Spider-God

"The villagers aren't human! They hatch from eggs!"

Writer: Steve Moore 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: May 1981

Printed in: DWM 52

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis 

The Terran Survey Vessel Excelsior, commanded by Louis B Frederick, lands on planet UX-4732. They find the TARDIS nearby. The Doctor steps out to greet them. He introduces them to a primitive but rather idyllic village populated by deaf, mute humanoids.

Verdict 

Spider-God was a very good little comic strip and continued my reading of the Dragon's Claw graphic novel in great fashion. Now, it's actually been about three weeks since I blogged War of the Words which was my last entry from this comic collection which is unusually strange for me when it comes to reading a graphic novel. However, this copy isn't actually mine and belongs to my young cousin with whom I have recently watched Pyramids of Mars and Warriors of the Deep on his request. I'm not sure I'll be able to get through the rest of the unblogged stories whilst I'm here as it's a hectic week and unfortunately this is the last time I will be up for a while ahead of my return to university for second year. I'm really looking forward to getting back now even if it means a lot less Doctor Who. I'm not sure if I'll ever beat the 2014 amount of entries but I think this year could be close. This graphic novel will certainly help towards the entry count. I liked how the message of not judging by appearances shone through and it showed that even in Doctor Who, not all spiders are evil. We had the ludicrousness of humans hatching out of eggs and then the normal humans we recognised as Frederic and co shooting a spider dead. I think this story could have been improved if it was extended beyond just the one part. The pace is always quicker in a shorter story but sometimes things can go too quick and that was the reason this story didn't get what I consider as the highest level of rating. It was close and if there was a bit more explanation at what was happening then I think it would have achieved it. The characterisation of the Fourth Doctor was good in what little it was needed with the likeness of Tom Baker's incarnation easily captured. The Doctor's casual arrival was majestic as he was just sauntering about and not having a care in the world about what was going on and the likes of Frederic being flabbergasted by his arrival. He simply joined up with them and quickly formed a friendship or relationship of sorts. They soon discovered the altar on which the spiders were being worshipped and the other humans, not including the Doctor of course, shot the spider dead which caused a bit of a stir. Shooting or destroying something that people worship always causes some form of riot. This was no different but the story time advanced quickly to a point in a different village with a different spider being worshipped. That's where the Doctor learnt the truth about everything that was going on and we saw humans hatching out of eggs! That sort of meant that they weren't actually humans but I'm not sure what else to call them at this point. They seemed to blossom into something resembling the Menoptera from The Web Planet but I highly doubt that was the case. The ending was a little abrupt but the story as a whole really was great. Overall, another good comic strip!

Rating: 8/10