A review by rickklaw
Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang
5.0
An intriguing piece of metafiction, Doctor 13: Architecture & Mortality restores some of the fun in the DC universe. Using Doctor Thirteen, the world's foremost skeptic who denies that anything supernatural or unexplainable exists, as the centerpiece of a quasi-team of truly forgotten and often forgettable DC characters, Brian Azzarello scripts a surprisingly amusing and insightful treatise into the world of contemporary comics. Genius Jones (created by Alfred Bester!), I...Vampire, Anthro, the Primate Patrol (a team of intelligent Nazi gorillas!), Infectious Lass (of Legion of Substitute Heroes fame), the ghost of 19th-century Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart (from The Haunted Tank) and Thirteen's magic-wielding daughter Traci join Thirteen as he challenges the mysterious Architects--the shapers of the universe--, who wish to retcon him and the others out of existence. Azzarello employs no subtlety or diversion here as events unfold quickly.
J.E.B. Stuart: Who are The Architects?
Genius Jones: The ones who decide who's who and who isn't. The are the official guides to the universe. When it was decided that the one fashioned by The Architects that preceded them didn't make cents they knocked the old one down and built a new one. This is the fourth time it's happened-- in this universe.
Traci Thirteen: "This universe?"
Genius Jones: There's another universe that these Architects are at war with. One that reinvents itself every summer-- So "things will never be the same again," it claims.
Artist Cliff Chiang's clean lines and emoting faces further enhance the story. Chang clearly had fun here. What artist would not when drawing yetis, pirates, and apes? I'd have fun and I can't draw a lick.
J.E.B. Stuart: Who are The Architects?
Genius Jones: The ones who decide who's who and who isn't. The are the official guides to the universe. When it was decided that the one fashioned by The Architects that preceded them didn't make cents they knocked the old one down and built a new one. This is the fourth time it's happened-- in this universe.
Traci Thirteen: "This universe?"
Genius Jones: There's another universe that these Architects are at war with. One that reinvents itself every summer-- So "things will never be the same again," it claims.
Artist Cliff Chiang's clean lines and emoting faces further enhance the story. Chang clearly had fun here. What artist would not when drawing yetis, pirates, and apes? I'd have fun and I can't draw a lick.