Okay, so I’m working on a post-apocalyptic medical story when I hear about Surgeon X; a story dealing with an unlicensed but highly skilled doctor who uses whatever means to get the job done. It sounds like Tezuka’s Black Jack to a degree. It even has a very strong first couple of chapters. Unfortunately the artist John Watkiss passed away; but leaves enough pages to complete what is supposed to be the end of the first story arc.
Welcome to What Went Wrong where we look at a story that had potential; but fails to live up to expectations.
Prep Time of Surgeon X
Surgeon X is about surgeon Rosa Scott and the conflict facing a futuristic London. Disease-treating antibiotics are rendered useless by the diseases mutating. By this point only the wealthiest could get the more effective and less over-the-counter medication. The medical centers are so bad that even the healthcare becomes a bidding war. Rosa as her alter-ego Surgeon X uses whatever experimental methods as part of her secret clinic to provide healthcare to the people who she believes deserves it the most; complete with the phrase “Life is a privilege, not a right.”
Naturally, she comes into conflict with political figures of the far (albeit alt) right wing. In just the first chapter, the politician who could help the country better is killed by the opposing politician’s wife. It’s not to secure her husband’s victory though. Surgeon X refuses to treat her husband in the same terrorist attack. The widow, able to blame the deaths on the terrorists, runs for her husband’s position and ended up winning; setting up events about to go from bad to even worse.
To get around the conspiracies and unjust healthcare system Rosa utilizes the black market. Funding meanwhile comes from taking treatment jobs, no matter how dirty the money is. As dark as this path seems, trying to be moral just might be more dangerous. Rosa’s mother had actually been killed after attempting to find new ways of treatment. Rosa’s father wants to accumulate enough political power through his merits to bring his wife’s killers to justice; but he is held back at every turn.
What About the Oath?
Consequentialism and pragmatism is something that clashes with the ideal of medicine in the Hippocratic Oath. In fact one of the obstacles that Rosa faces is an AI in the form of Hippocrates himself; who goes out of his way in his attempts to save Rosa’s soul. Now the pressures and strains that medics go through in the real world are no joke; the traumas that come from these expenditures often leave scars. And that’s certainly the case with Rosa who feels that every worthy life is her responsibility.
Botched the Surgery
The story’s flaws come in the later half of the publication. Problems begin to pile on top of one another and get in each other’s way; including Rosa’s brother’s mental illness and questions with no answers. The ending looks more like a completion of a prologue. But like a cliffhanger in an unestablished movie and video game, this is a bad strategy. At the end of it all, Rosa and her sister manages to find some things their mother was working on; but death is around the corner and no one knows why.
Fate of Surgeon X
By this point, Surgeon X’s full story is all but dead. The writer Sara Kenney has a background in docudramas which helps her set up the world; but ultimately fails to deliver in plot in the short run. It certainly doesn’t help that Watkiss died before the final issue was published. The sales are not even that great which causes the series cancellation.
Although I could be wrong and hopefully Surgeon X can continue in some way.
But the ink’s not dry yet. Thanks for coming; remember to like, follow, comment, and look between the panels.