Dr. Terrence Thirteen certainly puts the doubting in Doubting Thomas. This guy refuses to believe that there is an entire world of unexplainable things. He has an answer for everything, because he is the sanest man alive, or so he would like to believe. But Thirteen is as stubborn and bull-headed as he is eccentric. He has to be right all the time, because he is the inventor of Skeptical Rationalism, and as such he analyses everything and points out their faults. In common language, Terrence Thirteen is an asshole.
In the lastest Vertigo Vision of a classic DC mystical character, Matt Howarth explores the realms of virtual reality and artificial intelligence, as well as a healthy dose of psychotherapy. A technology genious has created artificial life in his computer. Soon one AI becomes two, then two becomes four. But one of the four is not satisfied with what it can learn in the scientists computer, and the evil manifestation of the AI takes a trip into the etherworlds via a power cord, where the remaining three believe he can do no good. So they seek out someone who can help in destroying this evil creation of theirs, and that man, unfortunately, is Dr. Thirteen.
After a brief encounter, the three AI soon realize that the Dr. is going mad, and they must stop their wicked brother themselves, all the while Thirteen's mind and life fall apart around him.
A wickedly quick paced tale (for something that's 54 pages long), Dr. Thirteen plays out smoothly until the last quarter in which we realize the world we've been observing is that of the Dr. and the Doctor isn't quite right anymore. That last quarter takes a bit of rereading to understand what has actually happened, and even now I'm not sure I get it. Matt Howarth has proven himself a good writer, his strength more in dialogue than storytelling. Michael Avon Oeming does a wonderful job on the art, providing a highly detailed yet animated tale.
An interesting read, but not a necessity.