Wotan | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | More Fun Comics #55 (1940) |
Created by |
Gardner Fox (writer) Howard Sherman (artist) |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Wotan |
Abilities | Magic abilities Brilliant scientist (pre-Flashpoint) |
Wotan is a fictional character in stories published by DC Comics, a supervillain who is the archenemy of the mystical superhero Doctor Fate. Wotan first appeared in 1940 and has featured in a number of storylines, and has been adapted for two animated television series.
Wotan first appeared in More Fun Comics #55 and was created by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman.
The being now known as Wotan started out life as a Stone Age woman who was raped by someone claiming to be a servant of God. She studied the black arts and became such a powerful sorceress that she was worshiped as a goddess. She later learned how to switch from body to body and then to direct her own reincarnation, eventually becoming the male being now known as Wotan. In the Golden Age, Wotan encountered first Green Lantern and then the sorcerer known as Doctor Fate where he became his nemesis. At one point. he was pulled back in time with other JSA enemies by the time-traveller Per Degaton to assist in capturing the JSA and stop them from interfering in his attempt to change the events of Pearl Harbor. Wotan uses his magic aura to hold the JSA captive in caves beneath an island. The plan is foiled by the actions of the All-Star Squadron. When the Spectre is released from the aura and frees the other members, Per Degaton goes back in time, thus erasing everybody's memories of this event and returning them to their proper places.
During the second volume of The Spectre in the eighties, he tries to take over the body of the sorceress Zatanna, but fails. In the early nineties, Wotan discovers the temple where the last body of the being known as Yahweh - God Himself - lay entombed, still seething with mystical power. Wotan enters the tower with the intention of absorbing the power, confronting God himself, and supplanting Him. Instead, he emerges blinded, his evil having been burned out by God's power. Declaring that Wotan will never menace anybody again, one of Yahweh's servants spirits Wotan away.