Doctor Who #12 (IDW Vol. 3) - A Review

WARNING: The following review does contain spoilers for Series 7, Part 2 of the Doctor Who TV Series. It might also contain spoilers regarding the upcoming 50th Anniversary Special. Read no further if you wish to remain unspoiled and know that this comic is bloody brilliant and well worth reading, even if it is read a few months from now.


This month's issue of Doctor Who will be of interest to fans of the show for one reason above all others. A flashback at the start of the comic seems to confirm what, so far, had only been speculated - that the Time Lord we saw at the end of The Name of The Doctor was an incarnation of The Doctor from the time of The Time War.  One who refused the name of The Doctor and who fired the metaphorical bullet that removed The Time Lords from the universe. 


Ignoring even that factoid, there is much to admire in this issue.  Writers Andy Diggle and Eddie Robson have built upon Diggle's story The Hypothetical Man and created a villain truly worthy of The Doctor.  More, they give a depth of character - and dare I say, a level of sheer awesomeness - to Clara Oswald that she did not receive in the television program.



If this issue has a weakness, it lies in the artwork of Andy Kuhn.  Khun's style is good and a worthy fit for the Steampunk aesthetic of this story but his work in this final part of the Sky Jacks storyline does seem somewhat rushed and uneven at times compared to previous issues.  Still, the overall affect is a good one and this issue has more good than bad and a few parts that are honestly great. 

Doctor Who #11 (IDW Vol. 3) - A Review

Part Three of Sky Jacks continues smoothly from where Part Two ended, without pausing for a moment.  Trapped in a seemingly endless limbo on-board a steam-powered World War II bomber, The Doctor and Clara have solved the mystery of where they are and why they can't summon The Doctor's ship - The TARDIS.  Naturally, the answers (i.e. they're somewhere inside The TARDIS) just lead to further questions as our heroes quickly find themselves under attack and at the mercy of a new enemy. 


Fans of the show may complain that this story by Andy Diggle and Eddie Robson seems derivative of the second half of Series 7, with Diggle's new villainous mastermind seeming to be an ersatz copy of the main villain of that series.  While the similarities are there and this story has quite a bit in common with the episode Journey To The Center of The TARDIS, one can hardly fault Diggle and Robson for the similarities given that they must have had this story written months before the new series ever aired.  Taken on its' own merits, this is a crackerjack Doctor Who story with plenty of tension and humor to thrill and amuse the reader.


I've said before that I don't find the artwork of Andy Kuhn aesthetically pleasing.  That is not to say that it is bad - merely that as a fan I prefer cleaner, less-stylized art in my comics.  Yet I cannot deny that Kuhn's style with its' heavy inks and exaggerated characters is a perfect fit to the dirty, Steampunk aesthetic of Diggle and Robson's story.

Doctor Who #10 (IDW Vol. 3) - A Review

Picking up right where last month's issue left off,  Doctor Who #10 continues this dramatic steampunk storyline as our heroes find themselves trapped in a strange empty void with no ground and few safe zones.  The Doctor seems to have been trapped for slightly longer than Clara, claiming he has been working as "The Smith" who fixes all the broken things for about three years.  Of course that's a drop in the bucket for a Time Lord - he's far more concerned about the fact that his best efforts to find the TARDIS (let alone summon it) have proven unsuccessful. 



The script by Andy Diggle and Eddie Robson is full of the wit and humor one would expect of a story featuring the Matt Smith version of The Doctor.  More, there's an honestly engaging mystery at the heart of the main plot, to say nothing of the subplot involving the secret mission of the American pilots Clara befriended.  The fast pace of this issue more than makes up for the slow start last month, as we see The Doctor coping with the multiple mysteries as well as the hostile aliens who run the local Black Market.


Andy Kuhn's gritty art style matches the story perfectly in it's dirty but straightforward simplicity.  Best known for his work on the series Firebreather, Kuhn's artwork isn't pretty but it is full of detail and character.  That's not usually my cup of tea, but for this story it works.

Doctor Who #9 (IDW Vol. 3) - A Review

Whovians may find themselves confused at first by Doctor Who #9 - the first story in this comic series to feature Clara Oswald as The Doctor's companion.  There's quite a lot here that doesn't seem to match up with what we know of Clara from the second half of Series 7.  Chief among the problems are Clara's staying on The TARDIS over-night when the series depicted her only going on day-trips with The Doctor.  Also, the library of The TARDIS doesn't match its' recent appearance in Journey To The Center Of The TARDIS.


Thankfully, the fans who can work past these problems or think of a clever hand-wave (The TARDIS can easily have more than one library or the desktop could have changed) will discoverer a wonderful story with a steam-punk theme.  The focus is upon Clara along with a crew of WWII-era American Air Force pilots.  All of them have been stranded in the same strange pocket dimension, whose weaker gravity allows steam-powered engines to be practical. And where is The Doctor in all of this?  Spoilers. ;)  


The artwork by Andy Kuhn is simple but serviceable.  Kuhn's style is sketchy and highly stylized.  Normally, it wouldn't be the sort of art I'd enjoy but I think it fits the dark and dirty setting well enough.  It may not be pretty but it does set the mood effectively.