In honor of Halloween, albeit a tiny bit late, I wanted to use today’s Secret Origin to spotlight a character that evokes the spookiness of the holiday, someone who is not necessarily a superhero, but definitely of the supernatural. I think I have found that character in Dr. Occult, the Ghost Detective!

Our story open with a flipping great splash page of Dr. Occult himself. This has nothing to do with the story within, but it’s my column and I want to show it off, so here it is.

OK, on to the story proper. We are shown a gathering of Satanic cultists on the night of Dec. 31, 1899. This truly despicable bunch plans on sacrificing two infants, a boy and a girl, stolen from a local god-fearing couple. With this sacrifice, then plan to appease Satan. You see, these (expletive deleted) cultists thought if they sacrifice some innocent kids, then Satan will give them more time before he takes their souls, which they have already pledged. The appointed hour comes and “Satan” shows up and has something to say on the matter.

Anyway, the reason i put “Satan” in quote marks is it turns out it’s really an entity called Koth, and he was just messing with the cultists before he took their souls and now plans on taking the souls of the kids anyway. Watta guy. Luckily for our defenseless tots, they are spirited away by a man called Zator. He takes them to the far east, to the abode of a group known only as The Seven. It turns out that The Seven are the sworn enemies of Koth, and while they are pretty po’ed at Zator for provoking his Ire by making the kids seem to just disappear before him, they are willing to listen to his reasoning. Zator states that The Seven can punish him as they see fit, because there is no way he was going to let innocent kids die if he could prevent it, regardless if their innate humanity would affect The Seven or not. Also, and more importantly to The Seven, he says both urchins have great mystical potential. The Seven put the kids to the test, counting their midicholrians or whatever.

The orphans are indeed strong with the force, so The Seven decrees they can live if Zator is their surrogate father, and if they can live up to the incredibly high standards set by The Seven themselves. Zator is pretty ecstatic that the kids get to live, so he’s adamant about getting them the training they need. As we all know, there is no better way to get them through the next several years than with a montage!

So, as seen above the kids are given the names of Doctor Occult and Rose Psychic, because comics, that’s why! It’s a good thing “Doc” is a smart egg, he knows that not only does he need a real name (he picks Richard), but if he wants to be called Doctor, he has to earn it, so it’s off to college and another montage. Lesson learned: if you want to be a master of the mystic arts, it takes a long freaking time. After university, Doc and Rose open the Dr. Occult Ghost Detective Agency. Rose is secretary, silent partner, and secret assistant while Doc is “the face”. While you may think business may be sparse for the twosome, you’d be wrong because this isn’t out boring, mundane world. There is a series of strange deaths and Doc couldn’t be happier:

Laden with a sense of fulfillment, the mystic twosome are on patrol when they come across an apple seller on the street (this is depression era 30’s doncha know?). Doc/Rose get a weird vibe off the seller and the “gentleman” straight up grabs Occult by the throat and bares a couple of fangs, claiming Doc is offering little to no resistance. Ol’ Vampy is sad to realize he is operating under a false sense of confidence as Dr. Occult was just feigning so he could be sure the apple peddler was an otherworldly threat before pulling out the mystic symbol of The Seven and burning him to death.

Now we’re treated to a third montage where Doc and Rose fight various mystical baddies. I’ll spare you this page and get on with the story. It turns out Koth finally rears his ugly head again. Zator summons Doc and Rose back to the Citadel of The Seven to lend a hand. There is a grand psychic battle fought, but there is no clear victor as Koth flees like the villain he is. Regardless of the outcome, The Seven are highly impressed with Dr. Occult. They give him a mission to get rid of Koth once and for all, and provide him with the means to do it:

Before we get to the final battle, I wanted to draw your attention to Dr. Occult’s ceremonial costume thingy. Sure it looks kind of silly, and doesn’t make much sense in context, but it’s important to the history of comics! You see, Dr. Occult is a creation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, before they published their most familiar character, Superman. Doc was kind of a try out, and that’s why he was given what is essentially a color swap of Superman’s duds, making him historically the first costumed hero in a cape. Now that the history lesson is over, back to the story.

Occult and Zator are whisked to their destination, the belt seems to be unguarded. Doc puts it on when all of a sudden Koth appears with an army of minions. Zator kind of freaks, but Dr. Occult, possibly emboldened by wearing a circus outfit, knows the belt will even the odds. Miraculously, it does, summoned a ghostly green army of its own. Koth realizes it’s this mortal causing him all sorts of trouble, so he literally leaps into the fray, tackling Doc, demanding to know who it is that defies him so. Occult tells him, Koth wants to bring some finality to that night so long ago and is able to kill Dr. Occult, or so he thinks…

So, with a job well done The Seven, wish Dr. Occult well, telling him he taught them humility and blah blah blah, pat on the back and all that jazz. Doc returns to the physical world and to Rose and they have a nice brother/sister type moment. It is then posed what will he do now that Koth is gone. Well, there’s always evil to fight, so we’re told to follow Dr. Occult’s further adventures which get increasingly weirder to the point where Doc/Rose end up sharing the same body, but this is an origin, so thankfully I don’t have to tell that convoluted mess. G’night everybody!