Doctor Cyborg is a very unusual project, a web strip that has been collected into a graphic novel. OK, that in itself isn't unusual, as web strips being collected into "dead tree" formats is common, but Doctor Cyborg isn't a humor strip, but instead a long form story broken up into single strips. The story does suffer a little from the origins of the material, jumping around rather than smoothly transitioning, and it has some real hokey elements to it, but it's got some beautiful artwork from Oeming and others and a likable "Silver Age" type of energy that makes for a fun read.
It's clear in reading Doctor Cyborg that Gross and Wheatley, the writer and creator of Doctor Cyborg, respectively, have a love for older comics and science-fiction. While the dialogue isn't quite as over-the-top, the feel of Doctor Cyborg is very similar to that of Stan Lee's early work at Marvel and the science-fiction/weird stories to be found in DC and EC Comics. Gross takes an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to Doctor Cyborg, throwing in nanites, amnesia, alien messiahs, invisible children, societies lost in time, secret sinister government agencies and (Huey Lewis would be proud) the power of love. Gross also throws in any number of elements that I think are deliberately goofy, like the reason that lead character Dr. Malcolm Syberg (get it?) finds himself in hot water in the futuristic society of the time tower. The book is borderline goofy and requires an immense suspension of disbelief, but it's also undeniably imaginative and fun, especially for those with a fondness for pulp science-fiction.
On the downside, though, the constant change of what the story was about leaves the book without much of an identity. Is it a conspiracy story? A love story? The tale of an adventurer or a hero? In trying to be all of these things, Doctor Cyborg becomes a story without a purpose, and when the ending finally does come, it lacks punch because it feels very much like "oops, the end of the book is coming, need to wrap this up!"
This is one of the symptoms of the webstrip origins of the book, I suspect, because I have similar problems with the way characters and situations just pop into Malcolm Syberg's life. His sudden decision that he loves Gem comes bizarrely out of left field, as does the attachment he develops to Billy and his impulse to go out and fight crime. While there is a possibility that Syberg's come-and-go amnesia could have made this 90 degree turn characterization work, as it stands, it's just sort of left unexplained, and so he is a character without any foundation in the real. Gross's story is very much plot-driven not character-driven, but more to the point it's idea-driven, which means that whatever genre staple he wants to try next is where the story goes, no matter that it doesn't really have any connection to what's gone before.
While the storytelling was very much a mixed bag for me, though, the art itself is very attractive. Oeming is of course at his best when he's got a whole page with which to spread out, but his work is surprisingly effective in the more rigid strip format too. His own sense of humor comes through in some of the goofier moments, such as the revelation of Doctor Cyborg's son and the uncanny physical resemblance, and he also gives the whole thing a kind of genial, fun air, even the darker elements.
