Review: ‘The Mandalorian’ Issue #8 Provides an Okay Adaptation of the Season 2 Finale
The Mandalorian Season 2 comic adaptation is now complete. The rough, bumpy, and often inconsistent series has gone through all of the great moments from season 2 of the show, providing a comic interpretation of memorable scenes. But there’s still one episode left to adapt, and oh boy, is it an episode.
Everyone knows and remembers the season finale of The Mandalorian season 2. I won’t bother recapping what happens. But I will say that, while the comic does its best to fit in all of the key moments, action sequences, and emotional weight of the original episode, The Mandalorian Season 2 issue #8 is a rather dull interpretation of such an epic episode. It’s not a bad comic per se; it just doesn’t do the original story justice.
In my reviews for the past two issues of this series, I actually scored those fairly well. The biggest draw of these adaptations is the art and the ability to see these memorable scenes rendered gorgeously. For issue #6, I gave it a 7/10 and enjoyed the art and its adaptation of the series’ heavy-hitting action. For issue #7, I scored it an 8/10, commenting that it’s “one of the series’ best issues,” and also commended the artwork.
Here, in issue #8, I felt that the action and the art didn’t flow as smoothly as I’d like them to have. Even though I praised Steven Cummings for his art and action flow in issue #6, the flow between panels feels off. It feels as if a panel or an action shot is missing on each page. The result is a comic that doesn’t have enough cohesion, making the reader have to guess or interpret what’s happening from one panel to the next.
The other issue I have is with the comic’s pacing. Pacing is a difficult element to get right in a comic, but a good writer and artist can create good pacing via paneling, the art, and the size of the art. If there’s a big, important moment, blow up the art and dedicate an entire page to it so that the reader can stop and stare at it. If there’s a long, extended action sequence, put in many small panels back to back, alongside large, half-page-sized panels that emphasize key hits.
In this issue, most of the art remains the same size. This means moments that should have a strong, emotional punch don’t have much weight at all. There’s little variation in the art. In the show, these big moments had an impact because these moments were drawn out. The creators extended certain moments with longer shots and static scenes that just focused on the music. Of course, the comic can’t do that, but those same scenes aren’t drawn out at all. As a reader, it just goes from one panel to the next with little reason for the reader to stay and linger on a page.
I don’t want to harp on the creators of this series too much because they obviously are just working within the parameters given to them. However, The Mandalorian Season 2, while it does have some great issues, ultimately still feels like a sub-par way of experiencing the show.
Score: 5/10
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
