“Now, Now, Very Now”
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 finishes out the story of his grandfather in this particular point in time, one that because it’s the final issue is one that has a lot going on and some mild almost montage-like moments in order to get us to where it needs to be. I’d love to see an actual epilogue issue or special just to show how his life moved from there to what allowed him to go forward away from it all. 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 and himself, which has gotten increasingly harder and harder.
With it being 1930 now and things heating up in Chicago, we get one of the things that helps to reshape what’s going on in Nathaniel’s life because Capone’s life is about to change. With some outside help brought in on the down low, a new war is being fought in Chicago and Joe Aiello is pushing back hard on Capone and his holdings. What’s surprising him is that his men end up getting back out onto the street quickly, and when he discovers that it’s Nathaniel that’s responsible, he’s seriously impressed. It’s an unexpected move in his mind for someone like Capone and he knows he can use Nathaniel against him because he’s now in the middle with no choice but to slow down some of these recoveries he’s been helping with. Nathaniel’s not keen on it but he has so few options. But the reality is, it’s Capone that does himself him by some overt and blunt racism that reminds Nathaniel of his long and hard journey to this point in time.
With a mix of material showing Nathaniel in the hospital talking to his son years later, we get a little more of that to flesh things out there and how he viewed his choices. Jeanty’s artwork during the wordless sequence after Capone’s racism really drives home what Nathaniel is feeling and the impact on him which has him throwing the towel in on the whole situation to do the right thing. It’s a slow piece that has the right feeling to it, walking down to the halls of justice and all of that, but it brings things to a close appropriately enough. I do wonder how well all of that went over, whether he was truly listened to, given credit for any of it, or just used and tossed to the side without being thought of again.
In Summary:
Shadow Doctor was a really engaging series based on real-world events that sheds some additional light on a well-known series of events. I liked the look at things that we got here because it’s to the side of what’s usually presented and opens us up to a lot of new elements and events that were going on and highlights what was hidden for years. Calloway’s script worked well to bring it to light in an engaging way and Jeanty’s artwork was perfect for it in bringing it to life. I just wish the series had better covers to it and I’m excited for the experience first-time readers will get in the collected edition eventually.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: July 28th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
