Origin
Dr. Graves is a very rich man that lives in his gigantic mansion with all his magical equipment and mystical texts. He uses mystical texts to see every case he has been on and even the ghost stories he had nothing to do with, so the mystical texts let him keep track of every ghost. Most of the mystical texts are found in his very cozy library (his study) but there are a few mystical texts in every room so there is a change of scenery for every other issue.
Most likely when the ghost is fake Doctor Graves find an ingenious way to unmask the criminal and stop the unlawful plan. Ghost busting is a lot like his hobby – he doesn’t get paid to do it and he enjoys helping those in need of his services. While he fought those ghosts, real or not, he picked up a few nicknames (aliases). His nicknames are the “Ghost Buster,” the “Ghost Fighter” and his name is written out as Dr. Graves instead of Doctor Graves sometimes.
The more experiences and battles he has with ghosts and fighting ghosts the more powers he gets, but he doesn’t get any new powers for facing fake ghosts, just new detective skills. Since issue one he has all his powers that he shows during all 72 issues because he is telling and showing all of his stories from his and other people’s past.
Publication History
Dr. M. T. Graves first appeared issue #55 of Ghostly Tales in May 1966.
The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves went on for 72 issues cover-dating through May 1967 to February 1982, publishing bimonthly. After issue #60 in January 1977 of Doctor Graves’ comic, the title went on hiatus for a total of seven months until issue #61 came out in August 1977. Then The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves got cancelled at the time where issue #65 May 1978 was the latest issue. Charlton revived Doctor Graves’ comic three years later with issue #66 in May 1981, then they cancelled it six issues later, at issue #72.
Between September 1985 and January 1986, three additional issues were published; they consisted solely of reprints and were titled Dr. Graves. The sister titles of Doctor Graves’ comic are Ghost Manor, hosted by Mr. Bones; Ghostly Haunts, hosted by Winnie the Witch; Ghostly Tales, hosted by Mr. Dedd; Haunted, hosted by Baron Weirwulf.
The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves even won the 1967 Alley Award for the Best Fantasy.
Powers & Abilities
Doctor Graves has many powers and items; his power items are a crystal ball, mystical texts and spell ingredients that aren’t used often. Some of his powers are magic and magic-related. His other power is that is can scale walls like a spider.
When he turned into a ghost to battle “The Ultimate Evil” he got ghost powers and even some powers that ghosts don’t have. He gained regular ghost powers like invisibility, phasing and energy manipulation. The other powers that he got that are not normal ghost powers are a blast power, energy-enhanced strike, flight and the power to use energy shields.
His standard abilities are stealth, agility, stamina, tracking, unarmed combat and a great amount of intellect – especially in the ghost department.