Sherlock Holmes

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Sherlock Holmes is the best detective in the world. He is capable in many instances to get to the solution of a case without even leaving his Baker Street home. He has tuned his skills to that purpose, storing in his mind heaps of criminalistic information. He also developed useful skills such as stealth, forensics chemistry, observation and induction.

This writeup shows Holmes as he was from 1882 to 1884.

History

“He was not studying medicine. He had himself, in reply to a question, confirmed Stamford’s opinion upon that point. Neither did he appear to have pursued any course of reading which might fit him for a degree in science or any other recognized portal which would give him an entrance into the learned world.

“Yet his zeal for certain studies was remarkable, and within eccentric limits his knowledge was so extraordinarily ample and minute that his observations have fairly astounded me. Surely no man would work so hard or attain such precise information unless he had some definite end in view.

“Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning. No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so. (…)

“Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I’m a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is.

“Here in London we have lots of government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight” (A study in scarlet, Chapter 2.)

During this era (Watson is telling stories happened three or four years before, so about 1885-1887) Holmes uncovered the mysteries behind the deaths of Enoch Drebber and his secretary Joseph Stangerson, and the murdering of Bartholomew Sholto, related to the Indian Treasure of Agra.

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Description

“His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded ; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision.

“His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch, as I frequently had occasion to observe when I watched him manipulating his fragile philosophical instruments” (A study in scarlet, Chapter 2).

Holmes may be left-handed or ambidextrous, as at The Sign of Four he keeps his pistol in his right pocket.

Personality

“Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning. Sometimes he spent his day at the chemical laboratory, sometimes in the dissecting-rooms, and occasionally in long walks, which appeared to take him into the lowest portions of the City.

“Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him ; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night.

“On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic [it’s later confirmed that Holmes takes cocaine when he doesn’t find problems to feed his mind], had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion” (A study in scarlet, Chapter 2)

Holmes can be very didactical when asked to demonstrate how did he put his skills to work as he is quite a bit egotistical and a pride peackock when his mental powers are being tested, but he can also grow a tad weary when relating with people who can’t apply those mental disciplines once explained.

Anyway, he is conscious of his superiority and tries to seem merely “epatant”, not overpoweringly intelligent.

Holmes is distrustful of women: “women are never to be entirely trusted,—-not the best of them” (The sign of four, Chapter 9).

Quotes

“It was simplicity itself !”

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth ?”

DC Universe History

Sherlock Holmes is already a citizen of DC’s XIX^th century. His cold, scientific view of life could be tested if introduced to the mystical side of the DC Universe. Some ancestor of John Constantine or the Phantom Stranger, on the other hand, would make good adventure mates for Baker Street’s hound.

In an old Batman annual from the 1980’s Holmes was seen still alive and quick-witted at the Himalaya. That was where he went during his faked death period after the “Final Problem” case.

By KalEl el Vigilante.

Source of Character: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A study in Scarlet (1887), The sign of four(1890) and The adventure of the speckled band (1892).

Helper(s): Peter S. Piispanen, David Johnston, Frank Murdock, Mike Davis, Sébastien Andrivet, Woodrow Hill and Roy Cowan.