Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "panini"

Doctor Who: Doorway to Hell by Mark Wright

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Pestilent Heart gives us five Twelfth Doctor stories that help fill the gap between Clara's departure from the TARDIS and Bill's arrival.

First up is the Pestilent Heart in which the Doctor re-encounters Jess Collins (who he met in a previous story) in 1970s London. Evil is afoot in the London Underground and the Doctor has to sort it before Jess' dad is claimed as a permanent victim. Mixed feelings on this. Evil in the underground is an age old. So age old it was done in the penultimate 10th Doctor comic story and the monster isn't imaginative. The story is well-written and it does set up the rest of the book, so I'll give it a: Grade B

Moving In: After the events of the last story, the Doctor is stuck but Jess' family allows him to stay This story shows how he interacts with Jess, her father, her mother, and her brother. The vignettes are cute. This is probably one of my favorites in this long subgenre of Doctor Who domestic stories. It shows how the Doctor has settled a bit since Clara left and how he relates to everyone in the family. Grade: A-

Bloodsport: The Doctor decides to take Jess and her brother to the Museum only to find aliens in the midst of a hunt. This is another one of those stories that's been done before, but this one was particularly well done with some nice art and a couple variations on the theme. Grade: B+

Be Forgot: Mrs. Colins and the Doctor become concerned about a neighbor. Is a monster afoot? A very short but powerful holiday tale that packs a wallop. Nicely done. Grade: A-

Doorway to Hell: The Master, the Roger Delgado Master has an evil plan. The Collins' fall into his clutches and its up to the Doctor to save them. The rendering on Delgado's Master is a treat and the art and writing really capture the spirit of the character. The final battle between the Doctor and Master is unbelievably epic. Grade: A

Overall, this is one of the finest Doctor Who magazine collections I've ever read. I loved this idea of the Doctor being connected and grounded with an entire family and becoming part of their family and the community. It's a clever story that we'll be explored on television due to the demands of the genre, but here it's just a nice change of pace that highlights where the 12th Doctor could go. Overall, good characters, good plot, and just a really fun read for any Doctor Who fan.



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Doctor Who: The Child of Time by Jonathan Morris

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects the first twenty-two Doctor Who Magazine comic strips featuring Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor along with Amy Pond. Like the last Tenth Doctor collection, the Crimson Hand, this collection features one writer (in this case Doctor Who Novelist/Audio Script Writer Jonathan Morris) writing his own series of Doctor Who in comic strip with an ongoing plot, only this time, there’s a TV series that runs concurrent to the comic stories.

Supernature (421-423): The Doctor and Amy land on a mysterious Earth colony where the colonists are prisoners (though that has little plot relevance) and mysterious monsters are appearing.. It’s a pretty standard Doctor Who story that’s well-done. It’s a good first run for both the 1th Doctor in Comics and Morris as his writer. Grade: B

Bollywood (424): It’s Doctor Who as a Bollywood musical. Have to be honest that much of this goes over my head as I’ve never seen a Bollywood musical, but a short ten page comic strip were colorful characters break out to song is quite fun. Grade: B

The Golden Ones (425-428): A brilliant colorful UNIT story in Japan featuring kids being memorized by a strange drink and a TV show. Love this story with a nice return of a classic Doctor Who monster. Will say this story has the most dubious look for Amy. Don’t really see pigtails as something she would wear. Grade: A-

The Professor, the Queen, and the Bookshop (429): Reimagining Doctor Who as a sort of C.S. Lewis fantasy story. It’s so-so with a little too much fanboying for a ten-page story. Still, it’s better than The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe. Art by Rob Davis really fits the mood. Grade: B-

The Screams of Night (430-431): The Doctor and Amy Arrive in 1860s France where several young women are becoming opera stars….but at a price. Solid, creepy story, helped by some very good visuals. Grade: B+

Do Not Go Into that Gentle Good Night (432): Elderly people without relatives are disappearing from a nursing home. A surprising, well done, and emotionally resonant story. Grade: A

Forever Dreaming (433-434): I was initially taken aback by the weird art of this story, but as I understood the strange psychedelic locale, I realized the art was odd with a reason, and this one case were very stylized art works a treat. In this story, the Doctor and Amy land on a beach planet, the Doctor tells Amy to run, and then turns to sand. And the story gets crazier from there. Grade: A

Apotheosis (435-437): The Doctor and Amy arrive on a weird alien planet where there’s a time field that ages people and a lot of mystery. This story ups Steve Moffat’s silliness of militarized priest by offering us armed nuns in full habits. It’s absurd but not in a good way. The plot works in a lot of good twists. and leads in to the conclusion of the book’s arc. Grade: B

The Child of Time (438-441): This is one of those arcs I like. There are a few panels that give hints that something is going on, but nothing that interferes with enjoying all the other stories. The Doctor and Amy have to stop a paradoxical girl from becoming the absolute ruler of the universe who is worshipped by Androids. The story finds the Doctor meeting Alan Turing and the Bronte sisters, fully armed with weapons. It’s a timey-wimey extravaganza worthy of the TV show, but better than most of the TV series finales (though not quite as good as the Series 5 finale that readers would have just seen.) It manages to use the power of the comic genre to tell a story that is fantastic and visually beyond anything you could do on TV. A good end to Johnny Morris really lovely run. Grade: A-

These Panini Doctor Who collections are notable for including commentaries by writers and artists in the back. This gives some great insight into their inspirations and curative processes. This one is particularly entertaining as we learn at-length the challenges that come with trying to tell a story arc while there’s a TV series running. Morris kept trying to come up with the sort of stories that Moffat would do in order to meet TV audience’s expectations but he did too good a job as he kept having plotlines scrubbed by Cardiff. It’s a fascinating read to go along with some really good creative Doctor Who comics.




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