Ever since his deadly encounter with evil necromancer Master Darque, paranormal investigator Hwen Mirage has been a phantom. While he now has extraordinary powers to manipulate energy, he can't touch anything, including his wife Carmen. One day, Hwen is feeling frustrated over never being able to eat, which seems like an innocuous enough problem at first, but soon he starts feeling hunger pains, and his powers start to fade. Realizing that he needs to absorb necromantic energy to survive, Hwen sets out on finding a solution to his dilemma, even if it means confronting the very necromancer who originally took his life...
Issue #8 of The Second Life of Doctor Mirage is, as usual, a highly enjoyable read! It's a self-contained story, easily accommodating to new readers, and gets across good characterization. This issue mostly keeps its attention on the title character, Hwen Mirage, as he experiences new difficulties with his unique condition. While Hwen is the main focus, we do still get to know what Carmen is like (mainly that she's not just a pretty face, but is an extremely intelligent scientist too).
As well as having a well-written plot, which brings up some uncomfortable truths about how Hwen may have to sustain his necromantic existence, Issue #8 of Doctor Mirage is also quite funny. The humour never feels forced, and while it's not hilarious, the general good nature of this series is more than enough to bring a broad grin to my face!
This issue has some build-up for things to come in the series in the form of character Sandria Darque making cryptic statements about Hwen being 'The One', and I was actually surprised to know that this leads somewhere, because every prior comic in the Valiant shared universe with Sandria Darque that I've read has her character being mysterious for mystery's sake, like an episode of Lost rather than an actual character with definable goals.
The artwork this issue is very good! Faces in a few panels look a bit angular, but not poorly drawn. Overall, this is very pleasing to the eye!
This is an immensely satisfying issue of The Second Life of Doctor Mirage, and I highly recommend it!
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