Surgeon X Enhanced Comic is an Android app that brings comic book fans the new Surgeon X comic like few other comic book apps do. It allows readers to get closer to the action with panel-by-panel reading, the option to look at the black and white sketches that go into creating the colorful pieces of art we call comic book art. The app in question is a new way to enjoy the Surgeon X comic, which is set in the near future, where an antibiotic apocalypse has taken hold of London. In this world, the heroine of the story, Rosa Scott, a brilliant Doctor chooses to become a vigilante Doctor that treats patients and saves lives at whatever cost necessary as she become Surgeon X. The comic is the story of this dystopian world, as well as Scott’s struggles with her own outlook on life and her Hippocratic oath she took to protect people. With all kind of bells and whistles, this is the sort of comic book app that people have been crying out for, so let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Just like other apps, Surgeon X Enhanced Comic is a quick download from the Play Store, and while it’s not a free app, users should remember they are also paying for the comic book itself, and getting the first issue right away. There will be six issues in total, released during September 2016 and February 2017, with monthly releases.
New users will need to sign up a free account, which allows the publishers to make future issues available to purchase. The first is included with the purchase of the app, and there will be a release once a month up until the series ends in February 2017. Once you have signed up for a free account, you’ll see the issues of Surgeon X available to download and then read.
Before you get started with Surgeon X, there is the option to change a number of settings. These will help tailor the reading experience to your tastes, and to be honest, there are some very nice settings in here. Some of them are fairly pedestrian, but others, such as the “Behind the Colour” option make the overall reading experience here pretty great overall.
Reading Surgeon X plays out much like any other comic book app and you can zoom in and out, scrub through the different pages and get a real sense for the overall setting that Surgeon X plays out within.
I was very impressed with the overall art work here, as Surgeon X has a sort of gritty 90s feel to it that I really enjoyed looking at in the darker Spider-Man and Batman comics when I was younger. Despite this though, zooming in on artwork did reveal some jagged edges, which I wasn’t pleased to see. After all, with devices regularly shipping with resolutions of 2560 x 1440, we should be getting higher-resolutions images in an app like this.
As we touched on earlier, there are some great additional features included here, such as the “Behind the Colour” option, which allows users to get an insight of how a particular page or scene takes shape. So, for instance, a full color image like this didn’t start out like this.
Instead, it starts off life as a rough, yet almost finished sketch, which informs the reader about the comic book a little bit more. I really enjoyed this feature, as it gives comic book fans a way to get closer to the artwork as it evolves, almost like B-Sides and video from inside the studio do for music fans.
Generally reading through the comic as a whole is pretty easy to do, thanks to features like the Panel View, which makes it easier to follow the story piece-by-piece as well as hone in on some further details, too. It’s like a digital magnifying glass. If this is a way of getting closer to the comic book, then the animations on offer take this even further.
The app has a simple user interface that will present readers with simple spots to jump to from whatever part of the app they’re in. This is a simple, and good-looking way of getting around the app, and while I would love to show you more artwork from the Surgeon X world, I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone.
Each of the issues also has an Index to it, where readers can access biographies for the characters, as well access the included audio documentary. The biographies allow readers to feel a connection to the characters, and it’s nice to see that things aren’t kept two-dimensional here. On top of this, there are also video and audio documentaries available for readers.
These biographies help add a lot of depth to the overall story, and they’re a great addition. Especially when we consider that a lot of readers are simply left in the dark when it comes to the driving forces and background behind the vigilantes and heroes in the panels.
Biographies, Behind the Colour and the option to look at the real locations against the dystopian backdrops are great additions to get closer than ever before to a new comic book. Reading something like this for the first time is exciting, but being able to dive deeper into everything is a real treat.
I used to be big into my comic books and manga when I was younger. Now that I have my own place with my fiancée though, space is at a premium and I don’t want all that paper lying around. Besides, it’s 2016, the comic book should have evolved a long time ago. Comixology is doing this, but with Surgeon X, it’s nice to see someone go it alone and provide the experience that they feel is best for their own comic book. I think that the story itself is a gripping one, and seeing a Doctor like Rosa Scott evolve into someone that is willing to bend not only rules but their own ethics to do what needs to be done helps to show just what a mess the world of Surgeon X finds itself in. As I said earlier, the artwork reminds me of a gritty 90s look, and has a lot going for it. I would have liked to see these pages present themselves in higher-resolution, but we can’t have everything, can we? The fact that the app is a paid app doesn’t bother me, as we’d have to pay for a comic book, and I’d much rather pay for a comic book that has all kinds of extra features to sweeten the whole experience, than a simple bunch of paper.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Aside from the initial download, Surgeon X Enhanced Comic is a quick app and one that makes reading through the comic book itself a real breeze.
- Theme (5/5) – The artwork and story here is excellent and it sets itself aside from all of the usual superhero tropes that we’ve become accustomed to. While I would like to see these pictures in higher-resolutions, the overall look of them is spot on and I love it.
- Features (4/5) – This is an app that allows users to read a comic book much easier than before, but I wish that there were more of the comic to read, and that the next issue arrives quickly after the first.
- Overall (4/5) – An excellent story that looks great and an excellent app that goes hand-in-hand to present a modern experience of reading a comic, it’s hard not to recommend this to comic book fans. .
Pros
- Simple interface that gives readers a lot of different features to experience this new comic in a great, and modern way.
- Great artwork that will remind users of classic, grittier comic books that we’ve forgotten.
- Excellent storyline that helps show a vigilante character in a new light, and goes against the grain of usual vigilante tropes.
- Nice to see another comic book series start with a woman at its core, rather than retooling a male hero’s background.
Cons
- Higher-resolution files would look better on tablets as well smartphones with excellent displays.
- More issues and perhaps even more series from the same people would give readers more to sink their teeth into.
All-in-all, Surgeon X is an excellent comic book app that a lot of people will find a breath of fresh air. Not only just because it’s a modern way of reading a comic book, but also because the storyline and artwork go hand-in-hand to create an excellent comic. While there are some jagged edges to some of the images up close, there’s not much in the way of issues elsewhere and this is well worth trying out for comic book fans.