Kent Nelson was the son of an American archaeologist in the 1920s. While on an expedition to Egypt, Nelson's father opened the tomb of the wizard Nabu, and was killed for the violation. (Nabu is named after a god from Babylonian mythology. The Nabu of the DC Universe may originally been meant to be this god.) However, Nabu took pity on the orphaned Nelson and raised him himself, teaching him the skills of a wizard and bestowing upon him a mystical helm and amulet.

By 1940, Nelson had returned to the United States and housed himself in an invisible tower in Salem, Massachusetts, and embarked on a career fighting crime and supernatural evil as the hero named Doctor Fate.

Fate was a founding member of the Justice Society of America, though he left the group around 1945. As Kent Nelson, he romanced and eventually married a redheaded woman named Inza. His powers as Fate kept the two of them young through the 1980s. In 1942, he stopped wearing his full-head helm and switched to a half-helm which left his mouth and chin exposed.



It was later established through a retcon in First Issue Special

9, 1975, that the full helmet contained the personality of Nabu, who partially replaced Nelson's own personality when he donned the helmet. Switching to the half-helmet left Nelson in charge, but also stripped him of much of his sorcerous might, leaving him merely strong, tough, and able to fly, essentially a second-rate Superman. Another retcon, in All-Star Squadron
27, revealed that Fate switched to the half-helm because a supervillain stole Nabu's helm and both helm and villain were cast into an alternate dimension.

Nabu bound together a pair of humans, Eric and Linda Strauss into a new Doctor Fate, the pair merging into one being to become the hero, but otherwise living their own lives. Nabu joined them by animating Kent Nelson's corpse and referring to himself as Kent. They moved into Linda's apartment, away from the seemingly destroyed Tower of Fate, where they were soon joined by a small and kind demon dubbed Petey and the lawyer Jack C. Small.

With Nabu's teaching, the three were active for a couple of years, until Eric was killed in battle on Apokolips. However, it was not the end of the road for Eric, as his soul was placed in the dying body of Eugene DiBellia (severely injured in a car crash), the father to a cosmically important daughter named Raina (who would usher in a new age for mankind). Linda operated on her own for a while, before the mantle of Fate rejected her.

Nonetheless, the Anti-Fate (Dr. Benjamin Stoner), returned to plague her, and Linda and Nabu joined together to form Fate. Although the Anti-Fate was defeated, Linda died after the Lords of Chaos magically assaulted her before retreating. Similar to Eric, her soul was placed in the (dying) body of Wendy DiBellia (Eugene's wife who was in a coma), so that she and Eric could take care of Raina. The DiBellia couple was always fated to die, but thanks to the timely intervention of the Phantom Stranger and a character serving as the human avatar of God, Raina was not left without her caretakers.

It turned out that the Nelsons' souls still resided within Fate's amulet and they were resurrected in new, young bodies; this time, however, Inza alone was able to manifest as Doctor Fate. Kent chided Inza for what he felt was reckless use of magic but she began to work toward improving their neighbourhood.

As a female Doctor Fate, she spent a couple of years striving to improve the lot of humanity, being, unlike her husband, a proactive Dr. Fate. Her inexperience in the actual use of magicks backfired at first, but she grew into her own after some time. After only a few months to develop her skills, Inza was instrumental in the defeat of Circe in the War of the Gods saga.

However, as she developed in her magics, she also started to expand in her proactive role. She became more and more reckless in the way she used her magics. Slowly but surely the people started to become dependent on her and for every little problem called out for Dr. Fate. Instead of retreating, she made matters worse as she developed spheres that responded to the people's wishes.

The abuse of the Fate magics ended up separating Kent and Inza as they steadily found themselves opposed to one another's actions. It was then learned that a Lord of Chaos had taken residence in the Helm of Nabu and was granting Inza powers derived from Chaos instead of Order. The Lord of Chaos was also responsible for keeping Kent from merging with Inza to become the true Dr. Fate. With Kent's help the Lord of Chaos was defeated and Kent eventually returned to his wife's side. Inza then learned she drew her new powers from the people of Earth, rather than Chaos or Order.

However, Inza's continued proactive behavior caused the US government to take notice of her, as she was put on trial before Congress. After giving a stern lecture to the Congressmen, she temporarily turned them all into newts.

With the Chaos Lord defeated, the Kent and Inza began merging as the male Doctor Fate again. However, they could still form independent Dr. Fates when necessary (with Kent taking the form of his Golden Age half-helmet incarnation who was capable of super-strength, flight and energy blasts).

The combined Dr. Fate faced the supervillain Extant in the Zero Hour crisis. In a controversial battle, Extant dispatched much of the JSA without fanfare and in the process scattered Fate's helm, amulet and cloak and greatly aged the Nelsons, who returned to Salem.