Doctor Fate: Encyclopedia II - Doctor Fate - Fictional biography

Doctor Fate - Fictional biography

Doctor Fate - Kent Nelson

Kent Nelson was the son of an American archaeologist in the 1920s. While on an expedition to Egypt, Nelson's father opened the tomb of the wizard Nabu, and was killed for the violation. (Nabu is named after a god from Babylonian mythology. The Nabu of the DC Universe may be meant to be this god.) However, Nabu took pity on the orphaned Nelson and raised him himself, teaching him the skills of a wizard and bestowing upon him a mystical helm and amulet.

By 1940, Nelson had returned to the United States and housed himself in an invisible tower in Salem, Massachusetts, and embarked on a career fighting crime and supernatural evil as the hero named Doctor Fate.

Fate was a founding member of the Justice Society of America, though he left the group around 1945. As Kent Nelson, he romanced and eventually married a redheaded woman named Inza. His powers as Fate kept the two of them young through the 1980s. In 1942, he stopped wearing his full-head helm and switched to a half-helm which left his mouth and chin exposed.

It was later established through a retcon in First Issue Special #9 (1975) that the full helmet contained the personality of Nabu, who partially replaced Nelson's own personality when he donned the helmet. Switching to the half-helmet left Nelson in charge, but also stripped him of much of his sorcerous might, leaving him merely strong, tough, and able to fly, essentially a second-rate Superman. Another retcon, in All-Star Squadron #27, revealed that Fate switched to the half-helm because a supervillain stole Nabu's helm and both helm and villain were cast into an alternate dimension.

Fate presumably retired - or simply disappeared from public life - in the late 1940s and was inactive through the 1950s along with most other Golden Age superheroes.

When the Justice Society reactivated in the 1960s, Fate was a member - again wearing Nabu's helmet, though how it was recovered has not been revealed. Little is known of Fate's adventures during this period save for the JSA's annual gatherings with the Justice League of America from the parallel world of Earth-1 (the JSA being on Earth-2), and a pair of adventures he shared with fellow JSA member Hourman facing the monstrous Solomon Grundy and the villainous Psycho Pirate.

Doctor Fate - The Strausses Inza Nelson and Jared Stevens

Fate was also a member of the JSA in the 1970s, though he had become increasingly erratic and withdrawn from humanity, though still committed to protecting Earth against supernatural menaces. In the 1980s, Fate briefly joined the Justice League, but Nabu's magic was failing to keep Kent and Inza Nelson young, and the pair finally died. Nabu bound together a pair of humans, Eric and Linda Strauss, into a new Doctor Fate, the pair merging into one being to become the hero, but otherwise living their own lives. With Nabu animating Kent Nelson's old body, the three were active for a couple of years, until Eric was killed by Darkseid and Linda, without him, abandoned the identity.

It turned out that the Nelsons' souls had been residing in Fate's amulet. They were resurrected in new, young bodies, but this time it was Inza who had Fate's powers. As a female Doctor Fate, she spent a couple of years striving to improve the lot of humanity, later aided by Kent once he was able to regain his Superman-esque powers of earlier years. Through means unrevealed, the pair later began merging as the male Doctor Fate again.

It was this Fate who faced the supervillain Extant in the Zero Hour crisis, scattering Fate's helm, amulet and cloak, and greatly aging the Nelsons, who returned to Salem.

The artifacts were discovered by Jared Stevens, who transformed the helm into smaller weapons and began a career as a balance between chaos and order as Fate. During his one encounter with the Nelsons, the latter pair were killed by minions of a villain, and their souls returned to Fate's amulet.

Doctor Fate - Hector Hall

Stevens' career only lasted a few years, and in the late 1990s he was finally killed by agents of the wizard Mordru, who wanted Fate's equipment for his own uses. Nabu had arranged, however, for Hector Hall (the former Silver Scarab and son of the original Hawkman and Hawkgirl) to be reincarnated as the new Doctor Fate, and with the aid of the reformed Justice Society, this came to pass, and Hall took up the mantle.

Some time later, Hall, after a climatic conflict with the Spectre was banished to Hell, where he would be forced to spend eternity, together with his wife Lyta Hall. After he protected his unconscious wife from a group of demons, Hector collapsed, just as Lyta awoke. She revealed that she had communicated with her son Daniel Hall (now the Lord of Dreams), and made a deal. The two joined their son in the Dreaming, seemingly forever giving up the mortal world.

Doctor Fate - Nabu

With the dissapearance of Hector Hall, his teammates in the Justice Society travelled to the Tower of Fate, hoping also to use his services to travel to the 6th Dimension and find Jakeem Thunder. At the Tower they found the garments of Fate, but no Hector. Seeking to call forth Nabu, Sand wore the garments and Nabu spoke through him. He prepared a spell through which some of the team travelled to the 6th dimension, but at that time, Mordru returned and botched the spell.

In turn, he subjugated the remaining Society members and Dr. Fate. Mordru seemingly crushed Nabu and his helmet, which allowed Sand to use his powers and free himself. Freeing the other members of the team, they took on Mordru, as Nabu started to channel himself through the vestments of Fate without a host. He fought Mordru, transporting him to differing dimensions in hopes of defeating him, travelling to the world of Kingdom Come and Superman & Batman: Generations before being stopped by Mordru.

The two continued their struggle, although Mordru seemed to be getting the upper hand, untill the timely arrival of Jakeem and the other team members, and Jakeem and his Thunderbolt singlehandedly took care of Mordru. Nabu was offered to join the Justice Society, but he discerned that a Crisis was afoot that his presence was required, dissapearing.

In the Day of Vengeance Special, Nabu called together a team of magical beings to stop the Spectre and seal the Seven Deadly Sins. Nabu personally confronted the Spectre, whose anger grew so great that the Presence took notice and sent the Spectre to his new host. In the process Nabu died and with him the Ninth age of Magic. Before his death, he gave the helmet of Dr. Fate to Detective Chimp to give to the new Doctor Fate. Although Nabu and his powers would no longer be a part of the helmet it would still have significant powers. After a failed attempt by Detective Chimp to put the helmet on, he asked Captain Marvel to throw the helmet into space and let it land where it will, letting Fate pick the next Doctor Fate.

This is not the first time a Dr. Fate has been shown in which Nabu no longer required a host. In the reality of Kingdom Come, Nabu had always grown past his hosts and was able to operate the vestments of Fate again. It is therefore probably not a coincedence that Nabu travelled through the world of Kingdom Come with his foe Mordru. If the Kingdom Come Nabu and regular contuinity Nabu are the same is yet to be seen.

Doctor Fate - Future version

In the fourth Book of the Books of Magic mini-series by Neil Gaiman, a future version of Dr. Fate is shown to Tim Hunter by Mr. E. This one is a corrupted version of the helm which looks like a human skull. It will ultimatly kill any of its worshippers that wears it. This one no longer cares about the war between order and chaos and believes that there is no meaning in life just flesh and death.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Fictional biography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki