Review: Doctor Fate Vol. 1- The Blood Price
Quick Summary
Pros: The characters and their personal struggles are all interesting. The volume’s conclusion is exciting and engaging. The visuals look nice and suit the comic.
Cons: The majority of the book is focused too much on setup, causing it to lose much of its appeal.
Overall: This is a moderately promising start to a new take on Doctor Fate. This comic starts a compelling cast of characters, centers around an interesting premise, contains some solid visuals, and concludes with an awesome finale. The biggest problem is that the volume starts very slow, with many of the opening chapters being pretty lackluster. In the end, this collection is for readers looking for a rather unique DC book, particularly those interested in Egyptian mythology.
Story
Doctor Fate Vol. 1: The Blood Price, by Paul Levitz, is an alright opening to a new series. The volume kicks off a bit slow. It takes time to introduce an interesting cast of characters and begins to make connections between the comic’s lead and the gods of ancient Egypt. However, the conflict in these opening chapters is lackluster and some of the dialogue/narration ends up feeling repetitive. Luckily, the conclusion is engaging enough to save the volume as a whole and indicate that this series may still be worthwhile. I could see this series go either way in the future but, right now, I’m tentatively hopeful for the future of Doctor Fate.
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The opening chapters are moderately interesting in the way they develop the new Doctor Fate and his circle of friends and family. Khalid lives a relatively normal life that is upturned by the arrival of the Helmet of Fate. It creates a situation similar to Spider-Man’s early days but with an interesting twist brought on by Khalid’s status as a medical school student and his Egyptian-American ancestry.
Unfortunately, these opening chapters spend far too much time developing this aspect of the story and not enough time developing this comic’s superhero narrative. Almost all of the early chapters simply throw in a random threat for Khalid to take care of and most barely even take time to deal with the consequences of whatever action takes place. Plus, the writing in these chapters feels repetitive, with Bastet and Anubis’ warnings simply being repeated in a different format.
Things only truly start to get interesting as The Blood Price reaches its conclusion. Here, Khalid “dies” and is forced to fight Anubis for the fate of his soul, eventually defeating the god of death. It is an exciting and engaging battle that deeply entrenches Khalid in the mythos of the Egyptian gods. For me, a worthwhile conclusion like this sparked continued interest in the series, as it proved that this comic is capable of much more than the first few chapters indicated.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The visuals in Doctor Fate suit the unique nature of this comic. Sonny Liew heavily stylized imagery has a unique charm to it and is structured well. It gives each of the characters a defined look and also allows Egyptian mythology to appear terrifying or magical, depending on what the story needs at the moment. These visuals aren’t going to blow anyone’s mind but are definitely appealing in their own way.
Where The Blood Price makes it mark though is in its splash pages. On these pages, the artwork is let loose and some beautiful imagery comes to the forefront. There are creative depictions of magic, visuals that represent throwbacks to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and structures that say plenty all on their own. I really enjoyed when these full-page spreads popped up and found that they seriously added to the comic’s overall appeal.
Continuity
Doctor Fate Vol. 1: The Blood Price starts a new Doctor Fate series and does not require and prerequisite reading.
The story here continues in Doctor Fate Vol. 2: Prisoners of the Past (Review).