Inza Nelson
45 years ago - Inza Cramer is born.
27 years ago - 18-year-old Inza begins studying archaeology.
23 years ago - 22-year-old Inza begins her graduate work in anthropology and comparative mythology.
19 years ago - 26-year-old Inza begins her doctorate work studying the lords of order & chaos.
17 years ago - 28-year-old Inza discovers Fate's Tower & convinces Kent Nelson to take her on as an apprentice & assistant. While inside the tower, her aging stops.
5 years ago - 28-year-old Inza comes under the influence of T'Giian's Amulet & leaves Fate's Tower. She joins the Justice League as a new Doctor Fate, her location hidden from Kent Nelson by T'Giian.
4 years ago - 29-year-old Inza is overwhelmed by her amulet. The Justice League find Kent Nelson in Fate's Tower. He battles Inza, saving her from T'Giian. They are married by Nabu, & return to the tower.
The mantle of Doctor Fate has passed to a lot of hosts in the comics, but out version is meant to stay firmly rooted to his original concept; keeping the Helm of Nabu in the ageless hands of its original wearer, Kent Nelson. It just makes the entire concept work so much better. Meanwhile, Kent's long-time assistant, love interest, and eventual wife Inza is a vital part of his story and is a great character for us to include... but... having her there does give us a small window to include one tiny variation in the story of Doctor Fate, letting us bring a version of the character into the modern age and the Justice League.
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The Female Doctor Fate's Comic HistoryWhile Doctor Fate is an extremely long-running character in DC's mythology, Kent Nelson was his alter ego for the vast bulk of his existence. The very first characters to wield the helm of Nabu after the death of Kent Nelson were Eric Strauss and his stepmother Linda, both of whom could take on the role of Doctor Fate. They were created by J. M. DeMatteis in 1987. Their book was aggressively esoteric, pretty clearly inspired by the increasing popularity of the new influx of british writers that would fuel DC's Vertigo books. The relationship between Linda and Eric was problematic at best... basically a collection of the most cringy possible versions of a mother-son relationship.
After Eric and Linda, the very next character to wield Doctor Fate's helmet was Inza Nelson, the long-time love interest of Kent Nelson. This was a pretty profoundly innovative idea, like making Lois Lane the new Superman. The story was wrought with a lot of cool intrigue as Inza was a far more chaotic wielder of the magic of Nabu, who is usually defined as being a Lord of Order. Ultimately, it was revealed that she was actually not wielding the power of Nabu at all, but a Lord of Chaos named T'Giian. This is a very cool story idea, and one we're absolutely going to use. |
Our Inza Nelson StoryOne of the reasons Kent Nelson needs to be THE Doctor Fat is because he went through so much to earn the role. Nelson was raised by Nabu, studied from within a timeless vortex for decades. If anyone else is ever going to become Doctor Fate, then she needs to have a similarly complex experience earning the title.
Our version of Inza is an anthropologist whose research leads her to study the Lords of Order & Chaos, which in turn leads her to Kent. She's proactive. She chooses to stay with Kent as a student first, chooses to learn the magics of Fate. In this way she isa formidable sorcerer in her own right., even before she is influence by T'Giian and chooses to leave the Tower of Fate, becoming a new Doctor Fate as a member of the Justice League, The story of her slowly succumbing to the magic of T'Giian, requiring the League to reach out to Nelson to save her becomes a much better story because Inza has established herself as an incredibly potent user of magic, on par with Kent himself. Moving forward, while Inza has wielded the mantle of Doctor Fate, she is likely not going to do it again. That title belongs to Kent. Both she and her now-husband are devoted to the Tower and do not often interact with the outside world. Still, this small period of her story gives us an awesome piece of the history of the Justice League. |
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