Oblivion

"The matriax is silent. You have no meaning now. Oblivion is no more."

Writer: Scott Gray

Format: Comic Strip

Released: November 2002 - April 2003

Printed in: DWM 323-328

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Izzy, Fey

Synopsis 

With the Doctor and Fey still in search of Izzy, the signal leads them to Oblivion. There the Horde are gathering and they're after a new matriax. And her name is Destrii. One problem, Izzy is currently embodying her...

Verdict 

Oblivion was a tremendous story to conclude the graphic novel of the same title. It also saw, more importantly, the emotional departure of Izzy from the TARDIS and her travels with the Doctor. This graphic novel has been all about Izzy and I've just loved her. I'm certainly going to look into purchasing the first two Eighth Doctor collected graphic novels of which she appears in situations that don't have her embodying an alien! I immediately took a shine to her in Ophidius and even when she was in the form of Destrii, I could see the human Izzy desperately trying to break out. The moment here when the Horde returned Izzy and Destrii to their rightful bodies was beautiful. You may have expected it have occurred as some massive moment to conclude an enormous story but that wasn't the case. It was much more simple than that and it really was lovely. Instead of being overjoyed and celebratory, she was just absolutely relieved. "No place like home" is how she phrased it and she's exactly right. The Doctor was so happy for her and that's testament to the relationship they've had together in the TARDIS and one I'm eager to explore in previous graphic novels. But before Izzy had her body returned to her, there were some quite eventful happenings! After it was subtly referenced in Ophidius and then mentioned as Izzy's destination upon her kidnapping in Children of the Revolution, we were finally taken to Oblivion. And what a place it was. It had literally been erased from history which I thought it was great and it just showed how key Fey, well more importantly Shayde, was in helping locate Izzy. It was the perfect hiding place. I thought the Horde were fantastic enemies and I loved their design. The idea of them being almost conjoined was great and it was good how the Doctor would have a sudden lightbulb go off in his head about shooting for the hands blinding them. The combat scenes were terrific with the onlookers and I loved the revelation of the Horde waiting for Destrii to prove herself worthy of the Matriax. Her killing of the Primatrix was gruesome but not as gruesome as the part four cliffhanger! I thought Izzy would have been thrilled to see that her body hadn't actually died but instead she was disgusted and angry beyond belief. She tried beating Destrii to death despite her embodying her own true form. I liked the believability with the inclusion of Izzy calling Destrii a bitch. It was unusual for Doctor Who but DWM is generally aimed at a more adult orientated audience so the inclusion of language like that was most welcomed in my opinion. I thought Fey was very good during the story and allowed us to still have a companion with Izzy not generally acting in that role during this story. Jodafra was a good character and the way he came to look how he did was a strange story and gave some superb background information to the Horde. The highlight of the story in my opinion was when Izzy and Destrii saw into each other's past. Destrii was jealous of Izzy's growing up and how she was accepted whilst Izzy pitied the way Destrii was treated growing up by her mother. After the Horde were defeated however, Izzy had been drained by the whole events depicted in this graphic novel. She wanted to go home and despite the Doctor being saddened by her decision, he accepted it no problem. He returned her to the end of their very first adventure where Izzy joined the Doctor and I learned that was in 1996! She'd been the companion of the Eighth Doctor since his comic debut and judging by her final scene, they'd gotten up to quite a lot together! This is goodbye to Izzy. She shared a stunning kiss with Fey but for me, this isn't goodbye. I'm only just getting started. 

Rating: 9/10