Doctor Fate is one of DC Comics’ oldest superheroes, but his best costume was inspired by an even older hero. That would be Doc Savage, the proto-superhero appearing in the pulp magazines of the early twentieth century.
Created in 1933, Doc Savage was the original “genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist.” A renaissance man who was the master of many disciplines, Doc Savage routinely got into adventures with his team of scientist-adventurers. With a pulp magazine running for 181 issues, Doc Savage became one of the most popular fictional characters of his day. After the pulps went away in the late forties and fifties, Doc Savage was brought back in the sixties via a series of paperback reprints, reigniting the character’s popularity for a whole new generation. Although his popularity has since waned again, Doc Savage continues to appear in comics and novels thanks to a small but devoted fan-base who have kept his memory alive throughout the decades.
When crafting the post-war, art deco world of Earth-20 for their epic Multiversity series for DC in 2014, Grant Morrison went back to the source and looked to those old pulps for inspiration. Chronicled in The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes by Morrison and artist Chris Sprouse, Earth-20 is a world in the DC Multiverse where society is rebuilding itself after a massive, WWII-style conflict. Taking place in a kind of perpetual 1950’s setting, Earth-20 primarily features variations on DC characters from the Golden Age of comics. One of the biggest heroes of this world is Doc Fate, a version of the classic mystic hero Doctor Fate, who has one of the most distinctive superhero costumes of all time. In their recent annotations to The Multiversity posted to their Substack newsletter, Grant Morrison reveals that this version of the character was very much an homage to Doc Savage.
Doc Fate’s costume definitely evokes the classic “Boys’ Adventure” tone frequently found in the pulps, which would go on to influence everything from James Bond to Indiana Jones. Says Morrison: “The helmet, amulet and gloves belong to Fate, the jodhpurs and boots come courtesy of Doc, while the tunic is reminiscent of Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer.” It’s an appropriate jumping-off point to start with in creating the character, considering that so much of the Doc Savage mythos directly influenced the comic book superheroes that followed in his wake. For instance, Doc Savage was known as the “Man of Bronze,” a nickname that clearly influenced Superman’s later moniker as the “Man of Steel.” Even Doc’s mastery of various disciplines went on to influence characters like Batman, who trains himself to be the best at everything.
Perhaps most interestingly, Morrison makes this version of Doc Fate a Black man, allowing the creators to provide commentary on the more problematic aspects found in many old pulp stories, which were frequently racist and filled with unfortunate stereotypes. “We hint at the prejudice which still exists in the post-war world of (Earth-20),” Morrison explains, “Doc Fate, this wealthy, acclaimed, brave and learned defender of souls, noted for saving lives and battling the forces of evil, still hides his face behind a helmet and his hands beneath gloves so as not to alienate a white majority.”
Whatever the case, there is no question that the best variation on the classic Doctor Fate costume is the Doc Savage-inspired look of Doc Fate. With any luck, DC Comics will bring this version of the character back sometime soon in the near future.
