Doctor Fate - Publication History

Publication History

More Fun Comics #55 (May 1940) introduced the first Doctor Fate in his own self-titled six page strip. After a year with no background, his alter ego and origins were shown in More Fun Comics #67 (May 1941). At this point, the character was shown to be Kent Nelson, the son of archaeologist Sven Nelson who died after Kent opened the tomb of the ancient wizard Nabu. The orphaned boy was trained by Nabu in the arts of magic.

Visually, the character was unusual in that he wore a full face helmet in his earliest appearances. His love interest was known variably as Inza Cramer, Inza Sanders, and finally Inza Carmer, which was amended to Inza Cramer in the Silver Age. His enemies included (in order of first appearance) Wotan, Ian Karkull, Nergal, Mr. Who, The Clock, The Octopus, Mad Dog, and various mad scientists, mobsters, and thugs.

When the Justice Society of America was created for All Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940), Doctor Fate was one of the characters National Comics used for the joint venture with All-American Publications. He made his last appearance in the book in issue #21 (Summer 1944), virtually simultaneously with the end of his own strip in More Fun Comics #98 (July - Aug. 1944).

In More Fun Comics #72 (Oct. 1941) Doctor Fate's appearance was modified, exchanging the full helmet for a half-helmet so his lower face was exposed, and the focus of the strip shifted away from its supernatural tone to more standard superhero action instead. In More Fun Comics #85 (Nov. 1942), the character became a medical doctor. The character's popularity waned faster than many of his contemporaries', and the strip was cancelled before the end of World War II with More Fun Comics #98 (July - Aug. 1944).

Doctor Fate was revived along with many other Justice Society members in the 1960s through the annual team-ups with the Justice League of America. These stories established that the two teams resided on parallel worlds. Unlike many of his JSA teammates, Doctor Fate did not have an analogue or counterpart among the Justice League.

Aside from the annual JSA/JLA team-ups in Justice League of America, DC featured the original Doctor Fate in other stories through the 1960s and 1970s. These included a two-issue run with Hourman in Showcase #55-56, wherein it was revealed Kent Nelson and Inza Cramer had married since the end of the Golden Age; appearances with Superman in World's Finest Comics (#208, Dec. 1971) and DC Comics Presents (#23, July 1980); with Batman in The Brave and the Bold (#156, Nov. 1979); and a solo story in 1st Issue Special #9 (Dec. 1975), written by Martin Pasko and drawn by Walt Simonson. With this story, Pasko introduced the concept that Nabu's spirit resided in the helmet and took control of Nelson whenever the helmet was donned.

In the early 1980s Roy Thomas incorporated the retcon that Nabu inhabited the helmet into his All-Star Squadron series, set during World War II, as an explanation for the changes in Doctor Fate's helmet and powers.

Kent and Inza, now combining into one Doctor Fate, featured in a series of back-up stories running in The Flash from #305 (Feb. 1982) to #313 (Sept. 1982) written by Cary Bates and drawn by Keith Giffen, with Pasko taking over as writer in issue #306, (aided by Steve Gerber from #310 to #313). In 1985, DC collected the back-up stories, a retelling of Dr. Fate's origin by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Michael Nasser originally published in Secret Origins of Super-Heroes (Jan. 1978) (DC Special Series #10 in the indicia), the aforementioned Pasko/Simonson story from 1st Issue Special #9, and a Doctor Fate tale from More Fun Comics #56 (June 1940), in a three-issue limited series titled The Immortal Doctor Fate.

Following 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, Doctor Fate briefly joined the Justice League. Soon after, Inza committed suicide and Kent Nelson died of old age and the mantle of Doctor Fate was passed to a pair of humans, Eric and Linda Strauss, (who merged into one being to become Doctor Fate), in a Doctor Fate limited series. DC then featured Eric and Linda in a Doctor Fate ongoing series by DeMatteis and Shawn McManus.

After two years William Messner-Loebs became the series’ writer with issue #25, now starring a resurrected Kent and Inza. The series and character shifted so that Inza inherited the Doctor Fate mantle and starred in a year's worth of stories in which she tried to change the world for the better using her powers.

When Messner-Loebs' run, and the series, ended with issue #41, DC retired the Doctor Fate character, replacing the Nelsons with a new character, Jared Stevens, who was introduced in a self-titled series called "Fate" launched in the wake of Zero Hour in 1994. Jared was a mercenary whose weapons were Doctor Fate's transformed helmet and amulet. Both Fate and its follow up The Book of Fate were canceled after relatively short runs.

In 1999 during the revival of the Justice Society in JSA, DC allowed the character to be reworked; Jared Stevens was killed and the mantle of Doctor Fate, along with a restored helmet and amulet, was passed to a new character, in this case a reincarnated Hector Hall, son of the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl. In addition to appearing in JSA, DC published a self-titled, five-issue limited series featuring Hall and positioned him as a prominent magical character in various company-wide event stories.

The character was again set up for change during the Day of Vengeance limited series, part of the lead in to the 2005 company-wide event story, Infinite Crisis. This included both Hall and Nabu being killed off and Doctor Fate's helmet being sent to find a new wearer.

In early 2007 DC published a bi-weekly run of one-shot comics featuring the helmet passing through the hands of various magical characters. These included Detective Chimp; Ibis the Invincible; Sargon the Sorcerer; Zauriel; and Black Alice. The one-shots were intended to be followed by a new Doctor Fate ongoing series in April 2007, written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by Paul Gulacy, featuring Kent V. Nelson, Kent Nelson's grandnephew, as the helmet's new wearer.

However, the series was delayed due to extended production and creative difficulties. Steve Gerber revealed in an interview with Newsarama that the story intended for the first arc of the Doctor Fate ongoing series was being reworked to serve as one of the two stories for Countdown to Mystery, a dual-feature eight issue mini-series with Eclipso as the second story. The first issue of Countdown to Mystery, with art by Justiniano and Walden Wong rather than Gulacy, was released in November 2007. Due to Steve Gerber's passing, the seventh issue was written by Adam Beechen using Gerber's notes. The final issue was written by Beechen, Gail Simone, Mark Waid, and Mark Evanier, who each wrote a different ending to the story.

The character then appeared in the Reign in Hell mini-series, and next appeared in Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #30, joining the team and featuring in the book until its cancellation with #54 in August 2011.