Thursday, March 8, 2018

Superman Meets Doctor Fate

To be fair, Superman and Doctor Fate met before, when it was a big Crisis between Earths, in team-ups of the Justice League and Justice Society of America.....

....but, there were a couple of times where Superman needed help with a mystical menace, and when he did, it was time for him to put in a call for the Doctor (Fate, of course!).

World's Finest Comics #208

The first time was in World's Finest Comics #208 (December, 1971) by Len Wein and Dick Dillin (under a stunning Neal Adams cover), where the duo faced the "Peril Of The Planet-Smashers!".

Superman, feeling a little vulnerable after an encounter with magic in the previous issue goes for help....from Zatanna, who is unable to provide it.  So, the Man of Steel crosses the dimensional boundaries from Earth-1 to Earth-2, to meet with Doctor Fate, who is having his own problems with an alien patient of Ghan Uu.  Ghan and two of his fellow Buudak sorcerers planned to mash together Earth's continents to release the magical energy to get them to their version of Nirvana....destroying Earth-2.  Superman and Doctor Fate fight them at Stonehenge and a Mayan Temple, but combine forces at the Lost Valley of Ur to keep them from succeeding in their plan, finding that Superman's vulnerability to magic was an asset (so that, after this battle is over, he does not get Doctor Fate's help in removing his magic vulnerability).

DC Comics Presents #23

The second of the two solo meetings of the Man of Steel and the Mystic Mage happened in DC Comics Presents #23 (July, 1980) by Denny O'Neil, Joe Staton and Vince Colletta, with a cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano, with the pair dealing with "The Curse Out Of Time!"

This time around, the action starts with Doctor Fate in his mystic fortress in Salem, trying to find a cure for a curse his wife, Inza Nelson, is suffering from, that manifested from one of her pirate ancestors.  Using magic to track down Captain Ezra Hawkins and his ship, which fades out of view as they find it.  Meanwhile, on Earth-1's Metropolis, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane are at S.T.A.R. Labs, where an experiment...materializes that pirate ship!  Superman shows up to deal with the danger, but, after the pirates capture Lois Lane with magical aid, is forced to take them to plunder his city,  While headed to where the ship ended up, Doctor Fate battles El Muchacho, the imp who put the curse on Hawkins and imbued them with magic and captures him.  Doctor Fate arrives in Metropolis, saves Superman and Lois, and returns the ship to its own time.  All of which was enough to remove the curse from Inza!  

All of which shows that a superhero can benefit from magic, as much as magic can benefit a superhero (as Doctor Fate's previous partner, Hourman, can also attest to!).

No comments:

Post a Comment