Doctor Occult
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Doctor Occult is a fictional magic user in the DC Comics universe. He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, best known for creating Superman.
He first appeared in New Fun Comics #6 in 1935. He was a supernatural detective, whose detecting style was very much in the style of Sam Spade, only with minor supernatural abilities. Later in the series he acquired a girlfriend/partner called Rose Psychic.
In one story, Doctor Occult travels to a mystic realm, where he flies and wears a cape. This may have been an early try-out for the appearance of Superman. This story also introduced the Seven, a group of mystics who would later be retconned into having raised Richard Occult and Rose Psychic.
Doctor Occult made his last appearance in New Fun Comics in 1938. He next appeared in All-Star Squadron, a World War II set title written in 1985. Unlike some of the other Golden Age characters Roy Thomas resurrected in that book, this did not lead to a renaissance for the character, possibly because he was actually pre-Golden Age, and possibly because he joined around the time the book was being affected by the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
In 1991 Neil Gaiman brought the character back to public awareness, when he featured him in the miniseries The Books of Magic. In the third issue he acts as Tim Hunter's guide to otherworlds. When visiting Faerie, he transforms into Rose, something that is not explained in the story. Later stories would continue the idea of Occult and Rose Psychic being one. Eventually, in the miniseries The Return of the Justice Society it would be explained that Doctor Occult was killed in battle with an otherworldly entity, and Rose bonded their souls together to save him.
Doctor Occult is currently one of the Sentinels of Magic, a group created to prevent artifacts such as the Spear of Destiny falling into the wrong hands. He is also a JSA reservist and a member of the loose affiliation John Constantine calls "The Trenchcoat Brigade".
Categories: Fictional magicians | Fictional detectives | All-Star Squadron members | DC Comics titles | Vertigo titles | Sentinels of Magic members
