Dr. Fate (Khalid and Kent) Appreciation 2020

[sifighter]

I wanted to do an appreciation thread for Khalid Nassour, the current Dr. Fate and character I’ve been following since his first appearance, but then I remembered that his great uncle Kent Nelson, the original Dr. Fate, is still very much around and still shown from time to time as Dr. Fate (past him in Justice League and I’m pretty sure Doomsday Clock). Given that they are family and both Dr. Fate I figured they can share the appreciation thread. I think if you want to read the both of them together go check out the DC you Doctor Fate series and the current Justice League Dark run.

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[sifighter]

See this from the most recent issue of Justice League Dark is why I like both Khalid and Kent

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Also for those who care Khalid had a good appearance recently in Superman and I think it was kent appeared in Death Metal #2 with the JSA.

[Dylan Davison]

The writing of both of them in that last issue of JLD is fantastic! Ram does an amazing job. I've read little on Khalid, but seeing him in JLD makes me want to read more.

[sifighter]

The writing of both of them in that last issue of JLD is fantastic! Ram does an amazing job. I've read little on Khalid, but seeing him in JLD makes me want to read more.

Well honestly Khalid has only really been in his DCyou ongoing series, which lasted 18 issues, and then Tynion did a really good job expanding on him in JLD. Honestly its pretty easy to read all of the Khalid stuff and it’s only recently that he’s getting more exposure to the larger DC universe, like his appearance in Superman.

[Robotman]

I like Khalid but he really needs a better costume. They need to give him more of a superhero look. The Aladdin pants just aren’t working.

[Frontier]

I like Khalid but he really needs a better costume. They need to give him more of a superhero look. The Aladdin pants just aren’t working.

They should've kept the Rebirth Dr. Fate costume in my opinion.

[Doctor Kent Nelson]

They should've kept the Rebirth Dr. Fate costume in my opinion.

And they should've kept Kent Nelson as Dr Fate

[Gaius]

I like Khalid but he really needs a better costume. They need to give him more of a superhero look. The Aladdin pants just aren’t working.

I like it but if they were to change costumes I'd give him the Earth 2 Dr. Fate look

[sifighter]

And they should've kept Kent Nelson as Dr Fate

See that is the thing he kind of still is, he just doesn't have the helmet of Nabu although recent comics have indicated that he doesn't really need it. The DCyou ongoing series showed that Nelson doesn't need the Helm to become Doctor Fate, that he can create the look because he's such a good magician, and Justice League Dark showed that even without the helmet that Nelson is still an incredibly skilled magic user. Basically, Kent is such a master at this he doesn't really need the Helmet.

Besides who do you think was the Dr. Fate in Death Metal #2. Kent is still Dr. Fate, Khalid just has possession of the actual physical helmet.

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[K7P5V]

And they should've kept Kent Nelson as Dr Fate

The Simonson/Pasko version will always be a favorite:

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I liked the Doc Fate look from Multiversity so I don't mind that getting reused for one of them.

[Dylan Davison]

I just started reading Khalid's series on the DC Universe app, cause I was curious. Wish I had picked it up back then. I really have been enjoying it so far.

[Doctor Kent Nelson]

See that is the thing he kind of still is, he just doesn't have the helmet of Nabu although recent comics have indicated that he doesn't really need it. The DCyou ongoing series showed that Nelson doesn't need the Helm to become Doctor Fate, that he can create the look because he's such a good magician, and Justice League Dark showed that even without the helmet that Nelson is still an incredibly skilled magic user. Basically, Kent is such a master at this he doesn't really need the Helmet.

Besides who do you think was the Dr. Fate in Death Metal #2. Kent is still Dr. Fate, Khalid just has possession of the actual physical helmet.

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True but that the DC You Dr Fate was horrible, cliched writing and the Helmet of Nabu was like a smartphone. Thank god that Tynion ignored that aspect of the character but then Tynion made the Lords of Order human... double UGH! I know it's part of comic writing but so many writers just piss on the previous writers before them which is just annoying. And the entire history of Dr Fate is pretty much a big piss fest with the main catalyst being the J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen series that sparked this musical helmet of Nabu. It's like focusing on the shield of Superman as the hero, not the man or woman behind the hero who makes the hero.

Sure, it's good to have Kent back until the next event where DC needs to show how nefarious a villain is but Dr Fate doesn't have to be a Peter Parker or Kyle Rayner type character, he should be DC's Sorcerer Supreme without the convoluted baggage that it has become.

[CaptainCosmic]

As others have noted here, 2020 marks the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of Doctor Fate, in More Fun Comics #55 (May 1940), and the 100th anniversary of Kent Nelson’s first meeting with Nabu the Wise (in Ur in 1920, as recounted in More Fun Comics #67, May 1941). To commemorate these occasions, I have written a short novel based on the character as originally conceived by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman.

The book is meant to be an homage to one of DC's greatest characters, but one who never had a sustained run of the sort enjoyed by Doctor Strange. Fate was at his best, I believe, during his initial run in More Fun Comics #55-71 (issue #72 started the “half-helmet” phase, where he became a sort of Superman character who relied on his fists more than his magic) and the Silver Age appearances in Showcase and the JLA/JSA crossovers.

My book, with the intentionally pulp-ish title of “Doctor Fate: In the Dungeon of the Damned” - available free to all of course on Wattpad - goes old school with the superhero sorcerer, re-imagining him as he was in the 1940s and especially the 1960s-early 70s versions, as opposed to the way the character has been written since the 1980s.

My re-imagining includes the following differences from what is now the current standard version of Fate:
1. The character of Doctor Fate harkens back to the Gardner Fox version. That is, Doctor Fate is Kent Nelson, his wife and soul-mate is Inza Cramer (in my version she keeps her surname), Nelson is the only person to have been Doctor Fate, and at present no one else can become Doctor Fate, because the helmet was created by Nabu to only be usable by Nabu and Kent Nelson (for plot reasons).
2. With regard to the helmet, in this story it’s only the second-most important magical weapon in Fate’s armoury; the amulet is the greatest. There is some precedent for this in the Khalis story in 1st Issue Special #9, where it is established that the amulet is the Amulet of Anubis and is an artifact of immense power.
3. A corollary to this change in the nature of the helmet is that it no longer controls the person wearing it, its “host.” It is a tool used by the person wearing it, not the other way around.
4. The magical background for the story, and for Fate’s and Nabu’s origins, is supplied by Mesopotamia, not Egypt. Several major DC characters have an Egyptian connection – Hawkman, Blue Beetle, Black Adam – but Doctor Fate’s origin as conceived by Fox and Sherman was based on Mesopotamian myth and legend. In Fox’s origin story, Nabu (a deity in several Mesopotamian cultures, from Sumer to Babylon) is discovered in Ur. The only connection to Egypt in the original story was Sven Nelson’s obsession with who built the pyramids. Mesopotamian tradition is equally rich as Egypt although quite different – fate and order are in fact especially important in this tradition, and the gods are humanoid, heroic, and less alien (at least to a modern sensibility) than Egyptian deities – and I feel that it makes Fate a more unique and interesting character in the context of the DC pantheon.
5. I have attempted to explain some long-unaddressed questions raised by Fate’s origin story, e.g. Why did the poison gas kill Sven Nelson but not his son? Was the gas that released Nabu the same gas that killed Sven Nelson? What did Nabu know about the gas or gases when he willed Kent to press that lever? Why was Nabu in that quasi-coma in the first place? Etc.
6. The original character was inspired, I believe, by pulp novels and the work of H.P. Lovecraft. I have tried to recreate that pulpy atmosphere in the book. In the most recent (and in my opinion, by far the best since the 1940s/60s) Doctor Fate Series, Khalid’s uncle Kent is referred to as the inspiration for Indiana Jones, and I tried to bring a little of that sense of pulp adventure to the book.

My aim in writing this book was simply to create some old fashioned escapist fiction in the time of Covid and at the same time offer a tribute to one of my favourite superheroes. I hope you enjoy this little bit of riffing on one of DC’s best characters in the spirit in which it is intended. (And I apologize in advance for those who don't like my approach.)

[Samm]

I just started reading Khalid's series on the DC Universe app, cause I was curious. Wish I had picked it up back then. I really have been enjoying it so far.

Yeah it’s actually really good. I hope DC keeps Khalid around, he’s a great character with the added bonus of being a diverse character that actually matches the mythology he’s drawing from. An Egyptian character using Egyptian mythology, as it should be