Voltron #8
Written by Brandon Thomas
Art by N. Steven Harris
Colors by Marcello Pinto
Letters by Marshall Dillon
Cover by Sean Chen
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: October 3, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Voltron #8 has a lot going on. While there’s tons of action, drama, and giant robots, there may be a little TOO much going on for the comic’s own good.

You can tell Brandon Thomas loves Voltron. And I mean LOVES Voltron. In some cases, that’s a very good thing. In some cases, writers are so in love with the property or franchise that they’re writing that they turn a blind eye to the basics of comic writing, and I think that may be the case here. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve missed the past couple of issues, but I really liked the way this series started out. Upon reading this issue, I’m not finding the same fun series that’s full of mysteries that I remember. It’s frustrating to not understand characters that you’ve known and loved since your childhood, but here, I’m finding that’s the case. Prince Lotor is a bad guy who’s really a good guy pretending to be a good guy who’s hanging around with the evil witch Hagar who’s trying to sway him back to being a bad guy. I think. Heck, you got me at this point. Hopefully, when the current story arc plays out, Thomas will get this book back to the basics, otherwise, I’m afraid it might start to lose even the hardest of hardcore Voltron fans.

N. Steven Harris is a perfectly capable artist, I’m afraid just not for this book. What should be a crisp, clean book instead features a somewhat scratchy art style. Harris does a fine job rendering humans and aliens, but when it comes to tech, he’s a little lacking. Also, I don’t know if it’s his choice or the choice of the colorist, but there is some very unconventional use of blacks that don’t really hit their mark.

All in all, this comic is a just…muddled. It’s an OK book when I was hoping for great or even good. It’s not horrible by any means, it’s just not as good as it could have been. Early in his run, Thomas blew the doors off with his fantastic origins to Voltron and the Voltron team, and now, it just seems as if things are treading water and not really moving forward with any direction or course heading.