Writer: Al Ewing & Jason Aaron

Art: Pere Pérez & Jesus Aburtov

Release Date: December 12th, 2019

Price: $3.99USD

I’m no Doctor, but I play one on TV!

Turns out there’s no Medicare in Deaths realm! Her(?) To be honest I’m not sure of the proper pronoun for a vaguely humanoid force of nature, but since Jane Foster uses “she”, so will I! Her insurance doesn’t cover proper treatment, so it’s to the waiting list she goes. If a team of kamikaze superhero doctors can’t fix her, can anything? Let’s dive in and see if we can find her a cure.

Dr. Jane Foster is, well, an actual Medical Doctor. Way back in issue 1 she was demoted to a morgue assistant (which I’m fairly certain isn’t a thing that actually happens to actual doctors) but that’s awfully handy since as Valkyrie her role revolves around the dead. In a series of remarkable coincidences, a dead actor is being read Shakespeare by the eccentric medical examiner, and wakes up to say his line! How’s that for … timing! A few cryptic lines from a dead guy and we find out that the good Dr. Gillespie the Medical Examiner has known all along Jane is Valkyrie! It is hard to hide a team of valkyries on horseback riding out of his office. Nothing gets past this guy!

In a true novel slashie category á la Zoolander, Jane rounds up a team of B-/C list Doctor slash Superheroes and not letting any favor get too cold, With Doctor Strange, they travel to Deaths realm, discuss some hot music the kids are listening to, find a very large death hovering over a creepy castle. It would have made a better heavy metal album cover than a cliffhanger, I’m afraid.

Final Thoughts:

What a concept- rounding up superhero doctors to make a house call to heal death? Death has always had a literal presence in the Marvel Universe, so I don’t really understand (maybe because I am a big dummy, though) why Death didn’t just come to our realm and ask for help? Apparently, death being sick can affect the entire universe? I get that there should be some stakes but we’re TOLD this, rather than shown, and to me, it just doesn’t seem as big as they want to make it… part of the reason the last arc finished so strong is because the stakes were very personal, and this arc starts with the wearying trope of insisting that the next arc WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER! The art is great, especially the creepy skeletons in Death’s realm, and the last page looks COOL AS! Hopefully, this arc will finish stronger than it started.

6.4/10