Doctor Who #8 Review

Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov wraps up his two-part story, Space Oddity, with Doctor Who #8 and by the end of the issue, it's made abundantly clear that the story simply wasn't large enough to justify two whole issues devoted to it.

The first half of the book is a poor use of page space. While Fialkov captures the voice and tone of the 11th Doctor so well -- one can almost hear Matt Smith's quick quippy accent speaking the words on the page -- he fails to make the most of it as he devotes nearly 50% of the issue to the simple task of getting the Doctor and his temporary companion Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov from point A to point B.

The latter half of the issue features a lot of telling and very little showing as the Doctor handles the Vashta Nerada threat with surprisingly little fanfare. There is no epic finale in Doctor Who #8, no thrilling climax, no decisive battle. There are a handful of lectures on morality, a small amount of situationally appropriate hand wringing, and an overly simple solution that neatly resolves the problem of the Vashta Nerada with few surprises along the way. It's a shame since the Vashta Nerada are one of the Doctor's scariest foes and they could have been used to great effect.

Artistically, the series has struggled to provide fans with anything beyond purely perfunctory visuals. Horacio Domingues and Andres Ponces' pencils are a no frill affair. Ruben Gonzalez's heavy inks and Adrian Salmon's unadorned block of color make for an aesthetic that isn't the most exciting that Doctor's ever seen. In Doctor Who #8, there's very little happening on the page, both in terms of plots and visuals, and it's hard to justify the stretching of this straightforward story arc into two full issues.

Melissa Grey is a lover of all things cats, comics, and outer space. She can be found on MyIGN at MelissaGrey or lurking on Twitter @meligrey.

Source : ign[dot]com