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Countdown to Mystery #8
Posted 29 May 2008
Writer: Matthew Sturges (Eclipso); Adam Beechen, Mark Evanier, Mark Waid, Gail Simone (Dr. Fate)
Artist: Chad Hardin (Eclipso and Dr. Fate); Stephen Jorge Segovia, Joe Bennett, Michael O’Hare (Dr. Fate); Ethan Van Sciver (cover)
Letters: Swands (Eclipso and Dr. Fate)
Ink: Robert Campanella (Eclipso); Belardino Brabo, John Floyd, Walden Wong (Dr. Fate)
Colors: Dan Brown (Eclipso); Cris Chuckry (Dr. Fate); Moose Baumann (cover)
Publisher: DC Comics
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Adam McGovern
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Steve Gerber knew, or at least his work implied, that closure is
for wimps and neat endings are illusions. The first thought is
actually a comfort for fans who don’t want him forgotten, and
the second is for those who’d rather feel he’s not fully
gone. Both suit the laconic mysticism of the Dr. Fate series
Gerber left in progress at his death. And true to the departed creator
whom four fans and friends are finishing it for, its characters come
to no conclusions, but they do find a way out.
“Four possible finales for the unfinished
Dr. Fate switch the
perspective on the dramas we thought we were seeing.”
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The final issue sets
four mirrors facing each other, with each writer given just four
pages to divine what Gerber might have done. The only thing
that’s certain is he would have delighted in the combustion
of ideas, and these parallel finales honor his vision’s
possibilities.
Like the
series’ analytical hero, each writer accurately judges that
the goal of this introductory arc was an escape and not a conflict
– ironic for the withdrawn, responsibility-averse ex-shrink
who for seven issues relapsed his way to becoming a more
metaphysical kind of wiseman. But psychotherapists and
interdimensional adventurers alike know about breakthroughs, and
each of these stories switches the perspective on the
decline-and-fall narratives, otherworldly kidnapping thrillers and
demon-rivalry dramas we thought we were seeing.
Four pages is not a
lot of space to avoid dropping spoilers about, but suffice it to
say that the series’ archetypal ingredients of mystic chance
(the Vegas locale) and reason confounding force (the psychiatric
profession), not to mention Gerber’s affection for absurdity
and the ironic self-aware presence of his authorial voice in
ostensibly fictional stories, are applied in most unpredictable
ways to the problems of how to accept your anointment as a sorcerer
supreme, retrieve your friends from hell and confront belligerent
behemoths. Expect humor at to-say-the-least surprising moments and
character conflicts turning on uncommon defects or resources within
the players themselves.
Adam Beechen’s
and Gail Simone’s stories overlap with Gerber’s
biography in a meta-narrative way that’s entirely apt now
that he himself resides in the mind’s eye, Beechen channeling
Gerber’s deadpan irreverence and Simone his exuberance for
the bizarre. Mark Evanier conjures a meditative scenario with an
implicitly cyclical structure and a kind of floating momentum, even
while the Gerber sensibility liberates him for a refreshing
bitchiness not common to Evanier’s congenial work. Mark Waid,
the mainstream master who might have been most out of place here,
may deliver the story most satisfyingly empathetic with the thrust
of Gerber’s series, leaving Steve explicitly out of it while
showing characters eschewing irrational exuberance and chuckling at
the abyss in a way that makes him leap off the page, not to mention
altering the story’s state of consciousness with that most
signature of Gerber gimmicks, the introspective mid-scene text
page.
The four artists,
Stephen Jorge Segovia, Joe Bennett, Michael O’Hare and Chad
Hardin, all conjure the intricacies and atmospheres of the regular
series’ star artist Justiniano well, with the versatile
swirling elegance and jagged immediacy of inker John Floyd worthy
of special note on the Waid/O’Hare story.
It would be unfair to
ignore the more conventional (yet still somewhat unusual) climax of
the Eclipso series that took over the front of the book
several months ago. The editors seem to have let up on writer
Matthew Sturges enough for him to give a sense of real mystic
consequence and eccentric spooky folklore flavor, alongside weird
Craig Russell-meets-Gil-Kane visuals from Chad Hardin and Robert
Campanella, for a satisfying spiritual blockbuster fit to share the
magazine with Gerber’s Lovecraftian punk saga.
The supernatural
odyssey Gerber was building with Dr. Fate was so personal
and textured that, eternal cliffhanger or no, it was tempting to
think he deserved to take it with him. But that wasn’t his
nature, and the creators here have achieved a blessed and inspired
sharing of gifts.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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