Broken Frontier

As the Helmet of Fate travels through the DC Universe in search of a new wearer, Tad Williams stopped by for a quick chat about his contribution and why Ibis is a good choice.

BROKEN FRONTIER: What is it about Ibis that makes the character a good choice for Fate, if he even is a good choice?  What does it mean to use an existing character to fill the helmet?

TAD WILLIAMS: I'm using both an old character and a new version, so I've been able to show both the wisdom and self-sacrifice of an established magic-user and the complete confusion and terror of someone new to magical objects and magical threats.  Most of us can imagine what we'd do in a crisis if we had spent our lives training for just that, but it's a bit harder to imagine being dumped into such a situation completely cold.

BF: How do you see Dr. Fate's role in the DC Universe?

TW: Doctor Fate is in many ways the Merlin of the DCU, a source of wisdom even more than power, a calm, rational mind and experienced hand that can be relied upon when dealing with the unpredictability and inscrutability of the magical world.  If you want to understand criminals, get Batman; if you want to understand supernatural threats, you need Doctor Fate.

BF: What would you to say to people who have been uninterested in or just have not been exposed to Dr. Fate to get them excited about this series?

TW: Magic has been a sort of stepchild in the DC Universe for the last fifty years, but that seems to be changing.  I know I had a great time imagining a normal kid suddenly thrust into the supernatural world, and in way, that's what happened to the entire DCU and all its characters.  Magic has now had a huge effect on everyone and will continue to do so. 

Dr. Fate and many of the folk involved in this series will be the only characters who can help the others make sense of it—who will HAVE to help the others make sense of it. After catastrophes like the wholesale destruction of Atlantis by the Spectre to demonstrate what can go wrong, the stakes are too high for anything else.