“Three Fathers”
Creative Staff:
Story: Peter Calloway
Art: Georges Jeanty
Colors: Juancho!
Letterer: Charles Pritchett
What They Say:
Nathaniel got what he wanted: he had the money – a gift from Al Capone – to start his medical practice. He was going to be a doctor.
Then the bomb went off. In the chaotic aftermath – and with a life on the line – Nathaniel was going to learn what taking money from the mafia truly meant.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Peter Calloway really managed to surprise me with this series because I wasn’t expecting much from the book based on the cover artwork. That, and the follow-up issue, both have covers that do not do justice to the material in my mind and work against selling it. Calloway’s tale, based on a true story, is engaging from the start and the second installment digs deeper into it in a lot of ways. Georges Jeanty is putting in some fantastic pages to cover these different time periods and places and that’s added to the excitement in watching the story unfold and seeing all the twists and turns that it goes through as Nathaniel tries to do right by people.
While this issue is quite good overall, it’s a bit of a step down from the previous one mostly because of the flashback material. I figured we’d get more based on what the first two issues did and this one opening with Nathaniel and his father works well to show what kind of influence he had on his life. But there are some curious moments within it until Nathaniel’s mother takes him and runs off into the night with him before it shifts a few years later to Nathanial getting into an accident in the countryside where he connects with a local shaman-type. This has Nathanial getting his first taste of medicine in a way and it has him staying there for quite some time to answer a question that he’s given. It’s all designed to teach him a truth and the value of various kinds of work that we’ve seen play out before, but something about it just felt very out of place amid everything else, especially the pacing of it.
The adult material with Nathanial works better as we see him being tasked to save one of Capone’s men’s life after the shootout that happened. He’s panicking as Capone brings him to the office he just gave him and with Capone’s demands to save him since nothing about this situation has been properly setup to handle something like this. Nathanial’s refusals are not met well but I do like that Capone basically views it as he just needs to get what Nathanial needs in order to perform surgery on him. That leads to its own small side story as well as circling back to the kind of standoff the two men have going on because of this. It does show the strength of personality for both and how Nathanial is going to be the rare person that will stand up to Capone, though it all reinforces the need for better facilities out there.
In Summary:
Shadow Doctor continues to be a really good book and I like a lot of what’s going on here. The flashback side is where it feels like it gets into trouble even though it’s probably some good core foundational material for our leading character. But as presented, it just feels a little too much and mucks with the pacing and intensity of the present storyline involving one of Capone’s guys getting shot. Calloway keeps the dialogue moving well and pretty engaging, especially in those later scenes, and Jeanty’s artwork continues to beautifully capture this time period in a really fascinating way.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: April 28th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
