Doctor Fate #1-4 (July-October, 1987)

Doctor Fate is sort of like if you combined Merlin with Lancelot for the super-hero set, as the wizard/knight battles the forces of capitol-c Chaos from the Golden Age to the present. However, the toll has prematurely aged the human host of the Lord of Order, Nabu. Kent Nelson is dying, his wife Inza is already dead, and the other Lords of Order have decided to write-off the current existence to speed up the cycle of waxing darkness eventually turning back to light. Nabu refuses to comply, and has already picked his next host. As with Kent Nelson, Nabu has prepped a preternaturally mature and mystically adept 10-year-old boy for the role. Things debatably go awry for Eric Strauss, who is insta-grown into an adult, but captured and institutionalized by bad guy Typhon and his own human host, Doctor Benjamin Stoner. It does serve his stepmother Linda well though, as she'd felt "demented" over her romantic feelings toward the boy-turned-man, and that had led her to team-up with Kent Nelson to rescue the now strapping young lad. The experience also made Eric finally ready to embrace his new role (though not yet his-- er-- mama? In the '70s jive sense?)

The connection to Justice League International is modest, and takes place in the third issue. The Helm of Fate was compromised, and donned by Stoner as he created barely elaborated upon global havoc in service to Chaos. The Phantom Stranger aims to address the matter of this "Anti-Fate," using JLI members Batman, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Mister Miracle, and Martian Manhunter as pawns against the new, evil Dr. Fate. The front half of that line-up appeared to die violently in the attempt, but Martian telepathy knew otherwise, and urged Mr. Miracle to relent in further pursuing the matter. Before being teleported away, the Sleuth from Outer Space assured, "We haven't failed. We're doing what we're supposed to do." Spoken like a career jobber. The Phantom Stranger served similarly, seeming to perish while biding time for Eric, Linda, Kent, and especially Nabu to get their acts together. Eventually, a gestalt entity of the Strausses is required to form a new Doctor Fate, who reclaims their mantle, and exorcises Typhon from Stoner. Kent Nelson moves on to the afterlife, but Nabu retains use of the body, to mentor the Strausses.

Without doing any research, my guess is that Doctor Fate was given a mini-series mostly as a "bold new direction" spin-off from Legends, with a side benefit of supporting and expounding upon the Justice League relaunch (arriving between #'s 3-4.) My first significant exposure to both Fate and Keith Giffen was in a back-up from The Flash #308, the only issue of that volume that I bought new, owing heavily to the novel parallel narrative of the lead feature (with wildly enhancing inks of the little-remembered Dennis Jensen over the usually repellent Carmine Infantino.) My uncle was a big Doctor Strange fan who'd left me dozens of his non-Brunner/BWS issues, so it was kind of neat seeing that type of metaphysical action rendered in a style owing more to Kirby than Ditko. Not enough to get me back for more, but I did buy the Super Powers Collection action figure with its own mini-comic. Doctor Fate is one of those characters that DC sees no inherent appeal in, despite the original version having a lot going for it, so they've spent most of my life selling me lesser variations on the basic premise. I certainly count this incarnation under that heading, despite a very different incarnation of Giffen's involvement-- more or less my favorite version of Keith. David Hunt's inks are fine for the most part, but leave something to be desired at times. J.M. DeMatteis would continue solo into an ongoing series, ditching the more ominous quality here to be a quirky companion title to JLI. I'm glad to have finally knocked this one out after all these years of putting it off, and it was quite easy compared to The Weird, but neither are staying in my collection now. I did like Giffen's visual take on the Alien Atlas, though.