Polite Dissent

Metadocs #0 was recently published by Antarctic Press. Written by physician Joe Dunn, this full color comic concerns the doctors staffing a special super-hero emergency room. I pre-ordered it several months ago when it was mentioned in Previews because it piqued my interest. Super-heroes and doctors? Of course I’m going to read it!

And now that I’ve read it, how does it hold up?

The comic opens with a nice splash page showing the main characters. In the background is the faint image of DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man — in costume.

The story itself starts out slightly cliché. Young Doctor Rayos is commuting to his first day of work at Metamedical Central, the super hero hospital, and can’t help but tell everybody else on the train about how excited he is. How many times have we seen this scene?

His plans are delayed when the train is caught in the middle of a battle between the evil Lord Drehd and a team of super heroes. During the fight, two of them are severely injured. Stalagmite is large rocky hero who looks something like a giant armadillo. He is skewered by a building spire. Gravity Girl saves the train using her gravity powers; however, trying to stop a heavy building from crashing down on the crowd of bystanders causes some sort of neurological damage leading to seizures and unconsciousness.

Specially trained and equipped paramedics arrive led by Dr. Wayne, the head of the Metamedical ER. Dr. Rayos identifies himself and assists in the medical care of Stalagmite and Gravity Girl. Both are stabilized in the field and transported to the hospital.

As the story details the treatment of Stalagmite and Gravity Girl at Metamedical Cental, a variety of other physicians are introduced. There is a speedster, a magician, and a nature empath, just to name a few. Each character is introduced logically through the course of the story and there is no visit from the dreaded exposition fairy. When Lord Drehd, the villain who started all the problems is brought to the hospital the story picks up speed.

The medicine is well thought out and very well done. To me, it’s the highlight of the comic. Both the script and the art take into account the special needs required in treating super-powered patients. For instance, medication doses are higher than normal and both mechanical ventilation and cardiac resuscitation require extra power. Careful attention is given to how much IV fluid and units of blood the extra-large Stalagmite will require and the special equipment that must be used to assess his status. It was nice to see a comic book medical story that actually follows the ABCs and other principals of medicine.

My only medical concern is the field treatment of Stalagmite. Removing the penetrating foreign body is likely to increase his blood loss, and should have been performed in the hospital and not the field.

The art by Rod Espinoza is good. The action is drawn well and each character is clearly distinguishable. The heroes, villains, and physicians are well thought out, though clearly based on common comic book archetypes. The art is strongly manga influenced — no surprise as the book is published by Antarctic Press — but I found it distracting from the story at times. Don’t get me wrong: it’s good art and proficiently done, there are just scenes where the manga-style seems a detriment.

There are several spelling error and typos in the comic. It’s telemetry not telemitry, and aneurysm is spelled two different ways within just a few panels. The indicia lists this comic as Metadocs #1 instead of #0. However, there is a line of lyrics from the Vapors buried in the indicia, so that earns some extra points.

Metadocs #0 is very enjoyable comic. It explores an aspect of the super-hero world barely mentioned by other comics. While the story starts out a little by-the-book, it quickly redeems itself and presents interesting characters and interesting situations. The art is first-rate, though at times a little too manga-styled for my taste. The medical aspect of the book is handled extremely well. Anyone who enjoys super-hero comics should enjoy this book. It would also be a good choice for readers who like television medical shows but not necessarily super-heroes or comic books.