Origin
Over 11,000 years ago, Nommo, the wizard-king of the African nation Kor, stood in the rolling pillar of life which gave him incredible power and immortality. He would later take the name Dr. Mist. He founded the ancient empire of Kor, with its 100 cities. Eventually Mist decided to abdicate and went to live in the mountain carved in his likeness on the East coast of Africa, where he remained. Having misused his powers at some stage in the past, Doctor Mist preferred to use it sparingly.
Creation
Dr. Mist made his first appearance in the animated series tie-in comic Super Friends, first appearing at the end of issue #12 before making his debut proper in the following issue #13 as a member of the Global Guardians. He was created by writer E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Ramona Fradon.
Major Story Arcs
Global Guardians
In 1957, the European Economic Community established the Dome, a super-national police organization. Dr Mist founded the Global Guardians and Headquartered them in the Dome. The Global Guardians would work together for decades until they lost their funding to Justice League International and the Dome was closed. Queen Bee would rebuild the Dome in her country and brainwash the Global Guardians to work for her being led by an android Dr. Mist. Dr. Mist would appear and help Jack O’ Lantern and Owl Woman escape Bialya. Doctor Mist would recruit a group to break the Global Guardians from their brainwashing and lead them to escape. He would later reform the Global Guardians and rebuild the Dome somewhere in the Pacific.
Primal Force
Mist was slain by an ancient force, although eternal, later showed up alive and well after the Zero Hour crisis. Calling himself Maltis, he formed a new group called the Leymen, later called Primal Force. The team was short lived and his stay was even less, having a heart attack shortly after their first mission. He was seemingly killed by being thrown into a pool of acid by Mordru.
New 52
Justice League Dark
A. R. G. U. S., a military agency created to combat the growing super human threats and support the Justice League have rooms that warehouse certain objects. There is the black room, red room, and the circus. Pandora breaks into the black room to still the box back. She reveals Steve Trevor was on the team that recovered it. She reveals the Spear of Destiny, The Black Diamond, and The Seven Spells of Shazam are housed in the Black Room. When Pandora escapes, Steve Trevor calls for the services of Doctor Mist, Black Orchid, and John Constantine. Doctor Mist was captured by Felix Faust. He is freed by Black Orchid and her team. He shows the team where the source of Faust is hidden, once he is freed. Doctor Mist realizes it is the first Tesseract, The Eight Dimensional Map. It is the map to the Books of Magic. Doctor Mist betrays the team and sides with Faust and Nick Necro who have promised to bring his wife back from the dead. The Justice League Dark defeat Doctor Mist and his new allies with the help of newly recruited Frankenstein, Amethyst, and Bennett. Doctor Mist is taken into custody by A.R.G.U.S. and will be detained and debriefed until further notice.
The Black Room
Doctor Mist was briefly a member of the Justice League Dark, spanning through the The Black Room arc and the Books of Magic arc. He began his stint as a JLD mission. After losing contact with A.R.G.U.S., Trevor employs the help of Constantine and his friends to help locate him.
Books of Magic
Steve Trevor recruits Constantine to track down Faust. He lures Constantine in by showing him the Dreamstone of Doctor Destiny’s. Trevor tells Constantine A.R.G.U.S. calls the team Justice League Dark. Trevor will allow Constantine into The Black Room for 5 minutes when the mission is completed. Constantine has trouble getting the group on board. He reveals to Zatanna that he say a picture of The Black Room that Trevor showed him and he saw her fathers hat and stage outfit.. He will retrieve them for her if she can get the group to go to The Amazon. They defeat Faust and retrieve the map to The Books of Magic. Constantine takes the map and the team to The House Of Mystery. Constantine tells the team he won the keys to the House in a poker game from Father Time and Doctor Occult. He is seen in Xanadu’s vision where he is in possession Of The Books of Magic and has killed millions of people including Etrigan, Swamp Thing, Frankenstein, Andrew Bennett, Zatanna, and Black Orchid.
He tells Xanadu no person should take possession of the Books because they are too strong. He whispers the name of Timothy Hunter, who is pure enough to possess The Books before the vision ends. Constantine no longer being controlled by The Books of Magic recruits Bennett, Tim Hunter, Frankenstein, and Amethyst to defeat Nick Necro and his group. The final battle takes place in Nanda Parbat. The JLD team defeats Black Boris and Blackbriar Thorne. The JLD locates Nick Necro, Felix Faust, Dr. Mist, and their hostage, Zatanna. Necro and Faust are working on opening the Tesseract to unleash The Books of Magic. The Books of Magic repel Faust and Necro because as long as Tim Hunter lives no one else can control The Books. Tim Hunter opens The first book, revealing that it is not magic in origin, but its mechanical in nature. The device reboots and begins to transport him home. Zatanna grabs onto Tim’s legs and they are transported to Tim’s home. ARGUS travels to Nanda Parbat to take Necro and Faust into custody and will be held in their underground metahuman facility. Zatanna takes Tim Hunter back home but are transported to a place called Epoch. The scientists have been battling the magical denizens for an unknown amount of centuries or millennia. In the ensuing battle, it is revealed that Felix Faust offered his soul up for the release of Nick Necro. The rumors of Necro being close to the Books of Magic has been widespread in the occult community, and Faust wanted to make sure that he gets the book for himself, thus making the offer. It also revealed that Nick Necro also instigated the formation of the Justice League Dark that includes Doctor Mist and Black Orchid.
Dr. Peril opens a portal and Constantine, Deadman, Frankenstein, Black Orchid and Madame Xanadu go to rescue them. Due to some imbalance of magic, various undesirable effects occurred to some of the members of the JLD. Constantine couldn’t lie. Black Orchid was transformed into some kind of flesh monster. Madame Xanadu began to rapidly age. Deadman came back to life, only to be shot again almost immediately afterwards, causing him to return to his normal self. Frankenstein is the only member that is not affected. Due to he stress between both dimensions, the safety of both Earth-1, and the other dimension’s world was compromised. Tim’s father volunteers to go through the portal while the Dark team has sided with the magic based denizens. Tim Hunter and father choose to stay and rebuild while Dark team go through the portal before Xanadu, who had aged during her stay, is about to die. Constantine tells Trevor that A. R. G. U. S. can leave the Justice League Dark alone. Trevor tells Constantine that they have made enemies of A.R. G.U.S. and the new JLA.
Powers and Abilities
Doctor Mist is an immortal due to the special rites he performed earlier on in his life. Doctor Mist can cast mystical spells, convincing illusions, and beguiling enchantment. However he does need preparation time for these spells and only has certain memorized at any given time. Doctor Mist can also absorb all forms of magic and use it as his own.
Other Media
Constantine
A version of Dr. Mist appeared in the episode “A Feast of Friends” on the NBC series Constantine played by Charles Parnell. Unlike the original Hellblazer issue in which the episode is based which features Constantine going to Africa to visit a shaman, the role is replaced by Nommo who John visits at his African cuisine restaurant. Nommo offers John a powerful hallucinogenic drug (which he calls “Mist”) in order to explore the origins of the demon Mnemoth.