he will have to rely on his own fighting skills and instincts to come out ahead.
When the team finally leaves Kamar-Taj and face off with Hobgoblin and (surprise!) Baron Mordo, viewers get to see a version of Peter that is able to expertly pull off small magical feats. One of these new tricks seems to take direct influence from a scene in Avengers: Infinity War. Just as the team breaks into the Sanctum Sanctorum and finds Hobgoblin, Peter quickly casts a spell and rapidly replicates both himself and the Red Cat several times over, all of whom begin to attack the Hobgoblin.
This spell is called Images of Ikonn and is derived from the Ikonn. It is an old spell that allows the caster to create duplicates to confuse or confound their enemies. The spell made its MCU debut in Avengers: Infinity War when Doctor Strange used it to make it harder for Thanos to find the Time Stone by creating hundreds of versions of himself to surround the Mad Titan. It is a gamble of a spell and is used mainly for defense, which is probably why it was taught to a magical novice like Peter.
In this issue, Spider-Man uses a similar strategy as Strange and utilizes the spell mainly as a diversion to keep the Hobgoblin busy while he and The Red Cat escape further into the Sanctum. However, the spell seems to have maintained some of the extra power it gained in its MCU version because the duplicates are able to go on the attack -- just as Doctor Strange was able to use his duplicates to bind Thanos in the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak several hundred times over.
As Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality progresses, we can only imagine what other skills Spider-Man will showcase now that he has learned at the feet of the great Doctor Strange.