“Do No Harm”
Creative Staff:
Story: Peter Calloway
Art: Georges Jeanty
Colors: Juancho!
Letterer: Charles Pritchett
What They Say:
The attempt on Capone’s life ignited a bloody battle between the Italians of Chicago. With war now raging, Nathaniel was realizing what he was: a tool. One to be used to patch up the gangsters he knew would kill again. He wants out, wants to undo what he’s done…until a knock on his door changes everything.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Peter Calloway continues to deliver a strong story even if the cover artwork for it belies the strength of what’s within. This issue brings us the penultimate installment of it and it already feels like things are going to end too quickly and we aren’t going to get enough time with our lead here. 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.
With this penultimate chapter, we get to see more of the struggle that Nathanial has as he realizes he’s in a bad place with his medicine. He’s fought hard to get where he is in terms of education for himself but there’s significant education of others that still has to happen. White patients clearly won’t see him during the day but his own people won’t see him either with their massive distrust of white medicine. So it was welcome to see Nathanial make his way out into the local community to try and help in person, even if it was met with harsh resistance that must have won his soul down even more. When he does end up coming across a young girl that needs help and his penicillin, he’s all business and doing what needs doing, which includes getting the mother to let him help her before she simply ends up dying.
The contrast with his nights is just as brutal in a different way. Nathaniel is helping a whole lot of Al’s guys get medical care and he knows it’s the right thing to do. But he also knows he’s supposed to report it and he’s not doing that so he’s broken his oath in that regard, which shames him. But the deeper part is that he knows that he’s putting these guys back together and they’re just going into the streets again to kill more and he’s responsible for those deaths. That’s a hard position to be in and one that doctors that work in hospitals also end up dealing with to some degree, knowing that someone they helped likely went out and killed or hurt someone again after what they did. It’s a separation that they have to really come to and watching Nathanial struggle with it here is solid.
In Summary:
Shadow Doctor is a thoroughly engaging book from start to finish with each issue and this one is no exception. Watching Nathanial deal with events in front of him here and the way he’s being pushed and pulled yet will be all alone in the end is tough to watch. You can see how things are going to turn, past and present, but it doesn’t remove the sting or the shame one feels over seeing events unfold as they do. It’s a low-key story this time around but it provides good insights into what Nathaniel is thinking and why he ends up like he does decades later.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: May 26th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
