Doctor Death (comics)
| Doctor Death | |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance |
Detective Comics #29 (July 1939) |
| Created by | Bob Kane |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Karl Hellfern |
| Team affiliations | Science Squad |
| Partnerships | Riddler |
| Abilities |
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Doctor Death is a mad scientist and supervillain appearing in publications by DC Comics. The character was created officially by Bob Kane as an enemy of the superhero Batman, and first appeared in Detective Comics #29, released July 1939. He is notable as the first traditional supervillain to be encountered by the Batman, as well as his first recurring foe.
In his first appearance in Detective Comics #29, Doctor Death develops a lethal chemical agent from pollen extract and enacts a plan to use the poison to extort money from wealthy Gotham City citizens. He is assisted by a large East Indian manservant, Jabah. He decides to eliminate Batman, and threatens to kill someone unless Batman stops him. Batman defeats his two henchmen, but is wounded when Jabah shoots him, though he escapes using a gas pellet. He then gets to Doctor Death's base, meeting him in his lab, and chases him around the building. In order to evade capture, Doctor Death ignites chemicals in his laboratory, presumably killing Jabah and himself in the resulting explosion. Doctor Death next appears the following month in Detective Comics #30. With a new accomplice, a Cossack named Mikhail, Doctor Death is this time successful in claiming a victim in his extortion scheme, but discovers from the widow that the poisoned man lost his fortune in the Great Depression. Batman intervenes in the plot, following Mikhail back to Doctor Death's base, and upon apprehending the doctor, discovers that his face had been horribly disfigured from the lab explosion, resulting in a brown, skeletal appearance.
The scriptwriter for Detective Comics #29 and 30 is an issue of dispute, leaving the creator of Doctor Death uncertain. Batman creator Bob Kane is officially credited as scriptwriter of these issues, though later Gardner Fox, the scriptwriter of Detective Comics #31 and 32, claimed authorship.
After several decades' absence, Doctor Death was reintroduced by writer Gerry Conway in Batman #345 and Detective Comics #512 (1982). Conway's story is an update of the original 1939 tale. In this version, Doctor Death is depicted as a paraplegic, but his deadly gas gimmick remains the same. He is assisted this time by a manservant named Togo.
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