Doctor Mirage #3 // Review
Now that she knows that there’s something wrong with her, a physician is looking to heal herself. Before she can do that, she’s going to have to figure out just precisely where the Hell she is. And she’s beginning to suspect that Hell isn’t where she is as Doctor Mirage enters its third issue. Writer Magdalene Visaggio enters weirdly cool Egyptian territory in a story drawn by Nick Robles. Color comes to the page courtesy of Jordie Bellaire. The mysticism in the story begins to navigate towards the center of the page of this issue, which amplifies the overall feel of an homage to Dr. Strange. Still, the heroine here has more than enough charisma to make this issue feel fresh.
Doctor Mirage walks a strange afterlife with a strange girl who seems to be her only contact with her late husband. The young woman claims that they’re in Hell, citing floating pyramids in the sky as proof, but Doctor Mirage has her doubts. These doubts are expanded as the good doctor, and her guide are accosted by an ancient Egyptian god of embalming. The god recognizes unwelcome mortals when it sees them and promptly sets about the process of bringing about a very final death for them. Doctor Mirage goes to work to rectify the situation.
The clever specifics of Visaggio’s story begins to recede into a more traditional superhero magician action story. Doctor Mirage takes a closer walk with her magician physician colleagues at other publishers like Doctor Strange and Doctor Fate. It’s classy stuff, but it’s scarcely taking advantage of the unique mysteries that Visaggio has brought to the page in the series thus far. Doctor Mirage’s distinctive personality overrides the shadowy echo of her comic book precursors with a very distinct heroic figure that plays well against the action.
Robles’ art is respectably fantastic. There may not be a sense of breathtaking magic on the page, but Robles’ sharp sense of page composition and the witty flow of action across the page brings the action vividly to the page. Bellaire’s colors give life to the movement without any fantastic illumination. Hell of\r not, the world in which Mirage has come to find herself lacks a visual impact that would make it feel genuinely dynamic. The Egyptian god of embalming DOES look like a powerfully menacing adversary, though. There appears to be real terrorism in the conflict between that adversary and Dr. Mirage.
A little bit more has been revealed about the mystery, and the things seem to be going in an interesting direction. Even if this particular issue feels more of an exercise in replicating kind of magic, which has been bound to the page by more prominent publishers elsewhere. The story could potentially turn into something really special as it further mystery is revealed in the final issues of the miniseries.
