The Keeper of Infinite Earths - Lightning Squadron
Created by Bob Justice
Doctor Macabre
Alter Ego: Michael MacAubrey
Occupation: Doctor/Magician
Known Relatives: none
Group Affiliation: Lightning Squad
Base of Operations: Mobile
Background/History:
MacAubrey was a talented surgeon with a God complex. In a world of socialized
medicine, he could do as he pleased up to deciding who lived or died. He gained
quite the reputation for delaying certain operations or encountering mysterious
complications on patients who might be
considered less productive. His actions came back to haunt him following the
death of a woman who had, in his opinion, had more children than her family
could support and refused his advice to be sterilized. A routine procedure led
to a mysterious clot that caused a fatal stroke. Her husband blamed MacAubrey
and he ran his car off the road. The doctor received a severe blow to the head
resulting in bouts of double vision and migraines that forced him to quit being
an active surgeon. His attitude made him unable to teach or to advise and
suddenly, he served no purpose. He searched the world over for something that
could heal his injuries and was contemplating suicide when he heard of a monk in
Tibet who had a magical gift for healing. He sold everything he owned and headed
to Tibet. No guides would take him in search of a myth, so he set out on his own
determined to find the monk or die. Out of supplies and freezing, he resigned
himself to his fate, only to awaken in what appeared to be a temple. The monk
had found him and took him in. MacAubrey pleaded with the monk to heal him, but
the monk explained he would have to heal himself. The monk taught him the mystic
arts, but he could never seem to master healing. One fateful day, they received
a visit from a pair of Nazi officers who informed them that they were now
prisoners of the Fuhrer and they were to turn over any magical artifacts. The
monk dispatched them quickly, but Nazis do not accept disappointment well. By
the time the monk and MacAubrey heard the aircraft engines, it was too late.
They thought to frighten the monk with a bomb, but did not realize the
consequences as they buried the temple under an avalanche. While protecting
MacAubrey, the monk was seriously injured, so he cast a spell of suspension on
his mentor and hid him. He convinced the soldiers that he could be useful to the
Reich and they wanted to avoid the mission being a failure, so they concocted a
story that the monk caused his own death and that MacAubrey had been an
unwilling guest. He went to the Fuhrer and claimed loyalty to get in the
position to use the magical artifacts that they had gathered. Taking his old
hospital nickname, Dr. Macabre became the mystic expert for the Lightning Squad.
Personality/Motivations:
Always able to justify his actions, no matter how repulsive, he never sees
himself as being evil. In his mind, he has the ability to do things, whether as
a doctor or a mystic, so he must be doing what he is supposed to. He would not
have the power over life or death if it was not up to his discretion when to use
it. His justification for working with the Nazis is to gain the power and
knowledge to heal the monk and finally heal himself.