DC Comics
Writer: J.T. Krul
Penciller: Alex Sanchez
Inker: Jack Purcell
Cover: Steve Uy
This is the second part of a story where Doctor Mid-nite tries to stop a vampire-like villain from murdering able-bodied men and women. After being attacked by the killer last issue, the Doctor has to get a grasp on reality before he can hope to stop this villain. Will he find enough backup in science to deduce where the vampire will hit next?
Ultimately, spotlight series such as JSA Classified are useless, if the stories do not make the characters more interesting. This is the type of story that no one will remember in years to come. Doctor Mid-nite seems intent on proving that science is the way to elucidate the murder. Yet, as much as he is a man of science, we also know that he is a catholic. Mix in vampires and voila, instant inner conflict over beliefs and science.
Instead, of giving us smart motivation and inner turmoil based on the character’s background, we have a shallow struggle of a character trying to play CSI Miami. The other problem with this story, is that there are vampires in the DC Comics’ universe. Yet, Doctor Mid-nite keeps telling himself that they don’t exist. This is where a shared universe can strain a story. But instead, again of doing some research on past vampires in the DC universe, Krul favours saying that they don’t exist. If Doctor Mid-nite had acknowledged that some of his colleagues have met vampires in the past, this would have cast even more doubts on his beliefs in science.
The ridiculous rumblings of the murderer at the end of the story only play the pseudo intellectual clichés of whether we should believe the villain or not. That’s a good way to introduce a recurring villain, but a bad way to introduce Doctor Mid-nite to new readers. Ultimately, this series’ intent is to make characters like Mid-nite more interesting, yet he is plagued by another appearance from Mr Terrific who borrows the same modus operandi - well almost. Wasn’t this supposed to show us how different the Doctor was from the third smartest man alive? All the care and passion of the Doctor are lost on this story and he is but a container going through motions.
As for the artwork, it works, although this is not the best representation of Doctor Mid-nite. The vampire, under Sanchez’s pencil looks fine, but the Guy Davis-like quality of the work does not suit this story.
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