Doctor Orient is in the subcategory that a lot of early Doctor Strange comics are in - the occult detective that doesn't leave the house. Occult detectives have been around since the 1850s, and have continued into the modern era with the likes of Kolchak the Night Stalker and the X-Files. Lots of fun concepts, good imagery, and a classically entertaining premise. Still, all in all a quite enjoyable read. What years could she possibly have? Seriously, this guy has never met a 16 year old. She's written with the perception and mindset of someone in her 20s, she is savvy to a number of things that no 16 year old would likely know or care about (what 16 year old knows Nevelson, Marisol, Giacometti, Samaras and Calder sculptures or Gill and Linder Paintings) and the author uses lines like "for the first time in years, she felt truly alive", or referring to how she is finally coming around to love again after all these years.
It is super awkward when he introduces a 16 year old girl into the picture.
The author clearly has a thing for young ladies. For the most part all of the crew spent their time hiding out, watching TV, and playing chess. The main character is motivated to bide his time and it takes a while before the author is forced to put a character into real action. Because so much action takes place on another plane (other than ritualistic orgies, of course) I felt that he missed out on being able to use many of his characters. It is totally self indulgent and loves to explore the psyched out world of the mind. The premise is perfect: a psychic aesthete assembles a ragtag crew to fight an evil mastermind (a bishop, a telepathic dentist, an actor action star, an italian manservant with powers, and an out of work alcoholic baseball player). It plays out like Doctor Strange done by Hammer Films.
It really embraces all the fantastic neo-mysticism that started popping up, hitting all the big targets: astral projection/plane, positive and negative energy, telepathy, hypnosis, parallel universes, psychic battles, Tibetan gods, and of course devil worship.
Without a doubt this is a product of its time.
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