A solid conclusion to a good, creepy arc.
Creative Staff:
Story: Robbie Morrison
Art: Brian Williamson
What They Say:
The thrilling finale of ‘The Fractures’ is here – and it will get under your skin!
Bursting from a twisted parallel universe and clawing their way through the void, the Fractures are here, and nothing could prepare the Doctor for their insidious assault on reality!
The Doctor, Clara and UNIT must battle the Fractures, as they slip through the cracks in our world to wear the skin – and bodies – of innocent people, puppeteering them from the inside!
When the war spills out of quiet suburbia and threatens the world, it will take a father and daughter – separated by whole universes – to bring the conflict to an end!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
In one universe, a UNIT scientist named Paul lost his family in a car accident. In another universe, a UNIT scientist named Paul died in a car accident, but his family survived. Devastated by the loss, the surviving Paul plumbed the multiverse for a reality where his family lived. He found it, and punched his way through dimensions to reunite with them. This broke a fundamental law of existence, summoning the Fractures—energy beings that live in the void between realities—to invade our world and eradicate the anomaly. Thankfully, Clara Oswald teaches one of Paul’s daughters, and she happens to be friends with the only man in existence who might put a stop to the Fractures’ rampage.
The fight spills out into London, and it’s all UNIT and the Doctor can do to keep the invaders at bay. Using Time Lord technology created by Rassilon, the Doctor manages to capture one of the Fractures in order to interrogate it. He believes he discovers a way to repel the invaders and save the people they abducted, but he knows that such an action only serves as a Band-Aid on the problem—the anomaly still exists, and in the Doctor’s mind, one life against millions is no choice at all.
Issue eight brings this storyline to a close, but lays seeds for future conflicts. One of the things I like best about the Doctor is that he’s a problem-solver. He uses his brain to resolve situations, not his fists, and that’s certainly the case in this issue. He uses Paul’s reality-jumping technology (with some Time Lord tech, of course) to retrieve the Fractures’ victims and send the invaders back home. I won’t go into too many details, but it’s suitably clever and quite satisfying.
Speaking of clever and satisfying, I loved the Fractures. They are a great Who villain, posing a legitimate threat to the Doctor and everything he holds dear. With any luck, we’ll see them again.
Moving on to the art, Williamson does a solid job with pacing and action, but there are times when his faces look a bit off to me—especially Kate. The art also has problems with perspective at times, such as a panel where Clara is looking at her arm, which was just restored after being “erased” by the fractures. Her arm looks completely separated from her body. That would be problematic in any situation, but given that the purpose of the panel was Clara marveling at the restoration of her limb, the art works against selling that idea. It’s not terrible, but it does take me out of the story a little bit.
In Summary:
“The Fractures” wraps up quite satisfyingly in this issue. This was an exciting, clever issue in classic Who fashion. The next issue places the Doctor and Clara in 1960s Las Vegas, hunting for aliens. I imagine it will be a lighter story than this one, and it should be tons of fun. As for this issue, Professor Josh gives it a…
Grade: B+
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Titan
Release Date: May 27tth, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
