Did you check out the first issue of “Bad Medicine” when it was part of Free Comic Book Day last year? Did you then promptly forget about it? Or did you miss it completely, and you’re wondering what “Bad Medicine” is? Read on for a full review of the first five issues under one cover.
Written by Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir
Illustrated by Christopher Mitten
Pulled out of exile from a dark cornor of the world, renowned-surgeon-turned-fringe-medicine-eccentric Doctor Randal Horne must return to New York City to investigate a tragic research lab accident that’s left one man dead, and inexplicably headless. Now with the help of a distrusting NYPD detective he must diagnose whether this strange case was truly a random act of misfortune or the first calculated move by an invisble, psychotic murderer.
120 pages / $19.99
This collection contains two separate stories. The first, accurately described in the solicitation, lasts two issues. It ends with a teaser of an upcoming plotline which isn’t addressed in this volume. The next three chapters are about a werewolf outbreak in smalltown USA, and the efforts by the locals to hide and protect the monster. Along the way, a group who came together by chance in the first story are made into an official team, comprising a new department in the CDC. Imagine the X-Files with supernatural creatures inplace of aliens, and you’ll have a good idea of what this book is.
Throughout the 120 pages, there are some great moments and there are some bad ones. DeFilippis and Weir are able to deliver solid characterization half the time, and the other half is a jumbled mess. Their lead man is well-formed and the team is an interesting mix of personalities, but there’s no reason given for the others to have those personalities. Yes, they make good foils and provide comic relief, but they’re missing depth which would make this series stand out.
The book is well paced, and the chapter breaks are surprisingly smooth. The two investigations are interesting enough, although there’s a bit too much scientific reasoning behind things, like lycanthropy, without any actual explanation. For these stories to work, they need to either embrace science and provide actual reasons for things, or completely handwave them. The half-baked nuggets they’re currently providing only draw attention to the lack of real explanations. Saying “retrovirus” so many times does nothing to explain why a werewolf with silver allergies and moon-controlled transformations would exist in the “real world.”
The weakest part of “Bad Medicine” is Mitten’s art. It’s rough, which fits the tone of the book, but it sometimes causes confusion in the wider shots, where it becomes hard to tell characters apart. Throw in one character’s habit of refering to himself in third person, and you’ll think the word balloons are in the wrong spots. The art also lacks the flow which is essential for sequential story telling. In one scene, a girl is running with a clear view of nothing behind her. She stops a cop car, and tells the driver (who remains in the car) she’s being chased. The next panel has a werewolf atop the car and the policeman outside of it. This is one example, but there are numerous other scenes in the book where you’ll be taken out of the narrative trying to decipher what’s happening. Other times, characters will appear and disappear between panels, with no apparent time lapse from the dialogue.
At twenty bucks, the collection costs just as much as the single issues (or less, if you got the FCBD copy) and comes with nothing in the way of extras.
This review may seem harsh, but this is a great concept which hasn’t quite found its footing yet. While listed as an ongoing, and this book being marketed as “volume one” with a big numeral “1” on the spine, nothing has been solicited for it beyond the five issues reprinted here. If it comes back, and if it finds a new artist, this a book worth keeping an eye on. If not, meh.
Final verdict: 5
