The Widow's Curse

"The Sycorax have built remote control corpses - zombies!"

Writer: Rob Davis
Format: Comic Strip
Released: May-August 2008
Printed in: DWM 395-398

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Donna

Synopsis

The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble travel to an island that doesn't exist where an old enemy is waiting, but not in the form the Doctor has encountered them before. He soon discovers the extent to which they will practice voodoo and he soon discovers just how desperate they are for revenge...

Verdict

The Widow's Curse was a great story to bring my reading of the graphic novel of the same name to a close. Now, I know there are two more stories within its pages but I have previously blogged both The Immortal Emperor and The Time of my Life so I don't see any need to read them once again. I'm against the clock when it comes to a library loan of The Crimson Hand so I'm getting through things as quickly as possible! This is a story I have been looking forward to for some time and it definitely didn't disappoint. The concept of the female Sycorax coming to Earth to seek answers to their husbands' deaths was excellent and I thought they were quite different too which was good. They were definitely more concerned with the voodoo aspect of things and they seemed a little more unpredictable than the males we saw on television. The fact that they'd come and discovered the Sycorax version of a black box from the Rock that was destroyed during The Christmas Invasion was fantastic and it was quite horrifying to see the message relayed back where they realised that humanity were going to kill them. Once these Sycorax learned of that, humanity would suffer and they wanted to ensure that humanity knew it was they who had murdered the Sycorax in a very good cliffhanger to part two. Speaking of cliffhangers, I thought the one to part three was superb and I adored how the Doctor pleaded with the Sycorax for them to give humanity a second chance. However, after seeing how the Sycorax Leader was slain by the Doctor, and it turns out having landed on Westminster Abbey, his wife was in no mood to spare lives. Humanity had killed her husband and they would pay. No second chances, they were that kind of clan. I thought that was terrific writing. It was good to have the Doctor alongside Donna for a story and whilst this was her DWM debut, it also served as her penultimate story! She was decent but I did think the artwork was a little dodgy and they could have given her a bit more humour. I don't think it helped that she was separated from the Doctor for so long. Her relationship with Norah was good though. I liked Jean and Harry and the Haxan Craw killing the latter so the former could feel her pain was brilliantly horrid. These female Sycorax were certainly evil. Their plan was a little flawed though and the fact that they wanted to fly a disease carrying plane full of zombies who had died and died again to London was interesting but not what you'd expect. I wasn't much of a fan at the way the Doctor caught the plane and I thought it was a bit silly to be honest but the way he exhausted the abilities of the Rock to breaking point was good. I also thought the story came to an abrupt halt which was a shame as there were some lingering questions that needed answering but as a whole, it was a great adventure!

Rating: 8/10