Doctor (Wildstorm)
Encyclopedia
The Doctor is a name of several fictional characters in the Wildstorm
universe.
There is always only one Doctor at any given time, who is the latest in a long line of shamans
protecting the entire planet. Each doctor is as powerful as the sum of all preceding Doctors, each of whom was also as wise and powerful as the sum of all preceding Doctors, hence, each new Doctor is more powerful than his immediate predecessor. The Doctor's vast magical abilities can do almost anything, as long as he can conceive and believe in his abilities in poetic terms, although more powerful feats can take their toll both on the Doctor and the planet's ecosystem.
When a Doctor dies, their spirit goes to the Garden of Ancestral Memory, where they can be visited by the current Doctor, and advise him.
story arc and is an African-American. He was a member of a group called 'The Changers
', led by the idealistic superhero, The High. The group also included the first Engineer
. The group’s goals were to change the world by removing the structure of society itself. Ideally, there would be no more laws, authoritarian structures, crime or war. The Doctor drugged all of London with the hallucinogen DMT
. His place in The High's plan was to initiate a program of public education about the natural resources of the world, such as plants and magic, to show people a whole new world just sideways of the current one. Stormwatch
attacked the group’s base to stop them and the Doctor was killed by a Hammerstrike Deep Sanction Missile, a bio-war payload and tailored acid bomb. The Stormwatch field troops did not want the Doctor or his allies to die, but they had been tricked by their own leader.
The Doctor is seen many times afterwards as part of the collective Doctors in the Garden of Ancestral Memory. He is the one who converses the most with Thornedike, providing hints, clues, inspiration and a voice of resistance when enemies use brainwashing techniques.
and the Vatican
.
When Thornedike recovered, the Earth still listened to the Renegade Doctor and not to him. The Midnighter tortured the Doctor into revealing all the Authority needed to know. To prevent the Earth from reversing its magnetic poles, the Renegade Doctor needed Thornedike to transfer his powers back to him for an hour. Brought to the present, he was granted his wish and a fight against The Authority and other-dimensional back-up ensued. The Doctor murdered all the backup heroes, retroactively molested the current Engineer and almost killed the rest of the team. Moments later, fifteen extra senses kicked in, part of the powers every Doctor wields. These senses included having empathy
with every living creature in existence, which overwhelmed him. Apollo then killed him and the Engineer kicked off his head.
heroin addict, was destined to become the next Doctor and a member of The Authority.
Jeroen was "a multimedia millionaire by twelve, a dot-com billionaire by twenty, and staring into space in a psychiatric home by the age of twenty-one". He eventually gave away all his money and tried to have an ordinary life until the original Doctor died and Jeroen inherited his abilities. Jeroen refused to accept the responsibility and instead spent his days shooting heroin, watching pornographic videos of horses having sex with women and playing Sonic the Hedgehog
.
Jeroen was first contacted to join The Authority by Sparks
and Swift
, but refused to join and teleported them away. After contacting him a second time, Sparks shot herself in the head, forcing Jeroen to use his powers to revive her. He joined the Authority soon afterwards.
During the "Earth Inferno" storyline Jeroen married a rock star and overdosed on heroin while on his honeymoon. He fell into a bizarre trance, unable to help while many disasters hit around the world. He recovered with the help of the Midnighter
. Later, he agreed to relinquish his powers to a previous Doctor, the Renegade Doctor. This was in an attempt to stop the Earth from trying to wipe out humanity.
In the "Transfer of Power" storyline, Jeroen was replaced by The Surgeon, a French
alchemist
who was given control over the Doctor's powers. He was carried around in The Surgeon's pockets, in the form of a doll, and used to scrub out stains from the man's underpants. The Surgeon was never accepted by the collective consciousness of the previous Doctors, because he brought in contractors to the area where the former Doctors met. Said invaders bulldozed ancient shrines and shot at and or killed the entities found there. The Surgeon even supervised "Religimon," an entity designed to be a new corporate religion. The Surgeon died when The Midnighter shot him in the head. Jeroen instantly recovered his powers.
Thornedike died in The Authority: Revolution from a drug overdose given to him by Rose Tattoo
on orders from Henry Bendix
, who then captured his soul to point him to the next Doctor, Habib Ben Hassan. He was later freed by Jenny Quantum
.
had captured him before any more work could be done. Bendix imprisoned Habib in a cell on his carrier where he was cut off from his powers. He was secretly freed by Jenny Quantum
and joined in the battle with Bendix, Rose Tattoo
and Bendix's alien followers. During the fight, Habib turned Rose Tattoo to the side of the angels, making her the Spirit of Life instead of the Spirit of Murder.
The summer 2008 six-issue Wildstorm event, Number of the Beast
, saw Habib unable to stop a cadre of clones of The High
from damaging the Carrier, which begins to fall toward earth. He and Jenny Quantum
, still onboard, exchange a kiss, then Jenny sacrifices herself by absorbing the miniature universe that powers the Carrier, preventing it from destroying the universe when the ship crashes. Jenny tells Habib that, should she ever return, he must find her and tell her how this latest apocalypse turned out.
Number of the Beast was followed by a Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning-penned Authority series, World's End, published from August 2008. Habib is absent from the first five issues. He's later revealed he essentially committed suicide after witnessing the World's End. Reasoning that a flatlined patient doesn't need a Doctor, he dissolved into butterflies after jumping from the ruined Carrier.
His consciousness may still exist in the Garden of Ancestral Memory, as both he and Jeroen, appear in a dream clear as life to Midnighter, ordering him to start a quest in the hope of finding something able to heal the Earth and the wounded Prince (the latter one is an infected and almost crazed Apollo). Despite this, his fractured mind, badly traumatized by Earth present condition, builds a body out of vegetables, enslaving Gaia Rothstein into acting a base of operation. As the Green Man, he vows to save Earth by excising the very tumor is threatening its existence, that means humanity. Despite Midnighter is later be able to save Gaia, the Green Man is not restored to his former state.
It's suggested that he has since died, with WILDCATS being in the process of finding his successor.
and Jesus Christ. Doc Tomorrow
, a superhero during World War II
, also mentions he was the Doctor for a time during the 1940s. One in the 2nd vollum TPB looks to be Rasputin(of the HellBoy comics) he's reconizible by his shaven head, long beard, and robes he wore during Operation Rag-Na-Rok.
Wildstorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
universe.
There is always only one Doctor at any given time, who is the latest in a long line of shamans
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
protecting the entire planet. Each doctor is as powerful as the sum of all preceding Doctors, each of whom was also as wise and powerful as the sum of all preceding Doctors, hence, each new Doctor is more powerful than his immediate predecessor. The Doctor's vast magical abilities can do almost anything, as long as he can conceive and believe in his abilities in poetic terms, although more powerful feats can take their toll both on the Doctor and the planet's ecosystem.
When a Doctor dies, their spirit goes to the Garden of Ancestral Memory, where they can be visited by the current Doctor, and advise him.
First Doctor
The first of the modern day Doctors appeared in Change or DieChange or Die
"Change or Die" is story arc of Stormwatch lasting from issue 48 to 50. Written by Warren Ellis and penciled by Tom Raney, this was the last story arc of Stormwatch, Volume 1, and set the tone for Ellis' structuring of Stormwatch volume 2 as a series of four three-issue story arcs.The story was...
story arc and is an African-American. He was a member of a group called 'The Changers
Changers
The Changers are a group of super-heroes published by Wildstorm an imprint of DC Comics. The team first appears in Stormwatch #48 , and was created by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney.-Publication history:...
', led by the idealistic superhero, The High. The group also included the first Engineer
Engineer (comics)
The Engineer is the name of two fictional characters in the . The current Engineer, Angela Spica, is a member of the Authority, first appears in The Authority #1 and was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch.-The First Engineer:...
. The group’s goals were to change the world by removing the structure of society itself. Ideally, there would be no more laws, authoritarian structures, crime or war. The Doctor drugged all of London with the hallucinogen DMT
Dimethyltryptamine
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound of the tryptamine family. DMT is found in several plants, and also in trace amounts in humans and other mammals, where it is originally derived from the essential amino acid tryptophan, and ultimately produced by the enzyme INMT...
. His place in The High's plan was to initiate a program of public education about the natural resources of the world, such as plants and magic, to show people a whole new world just sideways of the current one. Stormwatch
Stormwatch (comics)
Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that originated in the Wildstorm Universe and has since been revived as part of the DC Universe. The original version of Stormwatch first appeared in Stormwatch Stormwatch is a fictional United Nations-sponsored superhero team that...
attacked the group’s base to stop them and the Doctor was killed by a Hammerstrike Deep Sanction Missile, a bio-war payload and tailored acid bomb. The Stormwatch field troops did not want the Doctor or his allies to die, but they had been tricked by their own leader.
The Doctor is seen many times afterwards as part of the collective Doctors in the Garden of Ancestral Memory. He is the one who converses the most with Thornedike, providing hints, clues, inspiration and a voice of resistance when enemies use brainwashing techniques.
Renegade Doctor
In the Earth Inferno story arc, a pioneering heart surgeon became The Doctor in 1966. 18 months later, in the summer of 1967, he had murdered the population of three entire countries in alphabetical order. He was stopped by the combined force of every superhuman in the planet, plus the fact he had drunk every single bottle of Dom Perignon that existed at the time. The Doctor was stripped of his powers, kicked out the Garden of Ancestral Memory and incarcerated in a privately-owned temporal prison 20 million years in the past. From this place, he was still able to convince the planet that humanity was killing it, which caused it to devastate various large cities including New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
.
When Thornedike recovered, the Earth still listened to the Renegade Doctor and not to him. The Midnighter tortured the Doctor into revealing all the Authority needed to know. To prevent the Earth from reversing its magnetic poles, the Renegade Doctor needed Thornedike to transfer his powers back to him for an hour. Brought to the present, he was granted his wish and a fight against The Authority and other-dimensional back-up ensued. The Doctor murdered all the backup heroes, retroactively molested the current Engineer and almost killed the rest of the team. Moments later, fifteen extra senses kicked in, part of the powers every Doctor wields. These senses included having empathy
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
with every living creature in existence, which overwhelmed him. Apollo then killed him and the Engineer kicked off his head.
Jeroen Thornedike
Jeroen Thornedike, a DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
heroin addict, was destined to become the next Doctor and a member of The Authority.
Jeroen was "a multimedia millionaire by twelve, a dot-com billionaire by twenty, and staring into space in a psychiatric home by the age of twenty-one". He eventually gave away all his money and tried to have an ordinary life until the original Doctor died and Jeroen inherited his abilities. Jeroen refused to accept the responsibility and instead spent his days shooting heroin, watching pornographic videos of horses having sex with women and playing Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog series
Sonic the Hedgehog is the best selling video game series released by Sega starring and named after its mascot character, Sonic the Hedgehog...
.
Jeroen was first contacted to join The Authority by Sparks
Jenny Sparks
Jenny Sparks, also known as "The Spirit of the 20th century", is a fictional character in the Wildstorm comic book universe created by Warren Ellis during his 1997 revamp of the dwindling Stormwatch series...
and Swift
Swift (comics)
Swift is a fictional comic book superhero in the Wildstorm universe, published by DC Comics. Swift first appeared in Stormwatch #28 and was created by Jeff Mariotte and Ron Lim...
, but refused to join and teleported them away. After contacting him a second time, Sparks shot herself in the head, forcing Jeroen to use his powers to revive her. He joined the Authority soon afterwards.
During the "Earth Inferno" storyline Jeroen married a rock star and overdosed on heroin while on his honeymoon. He fell into a bizarre trance, unable to help while many disasters hit around the world. He recovered with the help of the Midnighter
Midnighter
Midnighter is a fictional comic book superhero, best known as a member of the rogue superhero team The Authority. Created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Bryan Hitch, he first appeared in Stormwatch #4, before appearing in various Authority books and series and his own eponymous ongoing series...
. Later, he agreed to relinquish his powers to a previous Doctor, the Renegade Doctor. This was in an attempt to stop the Earth from trying to wipe out humanity.
In the "Transfer of Power" storyline, Jeroen was replaced by The Surgeon, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
alchemist
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
who was given control over the Doctor's powers. He was carried around in The Surgeon's pockets, in the form of a doll, and used to scrub out stains from the man's underpants. The Surgeon was never accepted by the collective consciousness of the previous Doctors, because he brought in contractors to the area where the former Doctors met. Said invaders bulldozed ancient shrines and shot at and or killed the entities found there. The Surgeon even supervised "Religimon," an entity designed to be a new corporate religion. The Surgeon died when The Midnighter shot him in the head. Jeroen instantly recovered his powers.
Thornedike died in The Authority: Revolution from a drug overdose given to him by Rose Tattoo
Rose Tattoo (Wildstorm)
Rose Tattoo is the name of two characters appearing in books owned by Wildstorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics. Both characters exist within the Wildstorm Universe.-Character history:...
on orders from Henry Bendix
Henry Bendix
Henry Bendix, also known as Weatherman, is a fictional character in the Wildstorm universe. He first appeared in the Stormwatch series.-Early life:...
, who then captured his soul to point him to the next Doctor, Habib Ben Hassan. He was later freed by Jenny Quantum
Jenny Quantum
Jenny Quantum is a fictional comic book superhero in the Wildstorm Universe published by DC Comics. She first appeared as a child in The Authority #13 , and was created by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely...
.
Habib Ben Hassan
Habib ben Hassan was a young Palestinian suicide bomber, destined to become the new Doctor after Thornedike. Within the first 24 hours of inheriting his new powers after Thornedike's death, Habib engineered a peace in the Middle East that actually had a chance of surviving. However, Henry BendixHenry Bendix
Henry Bendix, also known as Weatherman, is a fictional character in the Wildstorm universe. He first appeared in the Stormwatch series.-Early life:...
had captured him before any more work could be done. Bendix imprisoned Habib in a cell on his carrier where he was cut off from his powers. He was secretly freed by Jenny Quantum
Jenny Quantum
Jenny Quantum is a fictional comic book superhero in the Wildstorm Universe published by DC Comics. She first appeared as a child in The Authority #13 , and was created by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely...
and joined in the battle with Bendix, Rose Tattoo
Rose Tattoo (Wildstorm)
Rose Tattoo is the name of two characters appearing in books owned by Wildstorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics. Both characters exist within the Wildstorm Universe.-Character history:...
and Bendix's alien followers. During the fight, Habib turned Rose Tattoo to the side of the angels, making her the Spirit of Life instead of the Spirit of Murder.
The summer 2008 six-issue Wildstorm event, Number of the Beast
Number of the Beast (comics)
Number of the Beast is a comic book limited series, written by Scott Beatty, with art by Chris Sprouse.Number of the Beast was the second of a number bi-weekly series, it was preceded by Wildstorm: Revelations, which resulted in the relaunch of a number of Wildstorm titles.-Characters:As well as...
, saw Habib unable to stop a cadre of clones of The High
Changers
The Changers are a group of super-heroes published by Wildstorm an imprint of DC Comics. The team first appears in Stormwatch #48 , and was created by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney.-Publication history:...
from damaging the Carrier, which begins to fall toward earth. He and Jenny Quantum
Jenny Quantum
Jenny Quantum is a fictional comic book superhero in the Wildstorm Universe published by DC Comics. She first appeared as a child in The Authority #13 , and was created by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely...
, still onboard, exchange a kiss, then Jenny sacrifices herself by absorbing the miniature universe that powers the Carrier, preventing it from destroying the universe when the ship crashes. Jenny tells Habib that, should she ever return, he must find her and tell her how this latest apocalypse turned out.
Number of the Beast was followed by a Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning-penned Authority series, World's End, published from August 2008. Habib is absent from the first five issues. He's later revealed he essentially committed suicide after witnessing the World's End. Reasoning that a flatlined patient doesn't need a Doctor, he dissolved into butterflies after jumping from the ruined Carrier.
His consciousness may still exist in the Garden of Ancestral Memory, as both he and Jeroen, appear in a dream clear as life to Midnighter, ordering him to start a quest in the hope of finding something able to heal the Earth and the wounded Prince (the latter one is an infected and almost crazed Apollo). Despite this, his fractured mind, badly traumatized by Earth present condition, builds a body out of vegetables, enslaving Gaia Rothstein into acting a base of operation. As the Green Man, he vows to save Earth by excising the very tumor is threatening its existence, that means humanity. Despite Midnighter is later be able to save Gaia, the Green Man is not restored to his former state.
It's suggested that he has since died, with WILDCATS being in the process of finding his successor.
Other Doctors
Many previous Doctors have been seen in the Garden of Ancestral Memory, including some resembling Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
and Jesus Christ. Doc Tomorrow
Welcome to Tranquility
Welcome to Tranquility is an American comic book series created by Gail Simone and Neil Googe and published by Wildstorm.The series is set in Tranquility, a fictional town in Oregon, which is home to retired superheroes and supervillains as well as their families...
, a superhero during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, also mentions he was the Doctor for a time during the 1940s. One in the 2nd vollum TPB looks to be Rasputin(of the HellBoy comics) he's reconizible by his shaven head, long beard, and robes he wore during Operation Rag-Na-Rok.