Kent Nelson

Doctor Fate I

Kent Nelson

## Biography

### Background

The Helmet of Nabu was created by Hath-Set in Ancient Egypt in an elaborate scheme to kill prince Khufu and his lover Chay-Ara. It became the physical tether for the Lord of Order Nabu. Nabu would become imprisoned within the helmet in a tomb in the Valley of Ur in Mesopotamia after a battle with the Lord of Chaos Wotan - who was tricked by Nabu into becoming trapped within an absorbascon.

### Early Life

Kent Nelson was born on January 17th, 1904 to Sven Nelson and Celestine Babcock. Celestine was a fortune teller and spiritual medium, while Sven was a devout catholic and often butted heads with Celestine over her more fluid belief system. Sven was an esteemed businessman and a world traveler, whose best friend was a spelunker named Calvin Carson.

Kent met Calvin several times when he was a young man. When the Great Depression began, he and his parents moved to England to live with Calvin, where Kent started attending Oxford University. There, he caught the eye of a wealthy young American woman named Inza Cramer. The two had a flirtatious manner for most of their school years. Shortly after graduation, they ran into one another in a bookstore, and Kent decided to ask her out.

Kent and Inza had a long courting period, and ended up married after nearly six years of dating. In that time, both had begun working for Carson’s travel agency, with Inza working in the offices, and Kent acting as an expedition guide. As an engagement present, Calvin, Sven, Inza, and Kent all went on a spelunking adventure into the Valley of Ur. Before their departure, Celestine urged her son and husband not to go, but they didn’t listen.

While exploring the valley, they found the entrance to an ancient tomb. While descending into the tomb, Kent was overcome with an ailing headache, as Sven recalled lucid images of the place in his dreams. Carson’s rope was severed on the way down, causing him to land harshly and lose one of his eyes. While Inza tended to his wound, Sven wandered away, eventually pulling a lever that released a poison gas that killed him. Kent stumbled away from his father’s body and into a passageway that the lever had opened, where he found three items that he had never seen before, but somehow knew the names of; the Helmet of Nabu, Amulet of Anubis, and Cloak of Destiny. A voice in his head compelled him to put the items on and so he did.

### Doctor Fate

The second the Helmet of Nabu touched his head, his mind was filled with arcane images and knowledge of thousands of years of cosmic history. It was an information overload that definitely should’ve killed him. He stumbled backwards, removing the helmet and at that moment noticed Inza reaching for a crown-shaped object. He tried to stop her, though he didn’t know why, but she didn’t stop and put on the crown and then she became the host of the Lord of Chaos Wotan.

As his former fiance, now a purple-skinned, red-eyed creature, conjured a spell to fire at him, the voice in his head told him to put back on the helmet. He did, and his body was suddenly adorned with a blue costume and he conjured a spell to counteract Inza’s.

The two battled, streaking into the sky of the valley and continuing to fight. Eventually, they realized they were equally matched, and both decided to end the pointless fight - although Inza tore off into the sky, swearing vengeance in the name of Wotan. Kent returned to the tomb where he collected his father’s body and saved Carson from the depths of the cavern, before the whole thing collapsed in on itself.

He returned home to tell his mother of the death, but she told him she already knew and inspected the Helmet of Nabu. She told her son that he had become the bearer of great power, and that his father’s sacrifice should not be forgotten about, claiming that his life was in the hands of the Lords of Order now.

Kent decided to move back to the United States, and upon his return, enlisted in the United States Military. He discovered Nabu’s sanctum existed in Salem, Massachusetts. He was still hesitant to partake in any of Nabu’s power and was still able to remove the helmet at will. He then got his orders to be stationed in Pearl Harbor.

On base, he made friends with fellow recruits Charles McNider, Alan Scott, Ted Grant, Wesley Dodds, and Jay Garrick. They were all present when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Shrapnel from the blast scarred Charles' eyes so badly that he went blind, but Kent’s magic single-handedly saved the group of them from perishing in the explosions.

They continued on serving in the war, where they wound up fighting in Normandy on D-Day. Kent had managed to sneak his helmet along and wore it during battle, using magic to help shift the tide of the battle. However, in the midst of the fighting, a lightning bolt mysteriously struck Jay. When Kent rushed over to the battle site, he found a glowing man placing a silver helmet on Jay’s head, and an armored woman lying unconscious.

Jay sat up uninjured and awoke the woman, who picked up a sword and went in to “battle the forces of Ares”, while Jay discovered he was suddenly imbued with superspeed powers. The woman, who identified herself as “Suprema” lead the battalion to victory in the battle.

At the end of the war, they returned to the States with Suprema with them. Kent found himself compelled by the coincidence of several mystical powers converging at the D-Day site. With his father’s fortune, he purchased a brownstone in Gotham City, and allowed all of his friends to move in there. Shortly thereafter - each began to show unique abilities, and the place seemed to attract those with unique abilities. It wasn’t long until the costumes came - and soon enough the Justice Society of America was born.

Kent helped recruit other mystical allies to the JSA, but he was often not present or present briefly - as Nabu would have him darting off to assist elsewhere. He would run into Inza a few more times as Wotan. Eventually, he decided he needed to gain an army of sorcerers strong enough to untie Inza’s soul from Wotan and re-unite them. His two most promising proteges turned out to be Sindella and Giovanni Zatara.

After five years of training them, he revealed to them his plan to attack Wotan in her domain and separate their souls so he could be reunited with Inza. However, upon arriving, Wotan revealed a plan of her own, and they were ambushed by several much stronger allies. Kent was able to get them out unscathed, but upon their return to Salem, Gio and Sindella both turned in their resignations. Kent spent the remainder of his tenure as Doctor Fate in utter misery, completely heartbroken. His method of justice grew crueler, and he allowed himself to be easily swayed by Nabu. He didn’t even give in when the US Government demanded superhero retirement. In fact, the remainder of Kent Nelson’s life is mostly a blur, as his body gave out and his mind became Nabu’s puppet.

### Death & Legacy

Detecting Kents ailing body, Nabu sought out a new host, and he didn’t have to wait long when Giovanni Zatara came pleading for help in finding his missing daughter. Kent was unaware of the conversation, but remembers helping Gio find a dimension where they rescued Zatanna, before he was spat out of the helmet and Giovanni took over. Kent took Zatanna's place in the hidden dimension, as he was nearly one-hundred years old by this time. He stayed in this dimension until Eclipso severed the barrier between magical worlds and the real world, and Kent found himself on the battleground again alongside Wotan. When the battle was over, he went to Wotan. It appears even the Lord of Chaos has a heart, as he released Inza from his soul for a few brief moments to give her fiance a hug and a kiss, before Kent took his last breaths and passed away, and Inza was returned to the forever hell of being a slave to Wotan. Thus, Kent Nelson moved on from this mortal plane.

## Trivia

* Kent self-identified as agnostic despite growing up attending Catholic mass. His experiences as Doctor Fate led him to not conform to one specific belief.
* During his time on the JSA, he spelunked with Sharon Parker and Joseph Gardner.
* He rarely mentioned Helen, as apparently they were not very close.
* Kent possibly mentored Jack Lansing and had encounters with John Sargent, Gregorio de la Vega, and Davy Tenzer.
* Wotan's allies were a team called Tartarus, which included Per Degaton, Ian Karkull, Stanley Dover Sr, Felix Faust, Tala, and Klarion.

## Notes

* His civilian look is based on Pierce Brosnan in the *Black Adam* film.
* His birthday is his birthday on the old DC Universe Calendar.