it started with the location of an underground tomb containing nabu, an ancient immortal from another planet. while the young kent nelson found the tomb it had also caused a poisonous gas to be released instantly killing his father. nabu felt sorry for the boy and over the coming years he decided to mentor the boy, letting him join with the lords of order and help in their fight against the lords of chaos.

attaining the helmet of nabu and other items of power from nabu himself, kent decided it was high time he do something with his life and became a powerful superhero known only as doctor fate. after stopping the attempt on the president's life he helped form the justice society of america. it was after all of this that he started to realize the helmet was becoming possessive of him. eventually he created a half version of the helm and while he was fighting against spectre he lost the helmet. it wasn't until years later he found it again and realized that he was immortal. after he retired for a some amount of years he returned as doctor fate and created the justice league international.

kent nelson has died and returned from death many times, mostly due to his connection to the helmet of nabu and of nabu's own preference to possessing kent nelson altogether. he is one of the more powerful sorcerers in existence, having been trained by nabu himself.