JSA Legacies Project Day 2: Dr Fate #JSApril
The Justice Society of America made their debut in All- Star Comics #3 in 85 years ago. In celebration, the folks over at Fire and Water Podcasting Network have assembled bloggers, podcasters, and many more creators to honor the world’s first superhero team. Find the full list of participants and more over at Fire and Water Network’s webpage
For JSApril, I have decided to contribute my art skills to honor a team that means a lot to me. Alongside the X-Men, the Justice Society is my favorite superhero team. The main things I love about the team is that they are a family. As much as they may bicker and squabble, at the end of the day they love and respect each other. Additionally, I find the JSA exemplifies my favorite part of DC comics and that’s LEGACY. So for fifteen days this month I will be posting watercolor art showing the legacy of the Justice Society of America.
Dr. Fate
Dr. Fate is DC’s resident mystic arts expert. Over the years there have been several Dr. Fates with the classic being Kent Nelson. Nelson, like many of the original Justice Society members, would die during the Zero Hour event. This would lead to a new take on Dr. Fate in the 90’s with Jared Stevens as Fate.
The 90’s sicko in me was tempted to include Fate here but I decided to instead include the current Dr. Fate, Khalid Nassour. Jared Stevens wouldn’t last long and would be replace by Infinity Inc member- Hector Hall. I don’t care for Hector either, hence his exclusion.
Anyway, the Helmet of Fate would play a large role in the mid 2000’s as Hector would die in Day of Vengeance in the lead up to Infinite Crisis and even (kind of) played a role in 52 as Ralph Dibny’s Spirit guide. Kent V. Nelson (The nephew of the original Nelson) would be Fate for a moment but as with most JSA members, it all changed in New 52 and the decision to excise JSA from Earth 1 in order to make the 5 year timeline work.
New 52 gave use Khalid Ben-Hassin but during Convergence, DCYou, Rebirth, Doomsday Clock, etc (basically all amounting to New 52 pick up) we would instead get a teen Dr. Fate in Khalid Nassour. It’s a whole thing about why its Nassour and not Ben-Hassin, and frankly I am not that driven to sort that all out at time of publication.
Ultimately, for the legacy project I chose Khalid Nassour instead of the several other Fates is two-fold. First, he is the Dr. Fate in the current JSA series by Lemire and company. Second, he provides some much needed diversity to the Justice Society and this project. With the JSA having it’s roots in comic’s golden age, it was just a lot of white, male character. This is something DC has been actively addressing even in the early All-Star Squadron days. Khalid is the first Muslim character to have his own solo series at DC. That’s huge. Also, I really liked his design and I think the character is really fun.
Anyway let’s get to some close-ups and a look at the process.
Dr. Fate (Kent Nelson)
The classic Dr. Fate. When it came time to pick the design, I wanted to capture several elements of Dr. Fate but most notably the full helmet. I do not care for the Half-Helmet era of Dr. Fate. It looks dumb, but the explanation in universe is fine.
The Process
Okay for both Nelson and Nassour the Helmet of Fate was the challenge. They both have similar helmets, but Nassour is obviously much more complex. Even the simple Helmet that Kent wears is tricky. The poses were 100 percent my own. The JSA paint job was botched due to me not using masking liquid. Lessons learned.
Dr. Fate (Khalid Nassour)
Khalid’s costume presented more challenges. Namely the folds of the neckpiece and more loose sweatshirt-like tunic. That said I found this design a lot of fun to work with. His version of the Helmet of Fate is far more complex, but at the end of the day was one I enjoyed illustrating.
The Process
For both Kent and Khalid, I debated using the Ankh imagery that is associated with Fate but I felt like I didn’t really have the space to compose their figures and the Ankh in a meaningful way without overcomplicating the design. So, I opted for purple “mystic” aura
That’s it for today’s JSApril post. Be sure to check back next time as I take a stab at Jay Garrick and his daughter Judy Garrick aka the Flash and Boom, respectively.
Social Media
You can follow along with JSApril all of the other creators on social media with #JSApril. You can always find me here or over on Bluesky and I contribute weekly to The Beat. If you are new here be sure to check out out the archives. Personally, I’m quiet proud of my History of Heroes Reborn posts. You can see my other JSApril posts here.
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