My Rating
“Better Off Dead”
Jared Stevens stands alone in pitch-black nothingness. There is a light somewhere in the far distance, but he has no idea where he is or how the hell he got here. The last thing Jared remembers is surfing the internet at Burnsteel’s shithole apartment while Burnsteel’s sister, Vera, was busy busting his balls. Then everything went black.
Now some goth-looking dick in a Sears discount suit is standing beside him. Jared seriously cannot wait for this night to be over. First giant sewer rats, then complete darkness, and now the lead singer from Bauhaus is handing him a letter. What the hell is this? Jared has been shot? He’s dead? Apparently, even death cannot get him out of trouble. The current owner of the artifacts of Fate has just been served—in the afterlife!
Things are about to get even stranger. Alan Scott, the Sentinel, believes the artifacts of Fate rightfully belong to him, and apparently the matter is going before a court that makes Judge Judy look positively normal. Fortunately for Jared, a mysterious supernatural investigator named Doctor Occult is willing to represent Fate. Who exactly is Doctor Occult, and why is he willing to defend Jared in intergalactic small claims court? Why did Vera give Jared a lead enema? More importantly, can Jared Stevens survive being dead long enough to keep the artifacts of Fate? Collect the series to find out!
Review
It’s court time between Fate and the Sentinel! After all the sewer rats, gunfire, cosmic artifacts, and general insanity of the previous issues, writer Keith Giffen somehow decides the logical next step is to kill Jared Stevens and drag the poor bastard into supernatural litigation. You know what? It works. Book of Fate continues to embrace the weirdest corners of the DC Universe while Jared reacts to everything like a guy who has simply had enough of this shit.
And who the hell is Doctor Occult? Here I was reading a Fate comic, and suddenly DC drops another character into my lap that I now have to research. Thanks, DC. This is actually one of the things I love about digging through older comic books. A character appears out of nowhere, catches my attention, and suddenly I’m hunting through decades of back issues trying to figure out where he came from. Doctor Occult definitely qualifies.
Issue #8 also keeps the Alan Scott/Sentinel storyline moving while taking the series in a completely unexpected direction. Jared Stevens may be dead, but apparently death is merely another bureaucratic inconvenience when you own the artifacts of Fate. Strange, funny, and loaded with obscure DC mythology, “Better Off Dead” is another entertaining chapter in one of the strangest series I’ve read in quite some time. Four out of five stars.