Doctor Fate

Overview

Doctor Fate was most commonly known as Kent Nelson because he was the longest person to keep the name. Eric Strauss and Linda Strauss fused together to form Dr. Fate in another series.

Kent Nelson was an archaeologist he discovered the tomb of an Egyptian wizard.

Doctor fate's look was changed in 1941 they cut his mask in half still covering his eyes and forehead but exposing his mouth. He was later revived in the Justice League of America.

Doctor Fate's magic is his specialty. He shows a lot of his magic in the Justice League when he fights Hawkgirl in the episode "The Terror Beyond". Later on he joins the Justice League Unlimited.

History

Kent Nelson

Kent Nelson traveled with his father on an expedition to the Valley of Ur in the year 1920. When his father opens the tomb of the great wizard Nabu, a poison gas was released which ultimately resulted in the death of Sven Nelson. Nabu takes pity on the orphaned Kent so he decides to raise him, teaching him the skills of a wizard and the ways of magic, then bestows upon him a mystical helm and amulet.

By the 1940's, Nelson returns to the United States and takes root in an invisible tower in Salem, Massachusetts. From this sanctum he embarks out, fighting crime and supernatural evil as the hero, Doctor Fate. During the early part of this career he meets, courts, and then marries a red-head named Inza.

In late 1940's, Doctor Fate becomes one of the founding members of the Justice Society of America (JSA). Dr. Fate remains active within the group up until the middle of the decade when he withdrew in the year 1945. By the end of the decade he had withdrawn completely from public activities. When the JSA comes out of retirement to work with the Justice League he returns as well, joining his old teammates.

When the JSA re-establishes itself in the modern age of heroes, Doctor Fate is among the members who return. Though he has become increasingly erratic and withdraw from society, he still commits himself protecting the Earth against supernatural threats. It is during this time that Nelson also goes through a period where, in order to transform into Doctor Fate, he must fuse with his wife, Inza Nelson.

After helping to put a stop Darkseid's plans to discredit the heroes of Earth in the eyes of humanity, Kent, as the sole bearer of the Helm, joins the newly reconstituted Justice League. He serves for a time, but inevitably the magic he was using to maintain he and Inza's youth falter. The pair then die, rapidly aging in a short period of time. 

Eric and Linda Strauss

With the death of Kent Nelson, Nabu begins his search for a new host. This search brings him to Eric and Linda Strauss. They are bound so that they must merge in order to become Doctor Fate, but besides that they lead separate lives. Nabu then animates Kent Nelson's corpse to serve as an adviser and instructor. Due to the fact that the tower Nelson used as a sanctum is destroyed, the pair runs their operations out of Linda's apartment. Later they are joined by a small demon they name Petey and a lawyer by the name Jack C. Small. This pair provides moral support and even manage to assist in some of the battles.

During a battle on Apokolips, Eric is killed, leaving Linda to serve as Dr. Fate on her own. The Helm eventually rejects her. Eric's soul, instead of passing on, is placed in the dying body of Eugene DiBellia, who had been mortally wounded in a car accident. Eugene is the father of a girl named Raina, who will usher in a new age for all mankind.

Though she is no longer Doctor Fate, the Anti-Fate, returns to plague her. This forces Linda to merge with Nabu and become Doctor Fate once again. Though they are forced to retreat, the Lords of Chaos succeed in assaulting Linda Strauss and killing her. Same as Eric, her soul is placed into the dying body of Wendy DiBellia, so that she and Eric can take care of Raina. The DiBellias had always been fated to die, but thanks to the intervention of the Phantom Stranger and someone serving as a human avatar of God, Raina is not left without her caretakers. 

Inza Nelson

Inza and Kent Nelson's souls, which had been previously inhabiting Doctor Fate's amulet, were resurrected in new young bodies. However, they discovered that now only Inza was able to transform into Doctor Fate. She spent her time striving to improve the lot of humanity, but Kent chided her about her "reckless" use of magic.

Ina strove to use her new powers proactively, unlike wielding his powers. Her inexperience initially worked against her, but she steadily grew more competent with experience. She was instrumental in defeating Circe, who had spear-headed a war among the gods of antiquity.

Her growing confidence led to increasing recklessness. The people under her protection became dependent on her to solve every little problem. Rather than retreating from dependency, she made matters even worse as she created spheres that would respond to people's wishes.

This abuse of her power eventually separated Kent and Inza as they steadily found themselves opposing each others actions. The Nelsons learned that a Lord of Chaos had taken residence in the Helm of Nabu and had been providing Inza with magic derived from Chaos instead of Order. This Lord of Chaos was also the reason that the couple could no longer merge and become Doctor Fate. Kent eventually returned to his wife's side and helped her defeat this Lord of Chaos. Inza then learns that her new powers draw from the people of Earth, rather than Chaos or Order.

Inza continued her proactive behavior, causing the United States government to take notice of her and put her on trial before Congress. After giving a stern lecture to the Congressmen, she temporarily transformed them all into newts.

After defeating the Lord of Chaos, the Nelsons began merging as the male Doctor Fate again. The Nelsons did retain the ability to become independent Doctor Fates if the situation ever called for it. In these cases Kent's form would resemble that of his days of wearing the half-helm.

In their final actions as Doctor Fate, the Nelsons, along with the JSA, faced the supervillain Extant during an attempt by Parallax to change the history of the universe. Extant, with seeming ease, caused most of the JSA members to rapidly approach their proper physical ages. He also separated the Nelsons from the raiments of Doctor Fate, the Helm, Amulet, and cloak. The greatly aged and depowered Nelsons were returned to Salem and to a forced retirement. 

Jared Stevens (Fate)

After the Nelsons return to Earth, Jared Stevens discovers the raiments of Doctor Fate. He altered them into a knife, set of throwing darts, and an arm binding and begins a career as a balance between Order and Chaos as simply " Fate". His only encounter with the Nelsons results in their deaths and the souls of the couple return to the Amulet.

His end came at the hands of Mordru as part of the dark wizard's plot to inherit the mantel and artifacts of Doctor Fate. 

Hector Hall

Nabu, aware of Mordru's diabolic ambitions, had planned in advance to insure that his Helm and the mantle of Doctor Fate would pass on to a reincarnated Hector Hall. This plan coincided with the rebirth of the Justice Society which acted in order to protect the newly reborn Hector.

The nature of the body into which Hector was born defines a change in the purpose of Doctor Fate. The child is the son of Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, agents of both Chaos and Order once known as Hawk and Dove. This makes the child an agent of balance between Order and Chaos, rather than of an agent of one side or the other.

Later on the Spectre, in an attempt to expunge evil by extinguishing magic, confronts Hector Hall. This resulted in he and his wife, Lyta, being banished to "Hell," a snowy mountain landscape, where Hector would be forced to spend eternity. After protecting his unconscious wife from a pack 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 had made a deal. The two joined their son in the Dreaming, seemingly giving up the mortal world forever. 

Nabu

Not knowing that Hector Hall was dead, the JSA came to his tower to ask for his help in retrieving Jakeem Thunder from the Fifth dimension. Finding the raiments of Fate, but not Hector himself , they prepared a spell to speak with Nabu. The Spell malfunctioned due to the arrival of Mordru, and caused Nabu to manifest himself through the raiments of Fate without a host. After dealing with Mordru, Nabu gathered the remaining magicians on Earth in order to deal with the Spectre's rampage through the magical world. While the other magical beings dealt with containing the fallout of the destruction, Nabu confronted the Spectre. In a great battle, Nabu goaded the Spectre until the Spectre finally delivered him the fatal blow. This caused the Presence to finally take notice of the Spectre, and force him into a new host. Before dying, Nabu gave his helmet to detective chimp asking him to pass it on to a new doctor Fate. With Nabu's death, the ninth age of magic ended. 

Kent V. Nelson

The new Doctor

Detective Chimp gave the helm to Captain Marvel, telling him to toss it randomly into space so that fate itself would choose the new Doctor Fate. After passing through many hands, the helm finally came to Kent V. Nelson, a homeless former psychiatrist, who is also a grandnephew to the Original Doctor Fate. Nelson at has a hard time believing in magic at all, but after a confrontation with a demon Negal, and help from two women named Maddy and Inca, he accepts his role as Doctor Fate.

Kent was later one of the magicians who took interest in the war between Neron and Satanus in Hell, and opted to intervene. He petitioned Lady Blaze to put an end to the war and return order to hell, but she would hear none of it and attacked him. Though an upstart, Fate still manages to overpower and severely harm Blaze, making his getaway as she tends to her wounds. As Satanus seals up Hell in order to consolidate his power and hunt down those who oppose him, Fate meets up with other magicians trapped in Hell and together they formulate a plan to escape. Fate serves as an anchor for Nightshade and Doctor Occult as they try to find a way through the shadows back to Earth, and they manage to escape despite the intervention of Lobo.

In the aftermath of Reign in Hell, Doctor Occult mentioned that Fate as begun to take his role as a guardian of magic more seriously.
 
When the JSA was attacked by a powerful group of villains, Jay Garrick had no other choice than to bring the still-inexperienced Kent Nelson to the battle field. Fate bluffed the villains to a standoff, which the villains, aware of his predecessor's wast power, but unfamiliar with his own rookie status, fell for, giving the JSA time to regroup and force the villains to run.  

 Fate is back in the game!

Unfortunately, while the society was busy fighting the villains, back at the headquarters Mr. Terrific was fatally wounded and

Doctor Mid-Nite was unable to save his life. Unwilling to accept that, Green Lantern petitions Fate to resurrect him, which Fate, after a few hours of tedious preparation, attempts to. 
Unfortunately, while he is trying to bring back Mr. Terrific, Brownstone comes under attack by the same band of villains, and Nelson and Mr. Terrific are buried by the debris. clawing himself out and angered by the attack at this critical moment, Fate effectively ends the battle by casting an area spell, forcing all the heroes into a state of bliss, rendering them unable to fight anymore. He later finds out his spell worked and Mr. Terrific has returned to life.
After the battle Kent elects to stay with the Society, as his predecessors have done as well.  

Powers

Helm of Nabu

Putting on the helmet usually results in its wearer being clad in the other raiments of Doctor Fate, unless the person with the claim to the helmet wishes to prevent it. Villains seeking the power of Doctor Fate have plundered the helmet, in which case the result is typically that the wearer goes insane when they try to put on the helmet. 

Amulet of Anubis

The circular device on the collar worn around Doctor Fate's chest and shoulders is the Amulet of Anubis, which gives it's bearer vast magical abilities. The amulet houses the souls of many who have worn the vestments of Fate. In JSA, the amulet contained the image of a farmhouse with the souls of Kent and Inza Nelson, Eric and Linda Strauss, Jared Stevens and Kid Eternity inhabiting it. This dimension has been used as a refuge for the Justice Society Of America to regroup in battle or access the advice of the previous Doctor Fates. Mordru was imprisoned in the amulet for some time. 

Alternate Versions

Doctor Chaos (Earth-One)

Professor Lewis Lang and his assistant Burt Belker uncover a helmet identical to the one used by Nabu in the Valley of Ur which contains a Lord of Chaos. The Lord of Chaos possesses Burt in order become Doctor Chaos, whose agenda differs from the one of Earth-Two's Doctor Fate. Doctor Chaos' costume mirrors Doctor Fate's, but with an inverted color scheme. Superboy confronts him and is able to remove the helmet from Belker and send it into space. 

Fate (Kingdom Come)

This version of Nabu is similar to his later appearance just before his death, able to channel his consciousness through the Helm and Cloak without the need of a host body. This version of Fate sided with Batman's group during Kingdom Come, and was amongst the survivors at the end of the story. 

Future (Books of Magic)

This Doctor Fate is a corrupt version of the Helmet which appears like a human skull. It would ultimately kill any of its worshipers that wore it. This one no longer cares about the battle between Order and Chaos and believes that there is no meaning in life; only flesh and death. H wanted to kill Doctor Fate and destroy the helm long ago, but the Justice League prevented him. 

52

This version makes a brief appearance in 52 along with the rest of the JSA. This team hails from Earth-2.

Doctor Strangefate

Doctor Strangefate is an amalgram character. He is a combination of Doctor Fate, Doctor Strange, and Professor Xavier. His powers are based upon both Doctors, but Charles Xavier is the man under the helm. Doctor Strangefate is the protector of the Amalgam universe, building up the universe around him from the battle between DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and will literally kill to prevent his universe from collapsing. 

Television

DC Animated Universe 

Other Television