Rose Psychic
1899 - The Whateley Cult kidnaps a pair of orphaned children to sacrifice, hoping to usher in a dawn of a new dark age. They are saved by the surviving members of the Order of Seven, who take them in to train as their successors. They are named Richard and Rose, but are also given titles within the Order, which translate to Occult and Psychic.
1915 -16-year-old Rose Psychic enrolls early in Boston University, studying applied statistics & data analysis, subjects she'd already mastered during her training under the Order of Seven.
1919 - 20-year-old Rose Psychic & Richard Occult are entrusted with the Seals of Naos, magical talismans that allow them to access the full magical power of the Order as the remaining members transcend the plane, leaving them as the only remaining members of the Order.
1921 - 22-year-old Rose Psychic & Richard Occult first meet Jenny Sparks, assisting her on a series of outlandish adventures.
1923 - 24-year-old Rose Psychic & Richard Occult first open the Occult Detective Agency. Rose chooses to act as his assistant, so she can be an equal participant.
1939 - 40-year-old Rose Psychic manages to smuggle Richard Occult into Budapest when he is severely injured attempting to hold back Germany's invasion of Poland.
1943 - 44-year-old Rose Psychic & Richard Occult are summoned by Madame Xanadu to join the 3rd Shadowpact.
48 years ago - Rose Psychic becomes the primary detective in the Occult Detective Agency, as Richard Occult becomes a founding member of Jenny Sparks Stormwatch, preferring the quiet of a good mystery.
40 years ago - Rose Psychic inherits the Occult Detective Agency in its entirety when Richard Occult is killed. She begins traversing the Paths Beyond, looking for methods to restore him.
27 years ago - Rose Psychic sacrifices her Seal of Naos in a ritual to restore Richard Occult's soul. She chooses to solely occupy the Paths Beyond, allowing Richard to occupy their body when they walk the material plane.
15 years ago - Rose Psychic warns Richard Occult through their connection that Felix Faust is amassing power in hell by summoning the Demons Three. He is assisted by the Justice League in stopping him.
The role of 'hero's female assistant' seems like it's often a thankless one. There are exceptions, but they very rarely seem to develop enough agency to really be considered characters on their own. In this case, however, I think that the bond between these two characters that has evolved over time is depicting something that feels very organically equal. You get the sense that these two people very much feel connected to each other... in some ways more than others.
Rose Psychic's Comic HistoryThe Doctor Occult stories that started appearing in More Fun Comics in 1935 were one page per issue, so it was pretty much consistently one cliffhanger after another. In the first story, Doctor Occult is trying to trap a vampire who is menacing the wife of a client (as one does), so he secures her in a private sanitarium (!) and places his lovely assistant Rose in her place. but when the vampire appears his magical talisman had no effect on it! What's going to happen.
It's not until the next issue that we see exactly what happens. Rose shoots it. I know this feels like a minor detail, but this is actually a really unprecedented amount of agency for the hero's female assistant to have, particularly in 1935. She doesn't have a ton of further appearances in the classic More Fun stories, and the ones we get depict her as a more traditional pseudo-companion for Occult, but that initial cliffhanger, I think, sets her up as a character meant to play a larger role in the story than you expect. Doctor Occult's return to publication in the 80s didn't necessarily lead to a return for Rose at first, although when his history was expanded in Secret Origin, we learn that both characters underwent the same magical training since childhood. Then, in the Books of Magic, we see the Doctor pass through a gateway to enter the Fae Lands, and in doing so changes INTO Rose. This suddenly established precedent opened the door to all sorts of possibility for both characters. |
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Our Rose Psychic StoryIt wasn't originally the case, but as Doctor Occult has been subtly reimagined, his ties to Rose have become more and more the center of who he is. Not necessarily in a traditional romantic sense... They have sometimes been depicted as romantic, but their updated origin establishing that they are basically raised together since infancy should be enough to end that whole idea. In it's place, we get the idea that they were a side-by-side partnership. That she only assumed the role of his assistant because it would allow her to participate equally in all their cases. As we built out their timeline we essentially have them right alongside each other the whole time. We don't have her join him on Stormwatch, since it doesn't really seem to be her thing, but her story gets really interesting after Richard's death.
She's our explanation for how they wound up magically sharing a body. It's something she actively sought out, something she sacrificed for him. I do like the idea that, given the choice of walking either the Material Plane or the Paths Beyond she chose the latter, giving Doctor Occult access to the former. I love that this connection isn't coming from any sort of selfish need, it's just two people who have been deeply bonded their entire life choosing to continue that bond. Rose is a really cool part of Doctor Occult's story, so much so that she's amost the most interesting thing about him! |
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