Review: Doctor Spektor #2- Let's make this as confusing as possible

Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Neil Edwards
Publisher: Dynamite Comics
Released: 2nd July 2014

Why do writers do this to us? Have they never heard of the old saying, ‘Keep it simple, stupid?’ I guess not, and so here we go with the second issue of a book that I thought might be quite interesting, getting needlessly complicated. A book where writer Mark Waid has a great laugh at the readers by getting them all confused and, as the book concludes, bloody annoyed as well. This is not good writing, it’s arrogant writing.

What’s wrong with just writing a good, easy to follow enjoyable book that deals with contemporary issues? This cleverness without wisdom nonsense starts to get annoying after a while you know?

Doctor Spektor #2 is littered with captions above the pages, explaining when the scene is happening (NOW, 60 MINUTES AGO, 54 MINUTES AGO, AN HOUR LATER). These captions are almost impossible to follow, and as you read the book you don’t know where you are, what is happening and who it is happening to.

What is real, what is future stuff, what is past stuff and what is just something going on in a crazy person’s head? And what’s that superhero doing in the book? There’s too much happening here. It’s not interesting or intriguing. It’s just cluttered and confusing. How the Hell am I supposed to follow, and enjoy something like that? You know what? I can’t. Was that the whole point? Why was that the point? Why are you trying to confuse the reader Mr Waid? Aren’t you supposed to write enjoyable comics, not confusing ones?

It doesn’t help that the main character is a quipping cliché twat, and that the dialogue is the kind of crap you get from people in love with Kevin Smith movies. I want to enjoy it, but Mark Waid isn’t helping me at all.

The art is pretty standard, not bad, but the characters are unlikeable and now I’m just confused by everything. Should I be cheering for the celebrity protagonist with the trendy haircut, or should I hate him? He’s not at all likeable. He’s a bit of a self obsessed twat, the kind of twat you see on television and then hear about getting arrested on child abuse or drugs charges. I can’t be cheering for that guy. Am I supposed to care about him?

Am I also supposed to care about the generic pretty girl who might, or might not be mad? Why should I care about her? To misquote Gwen Steffani, she’s just a girl. The other main character is a (Ghost?) television producer, and his wise-ass dialogue reads like cleverness written on a keyboard, not words coming naturally from the lips of a middle aged human being/ghost. There are no characters here for me to care about.

Perhaps I should look at it as a puzzle, and get drawn into the narrative to see that puzzle untangled? I like puzzles. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes books were all about the puzzles, and I loved those books. But I liked the idiosyncratic character of Sherlock Holmes, and I also liked the more straightforward, but morally upstanding Doctor Watson.  I don’t like any of the people in this book, and Sherlock Holmes was never as confusing as this purposefully jumbled mess. That’s all it is. A mess with characters that I cannot connect with at all.

Why should I read this book? My main reaction after reading it was confusion. I was not intrigued, at all. Just confused, and indifferent to what happens next. That’s not good. It’s bad. Why would I want to read a confusing book with characters that I don’t care about? I’m a comic book fan, not a bloody masochist you know. Goddamn it, I’m all hot and bothered now. I thought this book would be good, and it wasn’t. Arrrggggh, how bloody annoying.
 Rating: 4/10