Review: Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows #4

There are some mistakes that you can never recover from. Despite having the power to travel to the ends of the universe and change the course of history for so many other beings, Doctor Star has to finally reconcile himself to that fact. Nothing can give him back the time he missed with his ex-wife and their children. He can’t make up for the distances that has grown between them.

Or can he?

This issue of Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows culminates Doctor Star’s adventure to cure his son. Dr. Star, who when confronted with a problem at home, has always flown off to distant planets to find a quick fix for it. In doing so, he might have been able to fool himself into thinking he was working for the greater good when in reality he ran from the difficult work of building a family and keeping it safe.

Jeff Lemire“s (Sweet Tooth, Animal Man, Descender) final issue in this series, shows that even while confessing to his dying son why he wasn“t there, James Robinson can“t admit to himself why he finds it easier to run away and rescue aliens than confront his failings as a father. He isn“t a coward. He“s faced countless threats to strange worlds and civilizations, he just can“t face the truth about himself.

But as he makes his confession at his son“s hospital bed, he learns there is one thing he can do. Will it be enough? Will his son understand that while he wasn“t there for him, James still loves Charlie with all his heart?

Max Fiumara (Abe Sapien, Infinity, Inc., B.R.P.D.: Hell on Earth) and Dave Stewart (Batman, Conan, The Walking Dead) do an amazing job with the art in this book. They capture the devastating loneliness James faces after he has returned to Earth and been cut off from the people he loves. The panel of James alone slumped down on his lab floor with the landline cord pulled away to emptiness as he gets bad news has more impact than the ones of Dr. Star battling alien monsters.

They do an amazing job of showing James“ isolation even as the text explains his rebuffed efforts to reach out to his family. This dichotomy of art and story – highlighting frozen moments – is what comics does better than any other art form and they nail it in this book.

If, as some people claim, we are in a new golden age of comic books, people like Jeff Lemire are the stars. This final chapter doesn“t have the big battles against gods and monsters. Yet it is one of the most dramatic and manipulative (in a good way) books I have read in a long time. Lemire is doing something really amazing with the deconstruction of super heroes in his Black Hammer books. He is laying out all their faults, but he exposes that those faults are what truly makes them heroes.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Max Fiumara
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!