Dr. Thirteen: Architecture and Mortality TPB
Written by Brian Azzarello
Art by Cliff Chiang
DC Comics
Cover Price $14.99; Available Now

A skeptic, a witch, a ghost, a vampire, a pirate, a Legionnaire, a cave man, a boy genius, and a Nazi gorilla, thrown in a story dealing with the creators of the DC universe and the current state of comics. If you’re looking for a fun comic with lots of action, some great characters, with a lot of humorous dialog, then this is definitely the book for you. I have to say that if DC announced they were releasing a Dr. Thirteen series written by Brian Azzarello, I’d be right there to pick it up.

Dr. Thirteen is a professional skeptic living in the DC world; he travels around with his daughter Traci and proves that all the crazy things that go on are the work of con men and criminals. He comes off as kind of crazy in a world with the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lantern, not to mention all the other weird characters inhabiting the world. He’s called in to investigate a plane crash where the survivors reportedly woke up every morning to find one of their members killed and butchered and given to them, ready to eat. They claim it’s the work of a yeti, but of course Dr. Thirteen doesn’t believe in yetis. As it turns out, a yeti isn’t involved, something far stranger is responsible. This leads Dr. Thirteen into a strange case where everything he holds true is questioned and he meets the people who control his very existence. Along the way, he meets many old DC characters including; I, Vampire (guess what he is), Captain Fear (a ghost pirate, or is that pirate ghost), The Haunted Tank, Genius Jones, Infectious Lass (from the Legion of Substitute Heroes), Anthro, and my favorite, the Primate Patrol, a group of talking Nazi Gorillas. They end up meeting the architects, four guys who control the destinies of all DC characters and decide which are worth reading about and which ones aren’t.

Brian Azzarello makes the most with the characters he uses here. I’ve never heard of several of them, but all are introduced and explained fairly well and each has a distinctive personality. The script is ripe with inside jokes about comics; both DC and Marvel get made fun of. He also has some good fun with the four architects, who turn out to be four people you may have heard of before. I’m more familiar with Azzarello’s work on 100 Bullets, and while this still has his unique way of constructing sentences, it’s in a totally different tone, much more fun and light hearted.

Cliff Chiang handles the art and gives each character a unique look and brings a lot of expression to the faces. He style is slightly cartoonish which is necessary for the characters and locales of the story. His design work is especially nice in the later parts of the book when the team goes to the bizarre world of the Architects, which is a really weird, abstract place. You can tell the creative team is having a good time with the material.

So, if you’re looking for a good time with some off beat characters, pick this book up. It’s so enjoyable, I can’t really say much more than you need to read this book. It’s the perfect antidote from comics that take themselves too seriously. I mean, it’s got sexy dames, tough heroes, and a talking gorilla. What more are you looking for?