Definitely Not Horrible, But Also Unnecessary
Being a big fan of Joss Whedon's amazing work, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, I couldn't help but go out and get the companion prequel comic when I had the chance. And though it's still a blast to read, it certainly doesn't live up to the hype of the original.
There's a wide variety of people working on this, but the most prominent face here is Zack Whedon, one of Joss's brothers who worked on the original piece with him. It's nice to see that one of the writers for the original was behind this one, beyond the goofy intro, which has the various writers talking among themselves in instant messaging format. Thanks to Zack being the only author here (thank God), the writing is still rather witty and crisp, as everyone seems to sound like themselves, and there's some nice character development made here that, at times, fleshes out our favorite figures more than ever. Occasionally, some of the dialogue felt out of place, but this wasn't often, and probably because of familiar personas being put in a medium that is foreign to them.
The art, however, is a different matter. There seems to be a different person working on each in terms of pencilists, and most of the issues look very different from one another, one of my pet peeves in comic writing. Specifically the Moist issue is the weakest here as a whole, both in terms of writing and art, as well as general concept for that matter. He sticks out like a sore thumb, as he always does, but this time in a not so lovable way. I wished for a bit more consistency when it came to the visuals so it felt like everything that occured was from the same world, as they are supposed to.
The concept of this book is to give readers a better insight on the pasts of these popular characters, showing us beginnings for Penny, Moist, and the evil Doctor, as well as an adventure in the lives of Captain Hammer and the Evil League of Evil, respectively. We even see some of the more obscure figures who you may not remember rise up from the background to contribute some cool stuff here, which is really wonderful when fleshing out this world. yet, it also makes the experience very inconsistent, constantly shifting and never really settling anywhere. Every 8 or 10 pages, readers are taken to another time/location/person to invest in, and it can be rather jarring, as well as frustrating. However, we do get a taste of everyone, and that does help.
But, on top of that, this graphic novel is really short. Like, REALLY short. Including covers and credits for each issue, the book runs a little over 70 pages, accounting for roughly 64 or so pages of actual comics. Albeit the play wasn't horribly long, but still. And, considering how the stories jump around from character to character and there's no real solid grounding for the experience as a whole, it can be a rather bumpy ride for the little time you are there.
For all of its issues, though, it's a Dr. Horrible comic, and it does a lot of things right in embodying it. It's fun, light, with great characters and some fantastic dialogue behind it, making for a nice, brief companion to the film you probably like if you happen to be reading this.
