Countdown to Mystery #2

What's interesting about the new Dr. Fate series is trying to figure out what Gerber is doing.

Gerber, when he's on his game (which is pretty much all the time), writes out of the box character studies as much of his oeuvre will attest. And he's on his game here.

The first issue suffered from set-up. This issue is where things happen. Dr. Kent V. Nelson, a man who has sunk as far as a man can in society, starts to crawl back up. And it's not an easy climb. It's humiliating and requires more will power than he had when the first issue started (our intro to Kent is him drunk and being paid to be beaten up for an internet video. But when the video is done, he never gets paid. Just tossed in a dumpster).

While there's lots of "hero action", it's a retelling in a broad sense of the original Dr. Fate's first adventure.

And one of the things that bothered me when the series was first announced was that the main character would have the same name as the original. It seemed odd at the time.

But reading this issue, I'm wondering if Gerber is doing something similar to what he did with Omega The Unknown back in the seventies. i.e., the character study is the series. The super hero stuff is just the reality of publishing.

Don't get me wrong. The hero stuff will be cool -- Gerber is one of comics' masters, like a Rembrandt. But it's sleight-of-hand. Watch the characters to see the real trick.

The back-up story of Eclipso I have mixed feelings about.

They're retconning Eclipso from an equal and sort-of-friend of Darkseid to a lackey of his. So far, the new Eclipso does nothing for me. Maybe it's because I'm not 12 and as impressed by half-naked women.

The Spectre (more JSA) is here as well and so far is a bit neutral re: do I care.

The real star of this series is Plastic Man.

Tired and disillusioned, he returns to a life of crime. The seriousness of the crimes build over the course of the issue. The cliffhanger is him robbing a bank with sawed-off shot guns.

I've no idea where his story is going but you *know* I'm buying next issue to find out.