Bad Medicine #4

Written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir
Art by Christopher Mitten

Increasingly we hear the phrase 'TV good' being used to describe some comics.  It's sometimes hard to know how to take that - is a book that is 'TV good' good, or is there something a little more backhanded about the compliment?  TV is rarely good, we know that.  Most shows simply grab our attention for a short while, providing diversion and entertainment.  Good shows are the ones you set your PVR for, and the great ones are so rare, you end up talking about them a lot with friends and/or co-workers.

'TV good' comics though?  They are decent, solid reads that can easily be imagined as a TV series.  Bad Medicine falls squarely into that category, being a little bit X-Files, a little bit House, and showing strong, character-based writing, but doesn't quite nail it the way you would hope.

This issue continues the new CDC's extranormal investigative divisions investigation into a werewolf incident in Maine.  The group has concentrated its attention on an odd small town that the werewolf is thought to come from, while the original police officer who dealt with the attack, and the doctor that examined the victim, continue to search for the missing young girl.  Stuff happens, making us think that they lycanthropy is spreading, and that this little town holds the kind of secrets that we, as experienced TV watchers, figured out ages ago.

I do like the characters in this book, especially the combative and prickly doctors.  Christopher Mitten's art is unfortunately difficult to follow in places, but that has always been my complaint about his work - I thought the fact that this series was in colour would make it easier to understand, but that's not always the case.  Still, I'm enjoying Bad Medicine, and were it a show on TV, I would be setting my PVR to make sure I didn't miss an episode.