Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club

DOCTOR FATE versus THE SPECTRE

A Spectre is Haunting the Multiverse! (DC)
Where: All-Star Squadron #27 When: November 1983 Why: Roy Thomas How: Richard Howell

The Story So Far...
While The Atom lies in a hospital bed suffering unknown side effects from absorbing the radiation of Cyclotron, his comrade at arms, Doctor Fate, continues their search for missing teammate - The Spectre!

Using Wonder Woman's electro-magic sphere, the Justice Society is able to witness Doctor Fate's journey beneath the great lakes of Cliffland, where he found The Spectre's mortal host Jim Corrigan suspended in animation.

The magic of Nabu's Helmet and The Amulet of Anubis flow through the lifeless police detective, who rises to point the way through an inter-dimensional portal to a place beyond the sea of worlds where The Spectre stands vigil at the door of a mysterious crypt!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Doctor Fate 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Spectre 7 (Omnipotent)
Speed: Spectre 7 (Lightspeed)
Stamina: Spectre 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Spectre 7 (Unlimited)
Fighting: Draw 3 (Street Wise)
Energy: Draw 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Spectre 41 (Omnipotent)

Doctor Fate is Kent Nelson: wearer of the Helmet of Fate and an agent of Nabu & The Lords of Order.

His mystical domain concerns the very balance of reality, and grants him access to ancient magical wisdoms, perception, and spells. This includes the powers of The Amulet of Anubis and Cloak of Destiny, which grants him levitation and physical invulnerability even without his helmet!

Nelson's physical prowess was on display when he withstood battle with Hawkman while wearing a replacement half-helmet in All-Star Squadron #4, and when he absorbed the super-human blows of Ultraman in All-Star Squadron #15.

The Spectre is a divine spirit of vengeance usually bound to a mortal host, Detective Jim Corrigan, but now moves untethered to access the fullest of his powers and fury with total discretion.

Typically The Spectre is a grim force for good, turning bitter ironies against evil doers deserving of vengeance. That which can be imagined is within The Spectre's means, as when he disintegrated Black Hand's offending fist while bound to the spirit of Hal Jordan in Green Lantern: Rebirth #1.

The Spectre is also a defender against dark magics, fighting alongside Doctor Fate and the Justice Society of America against the eldritch horror of Morgauth in JSA Strange Adventures #1, and removing the influence of Eclipso from Superman during Superman #216.

These are two of the most awesome and esoteric magical forces in the DC Universe -- how can we possibly hope to quantify their unfathomable powers? The only way to find out is to see what happened!

The Tape: The Spectre Ranking: The Spectre (#100)

What Went Down...

With a simple gesture The Spectre succeeds where words have failed -- suspending Doctor Fate in the gaping void that overlooks the threshold of a mysterious stone structure. He orders his teammate to leave.

Stunned by the ease of Spectre's magic, Doctor Fate relishes the opportunity to learn who is the greater mage between the two.

He breaks the hold, splitting his energy into four fearsome Fates!

This time it's The Spectre's turn to be impressed by the magical display, unable to divide himself and "still retain ectoplasm enough to oppose the real one!"

While The Spectre stands at the door grappling with copies, the real Doctor Fate glides through the stone walled structure to discover the sleeping form of Kulak - High Priest of Brztal!

Fate scans the malevolent mystic's mind, witnessing the horrifying collapse of untold worlds and civilizations -- all ripped apart by Kulak's spells of hatred until The Spectre intervened with the Ring of Life!

The Doctor sees the glowing scarlet ring now on Kulak's hand, but before he can reclaim it -- a gigantic green fist bursts through the wall to seize him!

A giant-sized Spectre pulls his erstwhile friend through the wall and warns him to cease his trespass and return to the mortal world.

"In the world of mere men you are feared -- but here you are only one more worm to be trampled underfoot -- or squashed by a far mightier hand! Swear to depart and never return -- and I shall release you!"

Doctor Fate defiantly refuses to leave, bursting free of The Spectre's grip and mystically matching -- and exceeding -- his titanic size!

The lord of order now grips his opponent in his hand and demands to know if it is truly the will of The Spectre to defy him -- or if Kulak indeed sways his fate.

In an instant The Spectre is free and again facing his old teammate eye to eye, but not as an equal -- or so he claims!

"Equals? Hardly! You are a lord of order, incarnated in the human form of Kent Nelson -- and that is your weakness. I am man's spirit -- freed of all corporeal restraints when I am not in Jim Corrigan's body -- and that is my strength! Do not force me, wizard -- to kill you!"

A mystic bolt deflects from Spectre's chest as the powerful pair each grab for the other's wrist. Doctor Fate knows Kulak has turn his friend into a killer.

Despite his cold resolve, Spectre confesses a warmth in his unbeating heart for Fate -- even as his awesome magic drives the Doctor to his backside.

Unwilling to concede, Doctor Fate invokes the immortal might of Nabu the Wise: "-- but Doctor Fate is more than a man!"

In desperation he conjures a portal to The Netherworlds, calling forth a hideous green squid-like behemoth to attack The Spectre in his stead!

Spectre bats away the eldritch horror's squirming limbs, but its spiked tail becomes his true concern as it swings dangerously against the tomb of Kulak.

Like a deft hand-to-hand combatant, Spectre swings around the beast and squeezes his arm beneath the creature's head. The tightening chokehold delivers it back to the hellscape it was spawned from.

It leaves only Doctor Fate to stand alone against the death gaze of The Spectre!

The unfettered wrath of The Spectre engulfs Doctor Fate as his stone cold stare unleashes occult forces that would kill an ordinary man. Instead, Kent Nelson is sent tumbling through realities untold -- lost amidst an "infinity of dimensions".

The Hammer...

The magician is condemned to fall uncontrollably through a multiverse of realities to the "end of unrecorded time", likely to return to the world he knows once its reduced to "a dead husk, barren of life and meaning for a billion billion years!"

The Spectre's mildly petulant victory is short-lived, however, as the tomb he's guarding begins to bulge and glow with energy -- exploding behind him to reveal the awakened might of Kulak!

The High Priest of Brztal quickly dominates the vengeful spirit, but that's a fight for another day. For now let us simply take in the stunning defeat of Doctor Fate and the awesome display of supernatural sorcery from the DC Universe.

I tend to think of these characters as more complex and esoteric than they are, but this battle is a nice reminder that for all their awesome powers, they are combatants in the same arena of good versus evil as any other character. They just go about it in a slightly different, more imaginative way.

It won't surprise you to know this has been one of the battles on my desk for quite some time. I've been eager to get to it. Checking off a few other All-Star Squadron issues along the way, but never forgetting this engaging dream match!

As I've waxed in the past: there's an innate "cool factor" with these characters, levied off the back of strong visual designs by original Golden Age artists, and a sense of awe and wonder about the incredible scope of their potential.

The Helmet of Fate is one of DC's most striking images and it's been little surprise that the character has been embraced by moviegoing audiences enticed by the simple visual of Pierce Brosnan's portrayal in Black Adam. I'm not sure why the live-action version lost his eye holes, but at least they got the basics right.

There may be inevitable confusion and comparisons with Marvel's theatrical forebear, Doctor Strange, but as we all know, Doctor Fate predates Marvel's magician by a good twenty-three years, and commands an aura of mystique all his own, with far greater connections to Nabu, and the all-seeing Lords of Order.

The characters do work well as general counterparts. A fact played up with the creation of Doctor Strangefate during DC and Marvel's joint venture of Amalgam Comics: hybrid creations based on an iconic character from each company. 

Otherwise, they're quite different, even if we might see the cinematic Strange borrow a page from Fate, as in the spell to split himself into multiple incarnations, as we saw early in today's featured fight!

If you'd like to find more battles with magic or Golden Age icons you can find them all by diving into the arcane Secret Archive! That's where you'll find a complete index of featured fights in order of publisher, series, and issue!

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured more than 700 battles and ranked  well over 1,000 characters! If you like what we're all about and want to see more you can help make that happen by becoming a Patreon supporter!

Patrons help keep projects like this up and running, and as a gesture of gratitude you'll unlock additional updates, options to sponsor article content, including featured fights and Top 10 lists based on the Fight Club Rankings. Keep reading to the bottom of this page to check out today's major rankings update!

Get daily links to fights inspired by the topics of the day by subscribing via Twitter and Facebook, or become a follower on Patreon to get free public updates. Don't forget to smash that like, fave, and share -- and keep your eyes peeled for the week's top trending battles every Sunday on Twitter & Patreon!

Winner: The Spectre
#60 (+40) The Spectre
#353 (-193) Doctor Fate