Writer: Sara Kenney

Artist: John Watkiss

Publisher: Image Comics

We return to London in the not so distant future and to Rosa Scott, our heroine surgeon, who is still struggling with, well, everything. Her mother’s death is still eating at her, her brother’s schizophrenia has her worried, the struggle to keep her patients, not only alive, but fighting, is weighing upon her. It’s as if she’s being pulled in so many directions that she ends up spinning like a top. If last month’s focus was introducing us to this awful potential reality, this month’s focus seems to be looking at the struggle within it.

Sara Kenney doesn’t pull any punches bringing Rosa to life on these pages. She has given us a multi-dimensional character that has one basic tenet screaming through her consciousness: help those she can, and consequences be damned. In doing so, Rosa introduces us to new conceptions of medicine that are at the cutting edge today. Just take a look at the inside cover and the Special Mention list and you’ll be amazed at the resources she has consulted to bring this world to life. Kenney’s true talent, however, is in her ability to get us to tell this story as we are subtly nudged to think as we read. It is an educational experience as much as it is an escape into fiction.

John Watkiss, again, brings these characters and spaces to life so well it’s as if we can hear the traffic on the roads or the beeping of the monitors from hospital rooms. His talent to draw the eye through the scene is best exemplified in the action sequences. The paranoia so well written by Kinney in Lewis’ character is mirrored by the hectic pace of his race from one destination to another.

The political atmosphere of this future London is rendered almost palpable by the public advertisement signage in the background, or the set stage of a political rally. We feel constrained by what we read, and the images reflect that in the way they choose to view these events. We feel the anguish of the patients whose lives seem intolerable and hopeless, and we see the hope offered by medical science, even if it is an illegal hope. Rosa is a woman whose determination is inspiring as much as her concern and care for her patients. As we get closer to her confronting the questions surrounding her mother’s death, we can feel the urgency building.

Surgeon X #2 is a fantastic read, one that, intentionally I should think, calls upon the reader to experience and learn as they go along. Kenney and Watkiss have captivated me in this future London, with it’s dark, right-wing politics, and its menacing antibiotic resistant diseases. Those things are all too real even now. If you like a fast-paced psychological thriller, this is the title for you. Get it in your pull list, and thank me later.

Writing: 9

Artwork: 8.5

Overall: 9