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 | Reviews for The Weeping Angels of Mons |
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| Overall, strong run, but a few nitpicks |
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| By: | Jared Star, Portsmouth, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 October 2021 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
My review will be of each of the stories separately...
1) THE WEEPING ANGELS OF MONS: Many believe that the Weeping Angels will never reach the menace they first had during “Blink,” but this story takes a remarkable stab at it!
The DW comics universe gives us this beautiful, gritty, and fantastically drawn WWII story with aliens. Seriously, the art style is great here. The hard lines add a gritty feeling that is contrasted by both previous releases and future ones too. It helps tell the story and is stand-out. This is my favorite visual representation of WWII.
There isn’t a large and complex story filled with multiple plot twists in this comic. It’s a straight action-adventure piece with some horror elements. We are in WWII, here are your characters, there are Weeping Angels, go!
Everything felt even, the characters were nice, and the way that this story utilized the Angels was unexpectedly clever. I was literally sitting there thinking; “Okay. This is bad. How are they going to get out of this one?” And then something unexpected, but completely logical happened and it got me strangely excited. I literally started whooping and cheering in my room. That shows how powerful and intense these comics can be.
The only downside to this comic is David Tennent’s exuberance being exaggerated again. He feels like Matt Smith more than he does David Tennent here, as most Doctor Who media outside the TV show tends to do (Yes, that includes Big Finish, which is why “Death and the Queen” is poor. Check out my old review on it).
Overall, if you are looking for a place to start the DW comics, or are a little iffy about 10’s adventures, I would give you this as my recommendation! Volumes one and two are great and this is my favorite comic story yet! Excited to see what happens in the third installment!
9/10
2) ECHO: You ever heard of Technobabble?
Following up the mature, gritty, and long "The Weeping Angels of Mons" (which was pretty fantastic), we have this rushed little mess of an otherwise neat premise. Essentially, Gabby goes back to Earth to visit her family and the duo uncover a strange phenomenon where people can't stop screaming. It's a neat idea that could have made for an intriguing read, but the previous story didn't leave the artists enough pages to flesh it out correctly.
The alien explanation behind everything is in-your-face and turns what could've been a slowly building mystery into a non-stop action piece. During the action, the Doctor reams lines and lines of random technobabble to explain what the aliens are, the weapons they are using, and what their plan is. It's basically a Wikipedia page, but with one or two more explosions than your average encyclopedia. Then, the duo travels to one location and magically fix everything with the wave of the sonic screwdriver... I usually like the sonic screwdriver, but the comics are more and more just using it as a scapegoat.
Although, this isn't a total trainwreck. The art here is stunning. It really shows off the team's capabilities after going from a gritty and bleak warzone to a sprawling cityscape featuring glowing alien whales. The visual of peoples' screams being stolen from their bodies was unsettling and very well handled. The tone is constructed perfectly through the visuals, but the script doesn't match it. The action, while rushed, was kind of fun too. Plus, Gabby was on top form here. I really like her character. In just a few stories she seems so capable of being in the Doctor's world for the long run.
All in all, the only real downside to this story is that there wasn't enough of it.
7/10
