Review: ET-ER
"Earth. Why do I have to die on Earth? The rings of Saturn are just down the road but I'll never get to see them."
Dr Chen has just finished a shift at Reading General Hospital and is about to drive home when a car crashes right in front of her. The driver is thrown clear and she rushes over to help. He has a large chest wound but there is no blood, only a strange black ... goop.
Two men run out of the hospital with a gurney and load the patient on to it. Dr Chen insists on coming with them, even though they tell her they are taking the patient "downstairs". This is somewhat perplexing to Dr Chen because the hospital does not have a basement level... Or does it?
With no time to ask questions, Chen soon finds herself going down in an elevator to a section of the hospital that she did not know existed. A very specialised section; this one deals with patients who are not human, but from other worlds...
Welcome to ET-ER by writer Jeff McComsey and artist Javier Pulido. This is a fun and fast story that blends the urgent, life-or-death drama of medical emergencies with the shocking departures from reality that science fiction provides. It is an effective combination that gives a fresh spin to a familiar tradition. Thrust into an eye-opening new reality, our heroine quickly has to adapt to some very new challenges. Losing a patient is always a risk, but when your patient's death means the destruction of Earth, the stakes are a wee bit higher. Luckily, some doctors thrive under pressure, and Chen may be the one to save not just the day, but the world...
Pulido's style has a strong retro pop art feel: blocks of solid colour, bold outlines, abstract backgrounds and silhouettes. His characters are lively, energetic caricatures, simplified but naturalistic, and rendered with appropriate humour for the tone of the story.
This is a madcap romp in no danger of taking itself too seriously: when surgery on a giant patient is interrupted by a large, ferocious antibody the doctor in charge and his colleagues put on ice hockey gear to "beat it into submission". Not exactly textbook medical procedure...
The premise is a good one with plenty of scope for many colourful adventures, with Chen as the friendly face everywoman for the reader to identify with. Kind of like Will Smith in Men In Black, (or Alice in her Wonderland) but with more body fluids.
Despite finding herself in very unorthodox territory, our heroine nevertheless rises to the occasion, inspiring the reader as an 'ordinary' person thrust into an alien landscape who has what it takes to deal with whatever bizarre emergencies are thrown at her. An emergency room physician has to be resourceful, so it should not be a surprise that Chen can take extraterrestrial anatomy and physiology in her stride. And where knowledge is not enough, her bedside manner may yet prevail...
Prognosis: you will enjoy!
Zak Webber
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