Hyde Street #9 // Review
There was a Doctor Ego who had been dishonorably discharged from the military. He went on to practice plastic surgery. There was a girl he operated on...a girl named Norma Jeane. Doctor Ego’s son is. going to visit her. He’s curious about what his father does. It’s a line of work that he’s destined to get into in Hyde Street #9. Writer Geoff Johns continues an intriguing anthology of horror with artist Francis Portela and colorist Brad Anderson. It’s more of a character sketch than an actual story as it gets into the origin of Hyde Street’s resident physician.
The younger Doctor Eugene Ego set-up a practice in Beverly Hills. He might not have had the most ethical practice, but it wasn’t like he was completely heartless. If peple came to him with horrible scars, he would work pro-bono. Of course...if someone had come to him in need of new tissue he might find the materials he might need in a local cemetery, but he was always perfectly professional about his work. Still...darker matters gradually overcame him and he found himself practicing on various unfortunates who would find themselves in need of medical help...on Hyde Street.
Johns expands the mythology of Hyde Street a bit more as it draws a legendary celebrity into the orbit of the series to amplify a bit of the narrative. Pop cultural elements have been circulating around the edges of the series in nearly every issue. In a way, Hyde Street feels a bit like a dissection of the contemporary American consciousness as fed through the popular culture of the 20th century. Johns may be creating a quaint, little universe of characters that exist on a fictional street of the damned, but what he’s placing on that street reflects the shadows of contemporary culture.
There’s a lot of subtlety in Johns’ script that might have been a bit mangled by an artist who wasn’t totally aigned with the concept of the script. It’s an issue about beauty that crosses through a lot of different shades of dramatic subtlety. Portela’s nuanced precision does Johns’ script the great service of adding layers and levels of characterizaton that go way beyond the surface of the drama. It’s remarkably clever stuff on a visual level that feels cold, clinical AND deeply connected to the gravity of human emotion. It’s very delicate stuff that comes across quite well.
Johns casts a critical gaze at a lot of human imperfection. With the ninth issue, he’s drawing the spotlight into the heart of human perfection...both inner and outer...both perceived and created. There are a lot of different directions that John's could go into with respect to this particular character. Really, you could get his own series and there wouldn't be any end of possibilities for exploration into the nature of. beauty and imperfction on the edge of contemporary consciousness. One issue isn’t enough to cover the possibilities with Dr. Ego. We need more.
