The Fate of DNA.
Creative Staff:
Story: Paul Levitz
Art: Sonny Liew
Colors:Lee Loughridge
What They Say:
One of the most acclaimed new DC Comics series concludes its first amazing epic as Anubis defeats Fate and takes his body and soul on a surreal journey into the ancient and mystical House of the Dead.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening arc for the Doctor Fate series concludes here and it just feels kind of weird to have a seven issue opener. It shouldn’t, but we’ve been trained for years with the whole six issue thing and some of us come from an age where origin and opening stories were dealt within a single issue or maybe three before moving on to the next thing. Though I’ve had issue with how some of this has felt drawn out at times, the upside to it is that Liew got to really explore some great visuals based off what he and Levitz were crafting, resulting in some beautiful sequences that made all of this a richer experience. Could it have been compressed a bit more? I’m sure it could without losing anything, but I’m glad the book appears to be supportable while working this route.
With the finale, things certainly take on an interesting tone throughout it as Khalid is largely relegated to having something akin to an out of body experience while being in his body. Having given up his life to Anubis, he now finds himself brought down to Duat and taken through various stages and areas of it. With it practically a forgotten layer after all these centuries where worship has disappeared for these gods, it’s an interesting exploration just on that alone. Anubis has his own sense of pride about it to be sure and you have to love the way he goes on and on about how he’s going to torment Khalid, even though you know he won’t. Part of me almost wishes that he was able to spend thousands of years doing so in the blink of an eye as I’d be really curious to see how Khalid would have to grapple and change with all of that.
Naturally, there are little nudges that start to put things in place as Thoth is moving to be ready for when Khalid is ready to accept his heritage, his DNA, and his ancestry. It’s nicely laid out and prepared, but it hits the right notes when Thoth appears and works the situation to allow Khalid to challenge Anubis, all while calling out Anubis for how he’s cheating the system that they have in place since Atum is not there to weight the scales. Khalid is revealed to be the hero they need, the scale certainly proves that much to Anubis’ chagrin, and we get the expected closure sequence that brings the battle down. It’s not an extended and drawn out knockout kind of fight, since that wouldn’t be right here, but it has a sense of real power and scope to it that helps to make it feel important all while allowing Khalid to process it and realize that he has so much more ahead of him – as much as he still wants to be done with it all.
In Summary:
I love the character of Doctor Fate from oh so many years ago and am thrilled with this new version and interpretation of him. It feels richer and more nuanced and while a good bit of that is the writing, the artwork is what’s taking it to a whole other level. Liew has tapped into exactly the kind of style that it needs, much like the really beautifully styled designs we got during the McManus run that had its own magic. Liew and Levitz are putting together something really fantastic here and I continue to feel like I wish there were several years worth of stories already and I was getting the magic of discovery in the back issue bins. The wait from issue to issue is far too long, but ultimately worth it.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 30th, 2015
MSRP: $2.99
