Mirage

In “The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage: Second Lives” #1, paranormal investigator and TV star Shan Fong — aka Doctor Mirage — has been reunited with the ghost of her deceased husband Hwen, but both are desperate to find a way to bring back some level of physical contact to their relationship. Creators Jen Van Meter and Roberto De La Torre return for the follow-up to last year’s series, and this time Shan and Hwen embark on a quest to obtain an ancient but corrupted spell that could not only help them, but also countless other spirits who long to interact with the living. The love connection between flesh-and-blood wife and ethereal husband is clear, although it is repeatedly told more than shown, and the chemistry gets further diluted with the addition of several more paranormal characters later in the issue. Van Meter faces a difficult challenge: to convincingly convey more than just an emotional connection between a couple where no possibility of anything more exists. The opening fla

Writer Jen Van Meter and artist Roberto de la Tore bring the adventures of Shan Fong-Mirage to a close (for now) in the pages of “The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage” #5. With a lush text recap of the first four issues, this fifth and final installment is every bit as approachable as the first chapter and just as packed with the expected level of action and development any reader would want in a finale. Van Meter’s story powers forward with a battle that involves clear-cut sides and gives readers easy choices to make in a black-and-white struggle between good and bad, invading demonic hordes and struggling heroes hoping to stave off the attack. Shan Fong-Mirage, along with her departed husband Hwen and a mysterious captive, are all that stand between the invading Ivros and the Undying hordes from a different plane of existence. Lurching towards the breach opened by the forces of Linton March, those forces bring out the heroism present in Shan and Hwen thanks to Van Meter’s script. The w

Many years ago, “The Second Life of Doctor Mirage” was one of Valiant’s more entertaining titles, grabbing my attention with its mixture of horror, superheroics and love. As a result, when Valiant announced “The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage” as its reboot of the core concept, I was fairly excited; doubly so because of the creative team of Jen Van Meter and Roberto De La Torre. But so far, while the book is solid, it’s still missing a bit of that spark needed to make it especially great. There’s much to like about “The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage” #2. Van Meter’s basic story structure is clever; with Shan Fong-Mirage wandering through the spirit world, the cost of getting assistance being storytelling (among other, less savory options) means that Van Meter can dole out Mirage’s back story to us. This issue lets us see how she met her deceased husband (and one of the objects of her search) Hwen Mirage, with the two in an early supernatural case. The problem is that because readers only

A welcome addition to Valiant’s line, “The Death-Defying Dr. Mirage” by Jen Van Meter and Roberto de la Torre is equal parts clever and emotional as it sets up an impressive new hero, even if Dr. Mirage herself would rather not be one. The story focuses on Dr. Shan Fong, aka Dr. Mirage: an investigator who deals with the supernatural recovering from the death of her husband. She’s emotionally and physically cut off from everything and on the verge of losing her home, her only real sanctuary. Perhaps most interestingly, though Shan can communicate with the dead, she’s unable to communicate with her husband. She doesn’t know where he is, or how to find him. It’s her belief that she finally has a lead on her husband’s afterlife whereabouts that eventually causes her to take on an incredibly dangerous case from a client she doesn’t particularly care for. It sets an emotional and compelling tone for the series right out of the gate. One of the greatest strengths of what Van Meter has d