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Doctor Spektor #1 – Can the New Series Survive?

By Hervé St-Louis
July 7, 2014 - 13:33

Doctor Spektor is one of the Gold Key properties that Dynamite Publishing is attempting to revive. Most Gold Key properties also appeared in the 1990s Valiant Comics’ universe as core characters. Unlike Magnus Robot Fighter, Solar Man of the Atom and Turok Dinosaur Hunter, Doctor Spektor appeared late at Valiant. Unlike the others, he isn’t a super hero or an adventurer. Can a non-super-hero reboot work?

Mark Waid continues the tradition. He makes Spektor an occult investigator. The hero is not a Mandrake type of character or magical super hero like Doctor Strange. Here, he is also the star of his own reality television series where he chases paranormal creatures. In the first issue, Doctor Spektor chases a vampire on camera but then investigates a weird fortune teller he suspects is a sham. His interaction with the fortune teller releases a creature from another dimension. The creature then murders Spektor’s friend and producer. It also makes him see a strange woman he has been chasing all his life. This is a solid Mark Waid story and premise set in our modern world. It also is the one series that ties in all the other Gold Key properties in a meta-narrative.

So far, I’m impressed. I thought that I would get tired from reading stories written by Mark Waid. Writers can overextend themselves sometimes. Waid fails to become another Chuck Dixon and add something unique to this series. Yet, although Doctor Spektor is not clad as a super hero, it still feels like a super hero series. I’m not sure if this series will survive. Writing stories about magical characters can be tough. Waid borrowed from the John Constantine and Hellblazer rule book. Spektor appeared years before Constantine. Yet some of the latter’s charm and cockiness is visible in the former.

Neil Edwards is a solid illustrator whose work seems to be as good with super heroes as with drawing regular folks. Most of the issue contains with regular folks. His work is cleaner than the average Vertigo series from DC Comics. I’m looking forward for more adventures from this series but I’m not sure if enough readers will notice it and give it a chance.

Rating: 8.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12