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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 9:10am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Here in the UK, most doctors one comes across are medical practitioners. Dentists are entitled to be titled Doctors. Others, such as chiropractors, had restrictions on whether they could be referred to as doctors in advertising (that was a rule years ago, I have no idea if that has changed).

Then there are those with honorary doctorates, doctors of archaeology, doctors of philosophy, etc.

I don't begrudge anyone who has worked hard. It doesn't affect my life. But it does seem the title has been slightly devalued at times. One nutritionist here, who gained a qualification online years ago, was stopped from using the title Doctor. As a kid, I only thought of medical practitioners as doctors, but there seem to be a lot of doctors now. More power to them, but, again, has the title been devalued?

And so to comics...

Although I never spent my comic-reading days worrying about what qualifications various doctors had, I was curious at times. As I grew older - and the question did NOT detract from the books - I did wonder how many were physicians and how many weren't.

I know, for instance, that Stephen Strange is a doctor. I did read that others are doctors only in their heads.

How many in the DC and Marvel titles are physicians? And how many aren't, e.g. they are doctors of archaeology or something else? How many are doctors only in delusions of grandeur?  
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 10:21am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Roger Stern has often said that comicbook scientists have "a degree in science."
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 10:51am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

I want one of those, Mr Byrne!

I do remember hassling my mother (when the live-action Hulk series was on TV), asking if David Banner would be able to extract a person's tooth or prescribe medication to someone who was sick. Curious soul! 
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Mike Norris
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

As you said,physicians are just one type of doctor. The "D" in MD and PhD both stand for doctor. But you probably wouldn't want to get medical advice from a physicist or ask a physician about String Theory.  It's not a new thing as the use of doctor for non-physicians goes back centuries. 

As for the question.
Doctor Fate/Kent Nelson at one point did become a physician. He also has a doctorate in archaeology.

Doctor Mid-Nite/Charles McNider is an MD.

Doctor Doom-I don't think he ever got his Doctorate from Empire State as he was expelled. But he could of got one elsewhere. Does Latveria have a university?

Doctor Octopus/Otto Octavius. PhD in physics I guess.

Doctor Bruce Banner-PhD in physics.

Doc Sampson- MD with a specialty in psychiatry.

Doctor Sivana- Multiple disciplines 

Doctor Phosphorus/Alex Sartorius - I assume his doctorate is in physics, but in the back of my head I've a memory of him being an MD. 




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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Here we go, eh?

Dr. Mid-Nite was a medical doctor.
Dr. Fate was an archaeologist.
Dr. Strange was a medical doctor.
Dr. Doom did practice some medicine, but he did not have a degree in medicine. However, there is no question that he could have wallpapered his study in them if he wanted to.
Dr. Bong was a journalist (at least, that's what his degree was in.)
Dr. Solar was a physicist.
Dr. Manhattan was a physicist.
Dr. Druid - I think he started as a physician.
Dr. Light - neither one was a physician.
Dr. Mist could have been a physician... not too much was known about him.
Dr. Spectrum - both were astronauts.
Doctor Octopus - not a physician. At least, I never saw any indications of such.
Doc Samson was a psychiatrist.
Doc Savage is a physician, and heaven knows what else.
Dr. Leonard McCoy - by ding of Mr. Byrne's comics, we know about Bones. We could probably include Christine Chapel and M'Benga in this categorization too.
Dr. Who - Who knows. But that's mostly television anyhow.

Obviously, there are a ton of others. As to who's a doctor without being called one...

Don Blake was a physician.
Hank Pym was a bio-physicist, and I don't know if that includes physician traits or not.
Reed Richards - like Dr. Doom, I don't know that he ever received a medical degree, but he could probably fill the Negative Zone with degrees.
Thomas Wayne was a physician.
Charles Xavier had several degrees and I shouldn't be surprised if one of those was for medicine... someone had to fix up the X-Men!
Shaman was a physician.
Mr. Terrific - both of them were super geniuses, so I couldn't be surprised if one of those thousand talents was medical.
Superman - at least the Earth-2 Superman did surgical procedures after super-speed memorizing a medical library once or twice. No degree, granted, but I would go under the knife if he were operating.
Moira McTaggert practiced medicine, so I assume she had a degree.
Jane Foster became a doctor.
Clarie Temple was a doctor too, if memory serves.

At this point, my mind begins to fog... but yeah, there were a ton of doctors. Nice one, Robbie.

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Robert Shepherd
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Roger Stern has often said that comicbook scientists have "a degree in science."

***

That explains why a Doctor of Biochemistry had the know-how to build the worlds most advanced robot.

Also explains how a company IT guy can so easily morph into a general purpose genius (Supergirl TV Show).

Comic book scientists specialize in everything.
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Thanks for the lists and comments, guys. :)

As for Doom, I suspect he is a doctor because his ego demands it. Would you argue with him? 
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Michael Casselman
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

"I didn't go to Bad Guy School for 8 years to be called MISTER Doom!"
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Side note: In England, at least in my day, male surgeons were called "Mister".
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

I haven't been in a hospital in years, but current British medical dramas, which I believe strive for accuracy, do have the surgeons referred to as "Mister".
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John Byrne
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

...in a hospital...

•••

Did you do that for our American readers, Robbie, or have hospitals grown articles?

I still sometimes slip and say "I was in hospital yesterday."

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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 15 April 2018 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I'm afraid it was a goof, Mr Byrne! ;-)
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