100 BULLETS‘ Brian Azzarello plumbs the DC Universe for obscure characters for a story about being an obscure character in DOCTOR 13: ARCHITECTURE AND MORALITY. Ignore the rather academic-sounding title; this eight-issue collection is a self-referential comedy romp.
As witnessed in the early adventures of THE PHANTOM STRANGER, Dr. Terry Thirteen is a paranormal investigator who doesn’t believe in the paranormal, despite all surrounding evidence to the contrary. In the STRANGER series, he’s presented as an antagonistic hard-ass, but here, he’s a likable – if occasionally oblivious – hero.
Taking along his daughter Traci, Dr. Thirteen is called upon by the Premier of France to investigate a plane crash in the French Alps. No sooner have they stepped foot on the snow that they encounter a yeti … or at least what appears to be a yeti, yet actually is Lord Andrew Bennett, the bloodsucker from I, VAMPIRE, a once short-lived DC title. Pay notice to this trend.
This chance introduction leads to many more, including Cro-Magnon cave boy Anthro, ghost pirate Captain Fear, diseased Legion of Super-Heroes member Infectious Lass, the the Haunted Tank‘s spiritual leader Gen. Stuart and a caped kid named Genius Jones, who can answer any question for a dime. Traci – who’s actually a sorceress – is kidnapped by the Primate Patrol, an army of Nazi talking gorillas.
Even with all this inexplicable phenomena at every turn of the page, Dr. Thirteen tries to explain it all away rationally, until he reaches a point where he simply cannot. With so many players in the mix, the end may not tie up all that nicely – in fact, it closes with intentional coarse abruptness at the expense of the reader – but the ride there is a spring-loaded and speedy one.
Azzarello is one of the few comics writers today who can make a joke – whether ribald or not – actually funny, but it’s artist Cliff Chiang who gives the book so much juice. With bold outlines and an almost child-like reverence for some of these forgotten players, his illustrations are impeccable and infectious.
ARCHITECTURE AND MORALITY may play even better to the more hardcore DC fans whose knowledge of peripheral characters is encyclopedic (Black Manta! Yes!), but geekdom is not a requirement. I didn’t know who most of these characters were beforehand and still had a blast. –Rod Lott
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This one’s in the running for one of my favorite collections of the year.