A good story marred by so-so art.
Creative Staff:
Story: Robbie Morrison
Art: Brian Williamson
Color: Hi-Fi
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
On our Earth, UNIT scientist John Foster was killed in an accident… but in a parallel universe, his wife and daughter were killed, while that world’s John Foster survived. One thought kept that John going through his grief – somewhere out there, in some other reality, his wife and daughter still lived.
Working obsessively, Foster has devised a way to breach the membrane of the multiverse and cross the Void into our world, unaware of the horrors that will follow in his wake…
What dark creatures live in the veins of the multiverse, reaching out to ensnare those foolish enough to breach into their domain?
The Doctor and Clara are about to face… The Fractures!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Who wouldn’t move heaven and earth to be reunited with the ones we love? Who wouldn’t shake the pillars of reality if it meant we got back what we lost? Paul Foster (not John, as it says in the synopsis) lost his wife and daughters in a car accident. A universe away, a different Paul Foster died in the same car accident, but his wife and daughters survived. Working as a physicist for UNIT, the Paul who survived created a portal to different universes, all in the hopes of finding his family. He discovered them in this reality, but the breach he created summoned the Fractures—creatures existing in the void between universes, acting as multiversal antibodies. The Fractures target Paul and his family, and the Doctor may not be able to stop them.
As I said in my review of issue six, this is a nice, creepy story that reads like a classic Who tale. Robbie Morrison has Peter Capaldi’s personality and speech mannerisms down pat, and the story is fast-paced and fun with a strong emotional core. Hannah, Paul’s wife, finds herself both repulsed and attracted by the man who looks, talks, and feels like her husband. Partially she isn’t quite able to accept the miracle of his appearance (and who can blame her?) but she also reacts for the safety of her children.
The happy ending to all of this would be Paul getting to stay with his alternative universe family, but the Fractures are going to do everything in their considerable power to prevent that from happening, and the Doctor may end up aiding them for the sake of the universe. As he says, it’s the life of one man weighed against the life of the universe. That seems like a no-brainer, and while the Doctor always tries to save everyone, he doesn’t always succeed.
And the Fractures are going to be pretty hard to beat. They exist as beings of pure energy that possess human hosts. Brian Williamson does a great job of making them look good and creepy. The possessed humans’ skin cracks around the eyes and mouth, and light seeps through, as if their bodies barely contain the energies at play. However, some of the faces on the regular characters don’t look quite right. Williamson does capture the likeness of Capaldi and Coleman, but overall the faces look off, and even when they express emotion, it comes off as rather flat. There are also times when the characters look off-model. Hannah and Clara appear to be twins in some panels, and there are times when Paul doesn’t look like himself. While the story is strong enough to help me past that, it does affect my enjoyment of the issue.
In Summary:
Part 2 of The Fractures is good, old-fashioned scary Who. The monsters are genuinely creepy, and the emotional stakes of the story are strong. Unfortunately, the art doesn’t always carry the story, and Williamson seems to have issues with faces. Hopefully next issue will look better, but even if it doesn’t, I’m looking forward to seeing how this story ends.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Titan Comics
Release Date: April 15th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
