The Infitalization of Dr. Fate
Im really glad that more and more people are taking notice of the characterization surrounding Khalid Nassour’s Doctor Fate. Since James Tynions/Ram V’s exit on the character in Justice League Dark, various writers tackle the character and there’s always a consistent type of deviation. This post will aim to encompass all the problems recognized in my personal opinion.
Source: The New Golden Age #1
Let’s start off talking about Nassour’s design and NO, i’m not talking about him as Doctor Fate. I’m talking about his civies design. If one looks at Khalid’s character throughout his publication, he is drawn a bit young. To be honest, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. People don’t “look” their age and it’s pretty common to think early-mid 20s people are still high schoolers.
(The author of this post, me, has dealt with this and now I’m 39. I maybe get guessed around my age like 3 years ago.)
The design itself isn’t the focus but what it encompasses. The images above are Khalid & Kent in the same stage in their life (roughly; Kent is in his 20s in 1940s according to the Doctor Fate v2 confirming his new body is modeled after how he was was when he first was Fate, considering himself 25). Yet Kent looks older & more mature. One key difference between Kent & Khalid is the lather’s youth is always emphasized.
Now looking at them as Doctor Fate, heres something to note: while the same age, Kent exhibits a classic superhero build but Khalid does not. Part of this was intentional from Levitz’s conception to make him stand out as more average so it’s not a bad thing inherently either
Here’s where i’m going at with this: Khalid’s design does not give him credit for the image of Doctor Fate as DC has it & there’s two caveats as to why I believe this:
Every other male Doctor Fate is blessed with a hero physique. This is the SAME mantle where an infant (Hector), a 10 year old (Kent), a 12 year old (Eric), and a homeless man (Kent V.) manage to retain a muscular build as Doctor Fate & its intentional even story wise in preparation to handle the stress of the role. That’s literally all the white male Doctor Fates. No matter how good-intentioned Khalid’s unique design as a normal person is, this omission of this reoccurring elements for him shows DC is going to inherently treat him different
When it comes to incarnations such as Hector & Kent, the focus on their character is being a premier superhero. Thus, they tend to be drawn more mature to emphasize this regardless of what life stage they are & their actual ability at a given time. Conversely, Khalid’s youth by Johns & Lemiere especially was the first thing they point out.
With this in mind, is it any surprise Khalid is treated more akin to a teenager or young adult rather than someone who graduate college and medical school?
In my opinion, Nassour’s design itself is a disservice in context of the Doctor Fates mantle. This could be mitigated by giving him a tone appearance or simply ensuring the writing instead recognizes, remembers, and doesn’t disservice the character regularly. But that leads into my next point.
Another point of contention is the constantly calling him a “child”, “kid” or “boy”, the last sounding like every villain that meets Khalid has played God of War & does their best Kratos impression. Again, in a mantle where 3 white men got aged up into the Doctor Fates mantle from being literal minors, the only PoC who became a hero into adulthood is regarded childishly?
Source: I ain’t listing all dat
And it’s repeated. I’ve seen discussions about this and a lot attribute to Lemeire & Johns doing this but if we’re being honest, any writer who has written has done this. Ram V & Bendis are guilty of doing this too. Its a reoccurring thing for every villain Khalid encounters himself to primarily equate him to a child or baby. You even have WONDER WOMAN call him a TEENAGER. And this is only a small listing from about 3-4 comics.
It doesn’t matter if it’s villains or characters older than him doing this, especially when Kendra & Jakeem are calling him kids (in two different contexts) & he’s older than BOTH of them. Writers behind Khalid feel the constant need to remind us of his youthfulness but find yourself a page of Kent or Hector or Kent V or even Eric getting this. It’s not as frequent, prevalent, nor does it magically encompass every MAJOR portrayal of the character.
“New” and “Inexperienced”
DC Infinite Encyclopedia: While not making him as wildly powerful as previous Doctor Fates in other realities, Nassour could still fly, control wind and rain, and fire magical bolts of energy.
Lemiere: So He's a lot of fun.I think what makes him so unique from the other Fates is that he's not really in complete control of his power yet. It's still all very new to him, and he's still sort of figuring it out. And there's a lot of insecurity that comes with that and with his age. — Source (2023)
Another hard hitting point is the additional emphasis that Khalid is always the "new" and "inexperienced" Doctor Fate. What's odd about this crutch is that the character is about to be 10 years old and he's still the "new" Doctor Fate? In the eyes of DC writers and media, Kent is always the default even if he spends a great deal of time being DEAD and appearing in stories taking place in the past. Only from 2015-2018 was he a active Doctor Fate in recent publication history.
Then there's inexperience. How is it Kent's current origin grants him insta-knowledge and mastery of magic but Khalid is always stuck somehow learning or re-learning lessons? How does Kent V. go from being the only Doctor Fate to ever get KOed via gun to Sorcerer Supreme? Why does Hector get to be a "novice" that beat the most powerful black magic user in DC (Mordru)?
It's mighty funny how Khalid is always inexperienced and stumbles, needing some kind of assistance, lt follow this ridiculous trend with PoC legacy characters that they have to work for EVERYTHING the ground up to look "legitimate" while their white predecessors can be hand-given everything to look cool.
(see Miles Morales, Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz)
Im sure fans of Constantine, Zatanna, and Wonder Woman enjoy the characterization and appearances within the Justice League Dark title and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. BUT it definitely did Khalid no favors. The crutch of JLD stories always tends to focus these three at the expense of the only identifiable PoC on the team. And he’s often regulated to being in the background instead of serving as a Powerhouse, which is considered Swamp Thing (ALEC’s version. Levi gets curved too).
In 2022 & 2023, only these characters played a role in various crossovers from the magical side while Khalid only appeared in the background once or twice with no real contribution, taken off the board off screen, or wasn’t even there. Hell, Mark Waid will absolutely pull out Kent Nelson in flashback stories or Doctor OCCULT from the bowels of irrelevancy but Khalid doesn’t show up for anything but group shots.
He can’t even serve in the intended narrative role for Doctor Fate because it’s redundant to be a go-to mystic expert when Zatanna & Constantine, more highly profiled characters, serve that role. And it’s a missed opportunity. I’m not saying don’t use the characters or that Khalid solely should just be wedged in it because numerous characters deserve a spotlight (Traci 13. Manitou Dawn. Bloodwynd.) & having that small crop a of go-to experts sounds illogical anyway.
Pivoting back to my point, it just seems like Khalid is just background filler and makes cameos just so DC looks like a universe but just focuses on the same set of characters.
Between his design, characterization in relation to others, and being regulated to the background, I think there’s a strong case to argue that Khalid’s character is infantalized often. And it’s a shame because he’s a fun and interesting character.
Maybe down the line, someone in DC will pick up on this or a media adaptation will make way for him to get treated with the respect and agency in writing that he deserves.
