The shrink comedy is old hat. We’ve seen Dr. Katz and Frasier; Phillip Roth used the couch as the narrative platform for Portnoy’s Complaint; and even earlier, Nabokov spoofed Freudian thought in Lolita. The field is rife with potential jokes – anything that purports to explain life’s little mysteries is – but for most part, I felt that the well had dried up a while back. Even Woody Allen’s riffs on the topic started to wear thin years ago. So what’s left in this barren field?
Well, apparently Kovalic and Jones felt that there was still some gold in them thar hills. Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink combines the couch and with the Hall of Justice for the basis of their new book from Dork Storm Press. Opening up my copy, I had to wonder if I was going to smell vacuum-packed freshness or rancid Kwik-E-Mart lunchmeat.
The book opens with Dr. Blink trying to talk a patient down off a ledge. Major Amazing is threatening to jump because he can’t find anything to live for. He does jump, and for a second, you believe that Blink has failed to save the life of his client. (Un)Fortunately, Major Amazing is invulnerable, and so the comedy can go on.
As it turns out, MA is suffering from existentialist angst, and Blink spends most of the book trying to buck him out of it. Blink draws inspiration from his trampily-dressed night-clubbing teen daughter while Amazing fights off odds-defying invasions and the “Avenging Legion of Titan Justice Defenders Society of America League” debates name changes. During their next session, Amazing reveals that he’s invented the only weapon in the universe capable of killing an immortal as old as the universe itself (i.e. himself) when a crisis at Legion HQ brings him back to the defense of his comrades. In the battle that ensues, the enemy trains the Macguffin Gun (Amazing’s suicide gun) on its inventor and Major Amazing learns a valuable lesson in living for others. Will Amazing and The Legion triumph over evil? Will Dr. Blink be able to snap Amazing out of his adolescent self-centered morbidity? Read the book dammit – I’m not here to give away plot synopses. I’m here to review stuff.
Dr. Blink is competently written and illustrated. The humor comprises of repackaged jokes, but the new presentation makes the odor at least somewhat springtime fresh. There are certainly some interesting character that could populate an on-going series, although how many of them will be one-joke wonders still remains to be seen. The art is clear and fun, being somewhat reminiscent of Paul Dini’s cartoon approach to superheroes without being too derivative. Overall, this is an above-average book that has some potential to grow.
The Final Word: Well, I didn’t get the freshest jokes in town, but the show was certainly fun. Kovalic and Jones are possibly onto something here. It’s a cute book, and I’ll be looking forward to Issue 2. Check it out if you’re a fan of deconstructed-hero humor.
