Comic Review : Good Samaritan Unto Dust #1

Good Samaritan is a hero created by the disc jockey Mike Luoma. The Good Samaritan’s adventures have been published since at least 2011 and available digitally through Drive Thru Comics since Summer 2013. The comic arrived on comiXology on January 24th, 2014, so while it is not a new debut, the comic has a new venue and has received some new press this week. Glow-in-the-Dark Radio Comics graciously made the PDF available for Nerdspan to review.

Good Samaritan Unto Dust has a lot to recommend it, like the unique style and the research or knowledge of Catholicism that went into it. Other reviewers have mentioned that the dialogue sinks more than it soars, but it is fairly workmanlike and services the plot, with the dialogue’s main failing being to dip too much into exposition on the ins and outs of the holy orders. It is a fascinating story with a flawed character who gets deeper into trouble by taking too much on authority and failing to question. He dogmatically assumes that God is the source of his power, but “ye shall know them by their fruits,” and Good Samaritan is too reminiscent of Ghost Rider.

The Grim Samaritan.

There are comics that fly out of the gate like TMNT or Bone, and there are slow starters like Good Samaritan. Yet there is a lot of inspiration here, a detailed setting, rich characters, and enough feeling to make me care to see what happens next. Still, while there is a lot of genie in this bottle, the bottle is cracked. What may be stopping up the lightning in this tale is a conceptual fault at the heart of the comic. To demonstrate the conceptual fault, you are going to be treated to a rare excursion (for a comic review) into biblical exegesis. Let us take a look at the original Good Samaritan:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Good Samaritan of the Gospel of Luke (10:29-37) was not unlike a comic book character in that Jesus used the character, who may or may not have existed and is never mentioned by name, to illustrate and exemplify his argument, specifically that mercy and goodness were not exclusive to any one people. Samaritans were despised in Jerusalem, and Jesus wanted to show that his people should be kind to all regardless of any accident of birth that went to make the giver or receiver of mercy. In short, so far as a good deed is concerned, there is no such thing as an outsider. This teaching that good deeds can be authored by a cultural outsider was a precursor, baby steps if you will, to his more historically important message that the gospel was for all people and that the Apostles should make disciples of all humanity.

The Good Samaritan of Good Samaritan Unto Dust claims the name from the parable without much understanding of it. Father Bill Sullivan may moonlight as a superhero, but he is hardly an outsider when he is introduced. Also, he seems more interested in administering death than ministering to the living. It seems that the author thought Good Samaritan would be a good name for a Christian superhero, but as mercy isn’t a very interesting power set and benevolent kindness doesn’t inspire as much vicarious pleasure in the reader as smiting does, Luoma went with “wrath of God” instead. Angel of Death Unto Dust would be more accurate.

The Sinister Samaritan.

Hopefully the kinks get worked out, because this is a story that needs to be written and read, because its underlying argument is very original and just as necessary as that in any of the most philosophical comics. Father Sullivan’s night gig as a superhero all by itself is a tacit argument that secular gods inspire good works more than the church in our culture, and superhero morality intercedes in daily life more often than religious morality. Holy books only speak to us or make taboo, it is human beings that do or don’t do. This unspoken argument becomes a spoken one when Father Sullivan laments that he “…can do more good behind the mask than behind the pulpit…” This is the heart of the comic, and hopefully Luoma has the chance fully to articulate it before the other great minds in comics think alike and get there first.