Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories is a companion to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the brilliant production by Joss Whedon starring Doogie Howser—I mean, Neil Patrick Harris (to me he will always be Doogie Howser). The premise of the web series was that Dr. Horrible was trying to join the Evil League of Evil. The stories in Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories take place before the series but feature all the main characters, including Penny, Dr. Horrible, Captain Hammer, and Moist. Zack Whedon takes the driver’s seat in this volume and explores the characters, especially their origins. Unfortunately, the stories are not all that dazzling. For example, Penny’s story of her lonely birthday and lame date is neither particularly fascinating nor does it illuminate much about her personality. It seems that the book lacks the typical Whedon imagination. Perhaps with some more experience Whedon will blossom, and I would be willing to give him another try. I kind of enjoyed this slim volume of graphic novels by Zack Whedon. It felt that it gave you an inside view the heroes Captain Hammer, Johnny Snow, Wingspan and Elementia, as well as the evil villains Moist, Bad Horse, Fake Thomas Jefferson and of course Dr. Horrible. To be honest, I didn't think that the illustrations were that great, but I did thoroughly enjoy some of the stories, especially the Captain Hammer story, as I found the sing-song storyline quite funny. I also loved how each story tied together with one another, as each time, it was slightly the same story being told from a different perspective. What I didn’t enjoy that much, was I thought that stories could have been explained in more depth, and that often the story was just cut off, and didn’t have a that great endingOverall, I thought this book was satisfactory, and would just have loved for better graphics, as it is a graphic novel. I would recommend this story to some Y9 students that enjoy action superhero stories, but I do think that this Graphic Novel isn't for everyone.
What do You think about Dr. Horrible (2010)?
Great backstory, good art. An excellent handful of moments spent reading this one.
—Sabi
This ... was nowhere near as interesting as I wanted it to be.
—Abby
