The surrealness continues!
Creative Staff:
Story: Paul Levitz
Art: Sonny Liew
Colors:Lee Loughridge
What They Say:
Doctor Fate travels to Egypt, where the young hero discovers that an ancient, malevolent superpower is making things unduly difficult for his ancestral homeland.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The slower approach that Doctor Fate takes has certainly worked in its favor for the most part as the decompressed aspect of it lets us dig into Khalid’s journey in a good way. Rather than him instantly having access to his powers and understanding them to some degree, he struggles with everything. And that’s simply a big part of who he is as he struggles with family life, relationships, and school. So adding this side to things is natural in that it would feel that way. At the same time, the slowness of the stories can be a little off-putting because it feels like it’s taking a little longer to get where we need to go and that the journey itself isn’t as engaging as it could be – storywise. Sonny Liew’s artwork makes it a great journey in general just to take in the designs and the magical aspects of it, which he gets to do in mostly cartoonish form here to good effect.
With this issue we get a few smaller pieces moving along that are interesting that I wish we had more of. As much as I like his Doctor Fate time, what appealed early on was Khalid’s life and family as it was some interesting and well done representation. He’s ensnared elsewhere this time around so we see it through his family and Akilla as they help her recover from the protest and arrest that Khalid rescued her from. There’s uncertainty from all three of them about what’s going on with Khalid all while still mostly believing that he’s a good person. But Khalid’s troubles are brewing elsewhere as well as the school is getting ready to toss him out, even though it’ll mess with their rankings, since he’s barely attending. Considering what he’s been mired in – and the city in general with the heavy rains – it’s no surprise that events are playing out like this. The double life aspect is something that’s a staple of superhero comics but there hasn’t been enough of an investment ye tto make this resonate.
The bulk of this issue has Khalid trying to figure out how to rescue the rest of the protesters from the detention cell that they’re in. Normally it might not be something he’d do but considering they’re surrounded by malicious ancient spirits he’s certainly justified in doing this. A good portion of it is again the frustration he has in not knowing his abilities and getting no real help from Nabu outside of a cryptic phrase or two all while real threats are in the mix. It’s played out like this in past installments so it’s more of the same but the challenge is welcome in the spirits he faces and what he learns with his ability to move through floors. That has a great little moment as he realizes the complications of the world through seeing what’s really making up the foundations of it, though that doesn’t get as much as it should before he’s tossed into an even more complicated set of spirits wanting to eliminate him.
In Summary:
Similar to the first arc of the series I find myself uncertain of where Levitz and Liew want to take Doctor Fate. It’s a curious journey that feels a little more like an indie title but not fully committed to digging into the bigger issues or philosophies to make it stand out. It’s engaging and interesting but it’s lacking a strong enough narrative focus with the story itself to carry it from issue to issue as a monthly, which has me curious if it reads better in trade form. Liew’s artwork continues to be a delight and this installment is no exception, especially with how cartoonish he gets at the end with the Centurions and their presentation. I like the look of the book and the characters, especially with the color work that Loughridge does, and that makes the book a joy to read just from that alone.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 16th, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
