Night Nurse, In Conclusion

I finally got around to reading the remaining three issues of Night Nurse.  If you’re in the mood for a snapshot of the seventies, you could really do worse than these comics.  If you get tired of the superhuman superhero stuff, these are a charming diversion.  If they don’t make you cringe, they will at least make you chuckle. Below is a rundown of each issue.

Issue #1:  Linda, Georgia, and Chris become nurses.  In the middle of a heatwave, the local neighborhood suffers brownouts and blackouts.  Some people don’t understand why the hospital doesn’t suffer these inconveniences, not knowing the hospital has it’s own massive generator.  Plus, it’s a hospital.  Two neighborhood ne’er-do-wells, one of them being Georgia’s brother, decide to infiltrate the hospital and put out its lights.  Georgia’s brother comes to his senses when he realizes what’s at stake, and when his friend pulls a gun and goes a little nuts.  Linda must also choose between her career as a nurse and being the wife of a wealthy playboy– he’s told her she can be only one.

Issue #2:  The police commissioner’s daughter is critically injured in a hit and run.  Luckily, Linda witnesses the incident and is there to provide her valuable assistance.  The girl is rushed to Metro-General and her father, not happy with the choice of hospital, demands his family’s personal physician/surgeon be brought in.  The miracle surgeon, Dr. Sutton, saves the commissioner’s daughter.  Sutton is not only wiz with the scalpel, he’s also a raging pill-popper and alcoholic who convinces Chris to come work for him.

Issue #3:  Linda and her very own McDreamy, Dr. Tryon, must stop a gang hit on the crime boss newly arrived as a patient.  Chris, in the aftermath of Issue #3’s events, has gone MIA.

Issue #4:  It is Gothic melodrama and mystery in the final issue when Chris takes a job as a private duty therapy nurse for a rich paraplegic at Sea-Cliff Manor.  Wind-swept, seaside mansion, defunct lighthouse working in the middle of the night,  a storied family with deep secrets…I think this was the best issue of the entire run.