[Dr Kain]

BTW, you guys can feel free to post your thoughts on my choices, post your top heroes, whatever.

To think, I am halfway through my top 10 favorite DC heroes. So today is an odd choice because I never really have read his own comics, but more of his adventures with the Justice Society and then of course, the episodes he was featured in in Bruce Timm’s animated shows. So with that aside, here is my next favorite:



My introduction to Dr Fate actually came from a single issue I received in the 90s of Nelson’s wife Inza donning the persona of Dr Fate. The next time I would see the character again was when he appeared in the episode “The Hand of Fate” of “Superman: The Animated Series” and again at the times he would be featured in “Justice League.” I am huge into mythology, especially Egyptian, so his powers using Egyptian symbols such as the Ankh, living in an obelisk, etc., where all intriguing to me. Not to mention the super natural side of his powers all being stemmed from a magical helmet (Helm of Nabu). I think that is one of the coolest things to deal with this character, everything he does comes from a helmet as the helmet is technically the hero. It can bring into that joke, does the man make the helmet or does the helmet make the man?

Nevertheless, even though we have had multiple users become Dr Fate, Kent Nelson is my favorite because of his portrayal in the Crisis on Multiple Earths series that featured the team-ups between the Justice League of Earth 1 and the Justice Society of Earth 2. A lot of the times he felt like the leader of the team and his magic always kicked ass whether it was against Icicle, Faust, or even Anti-Matter Man. As for the other versions of Dr Fate, since there have been plenty of them, I like them, but Nelson will still be my favorite. I love the look of Hector Hall’s costume. I also love that he is meant to be the son of the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who are reincarnations of ancient Egyptians, so his powers fit the Egyptian theme of Fate. On the other hand, the second variation of Fate that was compiled of some guy and his step mom was pretty terrible. I am glad to have missed out on those years because it just sounds bad. The interpretation Young Justice did though, with Zatara becoming Fate was really well done and gave a nice spin on the character.

I think the only downfall of Dr Fate is that, outside of Wotan, he doesn’t really have any enemies he can truly call his own. Everyone else seems to be just normal enemies of the entire Justice Society than just those belonging to Fate. He kind of fought Mordru in one of the Crisis crossovers, but Mordru is still really more of a Legion of Super Heroes villain, so I don’t really count him.

Regardless of the lack of villains, the mythos and magic behind Dr Fate are what really set him apart from other super heroes for me and is why he is one of my top characters.