The Shadows of Dead Men!

"Astrology, science—all the arts were known perfectly! That those Egyptians knew what our present scientists do not is unthinkable! I've a theory that people from another planet built them!" —Gardner Fox, Dr. Fate (1940)

The ancient astronaut theory that humans were seeded here by ancient extraterrestrial visitors, or at the very least aided in tiny, meaningful ways—like helping them build the EFFING PYRAMIDS—is well known, and was first popularized by the admittedly groundbreaking book Chariots of the Gods (1968) by the very controversial Swiss author Erich von Däniken. The idea has taken on a life of its own in the intervening years, giving birth to countless documentaries and television shows, and imitations of von Däniken's original work.

The work of influential linguist and ancient astronaut theorist Zechariah Sitchin—who was one of the few authorities that could translate the ancient cuneiform tablets of Sumer (ancient Persia and Iraq)—devised a theory of a trans-Neptunian planet, "Nibiru," so named by the ancients, from which ancient "Annunaki" visitors came—who were most likely blue-blooded, shape-shifting reptoid Zionists operating a global conspiracy that only Alex Jones, David Icke, and a legion of internet Reddit users could understand. (Okay, I might have been teasing a bit there, but you get the picture.)

Of course, there are echoes of it as early as Charles Fort and H.P. Lovecraft. Fort theorized such an invasive, watchful species of benevolent E.T.s from the "Super-Sargasso Sea" who were watching over mankind as—H.G. Wells put it—with intellects “vast, cool, and unsympathetic.” Lovecraft suggested his mummies in "The Nameless City" (1921) were mummified, desiccated alien corpses of the first builders of a great civilization, long banished into the dust (but then, his entire mythos—his cosmology of Cthulhu—really suggests this).

Dr. Fate, a comic book superhero with a bell-shaped golden helmet (really a bad-ridiculous costume from a 1940s sci-fi comic, being exactly what it is) and an ankh on his chest, was revived numerous times but never quite solidified permanently in the same way as the Man of Steel or the Dark Knight. Written by Gardner Fox with artist Howard Sherman, Dr. Fate proves that the Chariots of the Gods were flying high long before von Däniken set sights on them.

The Shadows of Dead Men

Dr. Fate is the superhero name of Kent V. Nelson (interesting that he should, coincidentally, have the Roman numeral "five" as his middle initial—enigma of 23?), in issue number FIFTY-FIVE (there it is again) of More Fun Comics (1940), a DC title from the Golden Age of crude nickel-and-dime artwork, wildly wonky stories, and incessant moralizing (this would later transform into propaganda in a cape after Pearl Harbor—not that that was wrong, given the existential crisis of the war, just making an observation).

Dr. Fate/Nelson and his short initial saga strike one because of Sherman's thick black line work, but what really impresses is the fact that Nelson goes with Dad to an ancient pyramid while theorizing that such structures could not have been built by the ancient Egyptians themselves. While exploring, young Nelson finds an ancient sarcophagus with a tall body inside, still preserved perfectly, standing erect. This is Nabu. Pulling a lever at the bottom—because Nabu can communicate with him clairaudiently—he releases a deadly gas that kills Dad. In grief, Nabu, who lives again, takes him on as an apprentice, but proves a cold, uncompromising taskmaster.

Nelson learns to levitate and lift rocks à la Luke Skywalker when he went to take ballet lessons from Master Yoda in the Dagobah System. Next, he is a tenured professor with a girlfriend named Inza Cramer (name is a hint at Inca, I think) who attends a party with a man who looks as if he's worried all to hell. Apparently, "shadows of dead men" are haunting him, tormenting him. Something about reincarnation. Maybe these are the ghosts of his past lives come back to him.

Dr. Fate intervenes in this situation, dragging Inza down to the sepulchral bowels of Hell (or Hades, or some sort of underworld), where the giant demon NERGAL awaits. (A name also found in The Satanic Bible, incidentally.)

Tall, demonic spirit or not, Dr. Fate puts that devilish sonofabitch in place, knocking him off his skull-adorned throne (Inza comments on just how amazingly gruesome the Realm of the Dead is, as if she's simply observing an untidy apartment).

I've given you the most memorable aspects of Dr. Fate and his DC origin from DC Origins. The book itself—which features origin stories of Batman-Superman's team-up, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, The Green Arrow, Aquaman, and more obscure characters such as Adam Strange, Manhunter from Mars, and, of course, Dr. Fate—is teeming with that high cloying funk of fast-crumbling newsprint, but reprinted on modern slick paper with heavy color saturation, making those old panels ring with the brightness of a thousand suns, a million ingots of gold, or a glowing, trans-Neptunian space cruiser, come here when man still swung, Tarzan-like, through desert trees.

Yeah, that's the way it was. Trees. In the desert. You know it, babe.

Keep watching the skies. And keep reading the 'toons.

Out.

Post-Script: Besides introducing pre-WW2 era tots to the Ancient Astronaut Theory, Dr. Fate was also instrumental in helping to form the JLA--Justice League of America.

Follow me on Twitter/X: @BakerB81252