Doctor Fate #13 Review and *SPOILERS*

You Bring That Old Man Back and You Do It Now!

Written By: Paul Levitz
Art By: Ibrahim Moustafa, Lee Loughridge, Saida Temofonte
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: June 1, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Oh Doctor Fate........ What the hell happened to you?  Since it seems that I've missed a shit ton of reviews for this series...... and since it doesn't bother me in the slightest, I think it's safe to say that this series was dead to me long before Rebirth was poking around and talking about positive change like it was some sort of politician or something.  The thing is, I'm kind of a fickle mush head because even though I like young heroes and seeing them become acclimated into the world of action and adventure, this young Doctor Fate has just been a bore to read because we've spent a year with what seems to be nothing more than the continuing attempts of Khalid just trying not to screw up....... and you can only watch someone fail so many times before it becomes painful to watch and you start feeling embarrassed for the person you're watching....... and this is a goddamn comic book!  How is it that I'm feeling embarrassed for a superhero?!  It hasn't been fun at all, but maybe in the final issues something can be salvaged from this series since in the previous issue we ended with Khalid meeting his great uncle Kent Nelson.  Let's see if the old can impart some wisdom on the young and maybe make this a decent comic.  Let's check it out............ Oh, but before we do, look at that bad ass cover.  That's the best we've seen so far!  Let's get to it.

Explain It!:

For all my bashing and genuine hate for this series, I have to tell you that when this issue began, it actually shocked me at how into the book I got.  Here we have Khalid and Kent hanging out on high steel beams for a building that's being constructed, just shooting the shit and somehow it works wonderfully.  It then continued to wow me when for all my frustrations about how I couldn't figure out how Kent Nelson could be Doctor Fate when Khalid originally got the Helmet of Thoth out of a museum, the comic just throws out there that from Kent's previous time as Fate...... he just doesn't need the helmet anymore and we see this when he just uses the magic that he's retained from his time as a hero to turn into the classic Doctor Fate we all know and love........... and somehow I completely went with it like it was the most reasonable explanation I ever heard.  I started having all these grand imaginings about what this series could be....... even though it only has a couple issues left, and it pertained to Kent training Khalid and the two of them taking down magical baddies as the Forces of Fate..... or something maybe a little less cheesy, but you get my gist.  We have the potential of two magical powerhouses working together and tackling anything that the mystical realm could throw at them and I thought we were about to get just that when Kent senses an evil attacking Manhattan by setting fires throughout the city.

Still at this point I'm fully on board with this book because even though Khalid is still having problems figuring out how his power works, it's at least amusing here because of how easily Kent can access any ability he needs for the situation and is teaching Khalid as they go........... but then the book completely falls apart for me when Kent decides that the evil is too great and that they need to split up so that Kent can deal with the fires throughout the city and Khalid can track down the effigy that our villain is using to set the fires.  I don't know if it was just that I was in awe of Kent this whole time or what, but as soon as Khalid goes off on his own, this entire book just becomes the drivel that it's been for the past twelve issues.  

In the end, Khalid immediately discovers that the villain of this book is using a model of the city from the 1964 World's Fair as his effigy because apparently it would be ridiculous for someone to build an actual model and after a bit of fluff where some rockets from the old fair come to life to try and kill Khalid, our hero finds our villain and he turns out to be an Afreet........which is some kind of monkey demon or genie or something, who shrinks down and becomes really easy for Khalid to catch and simply hand over to Kent so that it can be dealt with.  Our two heroes part ways as this issue closes and I immediately miss Kent Nelson and resent Khalid.

That's it for this issue of Doctor Fate and this issue probably more than any other made me angry as hell because it not only started out telling a decent story that was combining the legacy of DC Comics with our older Doctor Fate and the new era of the good Doctor, but the art style was something that I could actually get on board with and thought worked well with this series........ and while the art remained, the story just fell apart as soon as it relied on the main character to hold the book and before you knew it, it was over because there really wasn't much going on here besides for the writer hoping that featuring Kent Nelson would be enough to keep us happy.  As angry as I was at the end of this issue though I have to give credit where credit is due because for the first half of the book I really enjoyed myself and even though it might have simply been the fanboy in me reacting to seeing the Golden Age Doctor Fate back in action, it was enjoyable nonetheless and the art was the best that this series has seen......... With that though, this series is still a waste......... That's right, I'm still angry.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue of Doctor Fate might intrigue some because of its inclusion of Kent Nelson, the Golden Age Doctor Fate...... and I'll admit, it peaked my interest as well, but overall this story once we get past the awe of seeing this character is just as terrible as this series has always been.  The real thing that should be getting people to check out this book is the art because it finally seems fitting for this title and even though I love me some Golden Age characters, that's the real draw here because Khalid is a terrible hero and can't hold his own series the way that he's been presented.  

5.5/10