I wasn’t impressed by DC’s First Wave reboot of Doc Savage but I was disappointed not to be able to read the spinoff Doc Savage series set in the same universe, where pulp heroes, Batman, the Spirit and the Blackhawks exist in a vaguely present-day setting. Then I searched the DC app a few months ago and lo and behold! I’m not impressed by this 17 issue run either, partly because the book suffers from constantly shifting writer.
The opening five-issue arc by Paul Malmont involves a mysterious criminal bombarding New York with terrifying lightning storms (which also happened in Marvel’s black and white Doc Savage magazine) and framing Doc Savage for it (which happened multiple times in the old novels). It has a real pulp feel and there’s an interesting reveal late in the story. It turns out the bad guys’ agenda includes kidnapping Monk and putting his chemical genius to work for … the Crime College! Obviously not Doc’s own brainwashing facility, so what is it?
We never learn At the end of the arc Doc heads out of town (leaving Pat Savage behind — she gets less play here than in most comics adaptations) to get captured by bad guys in a two parter by B. Clay Moore. The Crime College is forgotten. Then we’re in an adventure in a war torn area, “The Zone,” by Ivan Brandon, involving Doc’s long-lost best friend. This ran a half-dozen tedious issues; blank pages would have been more engaging. 
Things pick up in the final arc by Jeff G. Jones, who also provided the covers seen here. We have Johnny turning up an archeological relic sinister people want, Neanderthals and dinosaurs, a kick-ass Russian woman and it’s all good. Only the book ends with the penultimate issue, missing the conclusion. I won’t lose any sleep over it but it’s still disappointing.
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