THE WARD #1: Welcome Back to St. Lilith’s

Do you like medical dramas? Do you like the supernatural? When Cavan Scott isn’t thrilling us in a galaxy far far away he seems to enjoy taking things like the CIA (if you haven’t you should really check out SHADOW SERVICE) and in this instance the idea of a Hospital with a difference. The Ward is exactly that. For those of you old enough to remember programs like St. Elsewhere, ER, Trapper John M.D, and more recently Grey’s Anatomy. The Ward combines the human drama that all of those shows with a supernatural twist that asks… what if there was a hospital for supernatural beings? Welcome to St. Lilith’s.

It’s a simple enough concept and honestly handled any differently it probably would not have held my attention but Scott’s sharp script grabs you through his central protagonist. Dr .Natalie Reeves serves as your touchstone into the secret world, she knows about the magical creatures that go bump in the night, and she has a troubled history with the hospital and the people and creatures that work there and when a fellow building tenant calls for her help with an injured young woman, her past rushes swiftly back to catch up with her. Scott contrasts Nat’s knowledge by bringing a witness who sees this hidden world for the first time with you. From there Scott pours on the melodrama that includes solving medical emergencies in the emergency room, except this is an emergency room with minotaurs getting brain surgery for head trauma and extracting iron from wounds of faerie creatures to stop dying from iron poisoning. It’s all stuff we have seen before in those aforementioned medical dramas but sharp writing and the tease of mysteries and our main characters’ history with St. Lilith’s and the staff that work there, combined with the drama itself make for a combination that had me riveted from page one.

The art is solid from Andres Ponce. The backgrounds do feel like they could use some fleshing out and more detail but the characters are well rendered, however, it is a medical drama and medical dramas focus on character interaction and Ponce captures expression and interaction very well through facial expression that ties to the script nicely. The magical creatures we encounter from the ghost doctor to minotaur to others are very well designed and overall it’s a well assembled debut from the art team that doesn’t let the script down but combines neatly with it to bring you a first issue that captures your attention and imagination. The lettering is solid from Mauro Mantella and the cover for this opener is excellent from Ponce and Franco Riesco and is one of the things that got me to try this book out and I’m really glad I did.