The story goes that Gardner Fox was a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s work and wanted to introduce a dark sorcerer in much the same vein as the mysterious tales from beyond.It took a while for Doctor Fate to reach that stage (his early comics feature the strange mystic jumping out of trees and bopping crooks on the nose like any other mystery man), but in the end comic readers received one of the most powerful mages in comics.
Debuting in More Fun Comics in 1940, Doctor Fate began as the squinty-eyed tyke, Kent Nelson. Kent’s father was an archaeologist who died suddenly when he unearthed the tomb of the still living Egyptian mage, Nabu the Wise. Feeling more than a little responsible for little Kent’s loss, Nabu raised him to become a sorcerer. Returning to his home in America, Nelson met his partner Inza who assisted him in his investigations of the occult… and not so occult. When he donned the amulet of Anubis and helm of Nabu, he was imbued with strange magical powers while his mentor spoke to him from beyond.
In time, Fate became a member of the Justice Society of America. Alongside fellow mystical super heroes Green Lantern (wielder of the emerald flame), Hawkman (the reincarnated Prince Khufu) and the Spectre (the Wraith of God made flesh), it’s surprising that this incredibly powerful group of heroes fought subpar villains until the 60’s, when Fox returned to writing super heroes to team the JLA and the JSA against bizarre cosmos-spanning threats. I mean, it took the Spear of Destiny to keep these guys from interfering in WWII. These days, it’s editorial.
As the golden-helmed magician gained a second lease on life thanks to his repeated appearances in the JLA, Doctor Fate was given the back of The Flash comics in the late 1970’s, where Cary Bates, Kieth Giffen, and Steve Gerber fleshed him out into a modern super hero (available in the Immortal Doctor Fate series just waiting in the back issue bins of your local comic shop).
After Crisis on Infinite Earths, the character of Doctor Fate underwent a metamorphosis of sorts and emerged as a woman and a kind of Punisher-meets-Doctor Strange character who hurled ank-shaped knives at his foes.
It was a tough time for everyone.
It wasn’t until the Geoff Johns/David Goyer run on JSA in 1999 that Doctor Fate regained his stature.
The first storyline of the new JSA series revolved around Fate being reborn as a child. Unfortunately, this new version of Doctor Fate (Hector Hall) was obsessed with finding his wife Lyta to the point of mania. In much the same masterful manner that he undid the kinks on Hawkman, Johns knit together all of the tangled threads of Fate and at the same time revealed Nabu to be a conniving twisted manipulator who had imprisoned Lyta inside the amulet that Hector had been wearing all along.
Egg on his face.
In the conclusion of the first volume, Hector found his wife and lost the helm.
Finally, Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown, and my favorite… Thundarr the Barbarian) has returned to the character with Countdown to Mystery with hot young artist Justiano (Days of Vengeance) on art chores. The first issue, following the beginnings of Kent Nelson’s distant relative (also named Kent Nelson) toward the realm of the mystical and strange.
This new Doctor Fate is a psychiatrist who is teetering on the brink of greatness or oblivion as the power of the golden helm take him deeper into realms that the intellect cannot explain, beyond the sundered veil that Lovecraft often wrote about, beyond the wall of sleep…. beyond the mystery.
For those of you not familiar with Gerber’s writing, he is really something special. A brilliant writer, Steve Gerber perfectly combines the sardonic and sublime with the awe-inspiring elements of what I like to call ‘real good comics.’ We’ve all had those moments when we read a comic and just sat in a kind of glow afterwards, knowing that we had just consumed something worthwhile and meaningful. Gerber is one of the good ones, and a true gift to the comic reading community.
The series is meeting rave reviews and should help this magical hero climb to his rightful place as DC Comics‘ star sorcerer. First issue was just released this month in time for Halloween, no doubt.
Suggested reading:
Golden Age Doctor Fate: Archives – Volume 1
JSA: All Stars Archives – Volume 1
Justice Be Done (JSA: Justice Society of America, Book 1)
Omega: The Unknown Classic TPB
Essential Howard The Duck
Steve Gerber’s blog
