4 out of 5

Such is the power of Brian Michael Bendis’ writing that the inclusion of one of his Daredevil issues that featured the Night Nurse – Linda Carter, though unnamed and differently hair-colored in her DD appearance – at the tail end of this collection of the four issue original 70s Night Nurse mini-series that it almost completely soils an otherwise fun and surprisingly solid read.  And by ‘power’ I probably mean ‘shittyness.’  In a separate critique of Bendis’ writing, I could speak to how his clipped dialogue and god-awful generic plotting served the poppy Ultimate Spider-Man well (initially) and did translate effectively – in an overblown sense – for the recent Powers TV series, but otherwise I’m continually quizzical as to the man’s popularity (and not lumping him in with writers who commit similar atrocities but are loathed for it) beyond how much of the Marvel Universe he’s affected, and thus I won’t consider my opinion of the quality of his writing in the review, and instead treat the issue featured as a bonus to the much more enjoyable bulk of the main NN series.

In a non-separate critique of Bendis’ writing, though, let’s revel in wondrous dialogue like “My name is Natasha Romanov.  I’m the Black Widow.  Do you know who I am?”  (No, wait, I know this one…) or bold threats like “This is the federal government you’re screwing with, mister!!  And I have absolutely no problem locking you up for the whole day!!” (The whole day?  With TWO exclamation points??  Good god man, anything but that.)  Or we can simply rub the pages along our greased, naked bodies to absorb the story that was probably improvised from a napkin scribbled with “find a reason for people to fight.”  Dot dot dot – Bendis isn’t lazy.  And I’m not going to claim he doesn’t actually put thought into these things.  But man, do I not get it.  And Alex Maleev: Sure, the Night Nurse is gonna wear that fetish nurse uniform in her own practice, and sure, she has the bust of a 90s score model.  Look, here’s Elektra in a bathing suit.  HOW DID WE TOLERATE THIS?

Wait, was this review about Night Nurse?  Right.  So:

In the 70s, Marvel published a trio of title written by and about women, in an attempt to draw in new readers.  (This detail from wiki, gang.)  Then-wife of Roy Thomas took on Night Nurse, which is a non-hero book regarding, mainly, Linda Carter, but also her two roommates, all three graduating to become night nurses at Metro General, a large-ass hospital in New York.  While the frequent tears and relationship drama recall the romance comics of the era, the series is otherwise an interestingly bold tale for the time, with none of the leads dressed like Shanna (one of those trio of titles) and, besides the generalization that women are nurses and men are doctors, giving the girls pretty full command of their abilities and senses.  It’s odd that Thomas goes out of her way to introduce as much as she does about Carter’s roommates, Georgia and Christine, as blond and beautiful Linda is very obviously the star, but perhaps there were plans for further issues that never materialized, as issue #4 (written with Linda Fite) does focus almost exclusively on Christine.  Each issue features some outlandishness occurring at Metro – bomb threats, botched surgeries, mob wars – and the nurses (aka Linda) find themselves in the middle of it, applying their training and quick wits to be instrumental in saving the day.  Thomas drops little factoids into the story here are there and it works well to balance the tone between a Real Life Tale and a comic book.  Winslow Mortimer takes on art tasks for all four books, spinning mundane events into fun eye candy via smart use of space and framing and frequent panel size shuffling.  The various colorists (George Roussos, Andrea Hunt) compliment this by keeping the important elements separated and/or highlighted where necessary, and the letterers (John Constanza, Charlotte Jetter) manage to work in the dialogue / narration heavy script – the omniscient grace of which was very Gerber-esque at times, which we know I consider a compliment – without ever crowding the page or unnecessarily distracting from the art.  It’s a surprisingly fun read, like a prime-time hospital drama show.

And collection editor Mark D. Beazley deserves cheers for his role in putting together a solid collection: great color and art reproduction; thick cover stock that holds the binding well; and 5 issues offered for 8 bucks is a swell deal.  So even with the *horf* aftertaste of Bendis’ part in this lingering, Night Nurse is a totally worthwhile trip down memory lane, affordable and rewarding from nigh cover to cover.