Inza Nelson

History

Inza Nelson was the wife, and sometimes nurse, of the Golden Age archeologyst and Doctor Fate, Kent Nelson.

Later in his career, her husband had to fuse with her in order to become Dr. Fate. This ended when he rejoined the Justice League, but the spells that he had cast on them to keep them young soon failed, and both he and Inza aged rapidly and passed away.

Later, she and her husband’s souls were revealed to have been stored in Doctor Fate’s amulet, and they were resurrected in new, youthful bodies. However, Inza was the only one capable of becoming Dr. Fate, and she and her husband could no longer merge. She became reckless and proactive with her new powers, which caused her and her husband to separate briefly. This was revealed to have been caused by a Lord of Chaos, T’Giian, who had taken up residence in the Helm of Nabu and was feeding Inza power based not in Order but in Chaos. She and Kent joined forces to defeat T’Giian, and Inza discovered she had powers that were tied to the Earth rather than to Order or Chaos. She spent her time striving to improve the lot of humanity, but Kent chided her about her “reckless” use of magic.

Ina strove to use her new powers pro-actively, unlike wielding his powers. Her inexperience initially worked against her, but she steadily grew more competent with experience. She was instrumental in defeating Circe, who had spear-headed a war among the gods of antiquity.

Her growing confidence led to increasing recklessness. The people under her protection became dependent on her to solve every little problem. Rather than retreating from dependency, she made matters even worse as she created spheres that would respond to people’s wishes.

This abuse of her power eventually separated Kent and Inza as they steadily found themselves opposing each others actions. The Nelsons learned that a Lord of Chaos had taken residence in the Helm of Nabu and had been providing Inza with magic derived from Chaos instead of Order. This Lord of Chaos was also the reason that the couple could no longer merge and become Doctor Fate. Kent eventually returned to his wife’s side and helped her defeat this Lord of Chaos. Inza then learns that her new powers draw from the people of Earth, rather than Chaos or Order.

Inza continued her proactive behavior, causing the United States government to take notice of her and put her on trial before Congress. After giving a stern lecture to the Congressmen, she temporarily transformed them all into newts.

After defeating the Lord of Chaos, the Nelsons began merging as the male Doctor Fate again. The Nelsons did retain the ability to become independent Doctor Fates if the situation ever called for it. In these cases Kent’s form would resemble that of his days of wearing the half-helm.

In their final actions as Doctor Fate, the Nelsons, along with the JSA, faced the supervillain Extant during an attempt by Parallax to change the history of the universe. Extant, with seeming ease, caused most of the JSA members to rapidly approach their proper physical ages. He also separated the Nelsons from the raiment’s of Doctor Fate, the Helm, Amulet, and cloak. The greatly aged and depowered Nelsons were returned to Salem and to a forced retirement.

In Other Media

Superman: The Animated Series:

Inza Nelson appeared in the Superman: The Animated Series episode “The Hand Of Fate”, as the wife of Dr. Fate. She was played by Jennifer Lien. In contrast to the usually red-headed Inza in comics, the animated Inza is a greying raven-head with pointed ears (suggesting she might not be entirely human) and a very calm, quiet, demeanor, long since used to her husbands job and its risks.

Justice League Unlimited:

In Justice League, Inza is the wife of Kent Nelson, as in the comics. She resides with him in their tower home and made her debut in the episode “The Terror Beyond”. She later appeared in the Justice League Unlimited episodes “The Return” and “Wake the Dead”. Inza never appeared as Doctor Fate, however. She was still voiced by Jennifer Hale and she was in possession of her own magical powers, as show in The Terror Beyond.

Smallville:

Appearing in her first and only actual live presentation which was not animated was on the television series Smallville. On Smallville she appeared in the episode “Absolute Justice”. She was portrayed by the actor Erica Carroll in a brief piece in the story which her husband Kent Nelson is being taken away to an insane asylum.

Young Justice:

Inza is presented twice in an episode of the animated series Young Justice. The following are the two instances which she is shown in the episode.

Kent Nelson, a widowed centenarian, goes unnoticed by the tourists in New Orleans as he makes his way to the parlour of the medium Madam Xanadu. She welcomes him and offers to make contact with his late wife Inza (Kent carries her photograph in his pocket watch).

Wally then finds himself back on the Tower’s roof, alone with Kent’s lifeless body. He places Kent’s pocket watch with Inza’s photograph into the old man’s dead hand.