Written by: Paul Levitz
Art by: Sonny Liew
Publisher: DC Comics
When I heard Doctor Fate was getting his own series in divergence I was overjoyed as I was happy that DC were finally showing off some of their lesser known heroes (I, personally, would love a new The Atom series). That said my experience with Fate is rather lacking, having only seen him in Multiversity and a few issues of JSA I’ve read but fortunately he only shows up in the penultimate three pages so that hopefully won’t be too much of a problem.
The first issue is spent covering the basics; here’s our hero, here’s the people close to him, here’s foreshadowing to his upcoming big dilemma (flooding caused by angry Egyptian god, Anubis) and here he is becoming a super hero. There’s not much to say outside of that, it’s pretty formulaic and if you read the preview you’d miss very little by skipping to the final four pages. I feel that the book could’ve taken advantage of the set up which was provided by the preview and should have just jumped into the middle of things like The Omega Men did but Levitz seemingly chose not to which disappoints me as I question the need for this issue.
For those of you who haven’t read the preview, the new Doctor Fate is a medical student from Brooklyn called Khalid Nassor who is feeling overwhelmed from his busy life. As to what Khalid is like as a person, the reader is very little to go on in this issue and the preview other than that he’ll help people whenever he can but honestly, he just comes off as very bland and flat in his character (the preview does do a better job in this showing by attempting mild humour but these all seem to fall flat). Khalid’s girlfriend, Shaya, seems much more interesting than him (to the point where I almost wish she was the focus) even though she’s only present for a few panels. Shaya is also a med student and is snarky, witty, ambitious and her feelings for Khalid come across clearly in what she says although the reverse is not true.
The art is … ok, I guess. I don’t particularly care for its simplistic and somewhat cartoony style which reminded me a bit of Jeff Lemire’s Underwater Welder but with less detail and everything is very ‘wibbley-wobbley’, which can be seen best in how clothes sit on people in the comic. About half way through the book I realised that Khalid rarely shows any extreme emotion and instead sits with a look of mild surprise, this is best shown when Khalid is in danger of being run over by a train and yells, ‘STOP!!!‘ while looking like he’s trying to swat at a mildly irritating fly with his eyes closed. As well as all this, the colour choices for the most part are all very bland and inexpressive, I understand this is due to the storm going on but Matt Fractions’s Hawkeye (Hawkguy) had similar settings but still managed to bring out colourful and interesting panels. Things really only start to brighten up when Dr. Fate comes onto the scene and this gives me hope that the series may pick up now that Nabu has taken the stage.
Overall I get the impression that Levitz was told to give DC Ms. Marvel but different. I mean this in that the issue has similar tones, a young main character who has to deal an with older generation (their parents) unexpectedly obtaining mysterious superpowers with a supporting cast of their peers. There is more than that but I’m afraid I can’t quite put my finger on it. My main problem with the issue is that it lacks its own unique character and I’m incredibly underwhelmed by it. The series may improve as time goes on, I certainly hope so and look forward to finding out, but a lot of improvement needs to be carried out in order for Doctor Fate to make me feel ‘whelmed’.
