The Terrifics #9 Review and **SPOILERS**

The Doctor Dread You Know

Storytellers: José Luís & Jeff Lemire 

Colors: Michael Atiyeh 

Letters: Tom Napolitano 

Cover: Dale Eaglesham & Ivan Nunes 

Assistant Editor: Andrew Marino 

Editor: Paul Kaminski 

Group Editor: Marie Javins 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: October 24, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

I was so excited for this series, now I approach it with a shrug. The story is so convoluted, it’s become irritating. Now Rex Mason doesn’t even have powers? Whatever. I’m still looking forward to that Lemire/Giffen Inferior 5 we were supposed to get last June! For now, enjoy my review of The Terrifics #9, commencing now.

Explain It!

With the Terrifics and the Strongs split up among different dimensions, they are helpless to stop the something-or-other being perpetrated by Doctor Dread. Or by Simon Stagg. Or both. Wasn’t there another guy, some kind of Metamorpho god or something? Anyway, Tom Strong’s wife Dhalua rounds everyone up in a T-Sphere that she got from somewhere, and takes them over to the Gotham City in the prime universe, where Mr. Terrific and Tom wound up, facing off against Swamp Thing at Slaughter Swamp.

That conflict, incidentally, comes to nothing, though Swampy does give Terrific a keycard into his own Terrifitech building. He and Tom head inside and to the top floor, where Doctor Dread is waiting with a bomb—plus like a dozen robot Doctor Dreads! And the initial Doctor Dread is also a robot. It looks hopeless for Terrific and Strong, then the rest of the gang shows up to clean house. At the end, Sapphire Stagg heads into the basement of her dad’s building to find Java—dressed as Doctor Dread before a bank of suspicious television screens!

You know, to recap it, this book seems like a real romp. And it is, but somehow it is only a romp—only the fun, silly, crazy part of comics and no substantiate story to keep our attention. Throughout this series, we’ve gotten glimpses of cool ideas that are never fully matured. Doctor Dread, purportedly the big bad of this unending, has barely been seen. To learn that he’s secretly Java, clearly making a ploy for Sapphire’s attention, leaves me with a feeling like, “Huh. Well what wouldja lookit that.” I feel nothing for the characters on this team or in this book. Each issue is a nice exercise for the artistic team and little else. Normally I would also rail against Dale Eaglesham only having done one issue, but I liked Luís and Atiyeh’s work just fine. It was all I had to judge by, after all.

Bits and Pieces:

The Terrifics' train rolls on to parts unknown, and I think I'm ready to get off. Everything looks great, but there's no story to hold on to. For three bucks, it's not a bad artist's showcase, but I can't help but feel a more substantive title could be in this slot.

5.1/10