Doctor Thirteen
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Dr. Terrence Thirteen, known simply as Doctor Thirteen, is a comic book character in the DC Universe. He first appeared in Star Spangled Comics #122, (November 1951), and was created by
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[edit] Publication history
Terrence was a parapsychologist who investigated reports of supposed supernatural activity with the goal of proving that that allegation is groundless.
He first appeared in his own feature in Star Spangled Comics #122 (November, 1951), which would run through issue #130 (July, 1952) of that title. He would next appear in Showcase #80 in 1969, as a major supporting character in the Phantom Stranger tryout there, and then appear as a regular guest star in the new Phantom Stranger series that began in 1969 (initially each issue was just a few new pages of story/art that framed reprints from the two characters old features), then moving to a backup series in that title.
Naturally, since he does dwell in the DC Universe, his eventual discovery of actual supernatural beings such as the Spectre and Deadman proved most disconcerting.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Today, his activities are explained that he is unconsciously drawn to supernatural hoaxes and while disproving those, he equally unconsciously ignores the real thing. It was explained by DC's sardonic, down-to-earth mage John Constantine in the mini-series The Books of Magic that since Thirteen does not believe, magic and the supernatural truly do not work for him. In the DC Universe, if you think little of the Tarot, for example, you get nothing out of it; whereas if you do accept its power, it will work for you. (This is akin to the thesis found in such DC titles as Hellblazer and Neil Gaiman's Sandman that everyone makes his or her own Hell or Heaven out of one's own expectations/beliefs/guilt in life.) His daughter, Traci Thirteen is a sorceress, a fact he finds most upsetting.
In the first issue of Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers miniseries Zatanna. Dr. Thirteen had until recently been dating the title heroine. Morrison's take on Thirteen's perceptions is slightly different; while exploring a mystical realm with Zatanna and others, he accepts what is happening, but explains it in terms of physics, rather than magic. However, during this exploration he, and everyone else involved except Zatanna, is killed.
Thirteen has resurfaced, possibly due to the time-altering events of the Infinite Crisis, still residing along with Traci in Doomsbury Mansion,[1] still renting his service as a paid mythbuster, called as a "professional skeptic" to discover if supernatural manifestation are real or hoaxes. During his very first mission after the Crisis Genius Jones, mysteriously appearing along with other cancelled title-holders, like I...Vampire, Anthro, the Primate Patrol, Infectious Lass and the Haunted Tank, breached the fourth wall cryptically hinting at the existence of DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and questioning about his supposed cancellation after his death. Thirteen has embarked in a mission to find, and talk with, the Architects and convince them to take a position on the role of the returned characters in the new Universe.[2]
