This is more like it!
Creative Staff:
Story: Richard Dinnick
Art: Brian Williamson
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
What They Say:
New adventures featuring the Twelfth Doctor, as played by Peter Capaldi, and featuring all-new TV companion Bill, played by Pearl Mackie!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While the previous issue left me cold (ha!), this one nicely picked up the pace, ramping up the story, adding new levels of mystery, greater threats, and greater action.
The Doctor and Bill forge an alliance between two unlikely allies: a group of Vikings and a platoon of Martian Ice Warriors. The Vikings stole an amazing treasure and fled to a volcanic island to escape their pursuers. Unfortunately, the island was occupied by the aforementioned platoon. After a slight misunderstanding, the Doctor brings the two together to fight against a common enemy: the Flood.
The Flood, for those of you that don’t remember, was the sentient virus first seen in the Tenth Doctor’s special The Waters of Mars. The Ice Warriors encountered it in their past and tried to quarantine the infected water, but one Ice Warrior became infected and fled to Earth. The rest of the platoon chased after him, but the heat from the volcanic activity under the island prevented them from destroying the infected.
That’s where the Vikings come in. While the Ice Warriors can’t take the heat, the Norsemen can, so the Martians guard the exits while the Vikings (equipped with Martian weapons) go into the caves under the island.
It’s a good strategy, but there are more players on the field than the Doctor knows, and here’s where my knowledge of Who trivia fails me, because I don’t recognize the puppet master. It’s clear that the Doctor does, though, and that the two have history. It will be interesting to learn more in the next issue.
The story moves along at a much better pace than the previous issue, and each scene leads well into the next, creating a seamless narrative. Plus, it’s just plain cool to see Ice Warriors and Vikings working together. That’s one of the things that Doctor Who does best: juxtaposing time and space and characters that shouldn’t go together. It also probably doesn’t hurt that the Ice Warriors are my favorite Who alien species.
While the plot hums along, the characterization of Bill is a bit off. The story so far would work just as well without her, and in general she feels flat and lifeless with her only contribution being bland, semi-out-of-character quips that go about as well as a lead balloon.
The art is also a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Brian Williamson employs a style very similar to Prince Valiant and the early Marvel Conan books. The style works well with the time period, but the characters look a bit off and there’s something rather ugly about the line work. This isn’t an affected ugliness, like in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, it’s an ephemeral quality that’s just plain unattractive.
It could be that Hi-Fi’s thick and dark colors does Williamson’s art a disservice. Like the general line work style, the color palette fits the time and atmosphere, but maybe too well, as it’s dreary and flat.
Those elements do drag down the story a bit, but the strength of the overall plot makes up for it, for now. Hopefully the next issue will be even better and they’ll iron out the kinks in the art and in Bill’s character.
In Summary:
I’m a sucker for stories about the Ice Warriors, so maybe I’m a bit biased when I say that Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #3.6 worked much better than issue 3.5. While there are issues with the art and with Bill’s character, the plot and the mystery are far more engaging and bolster (for the most part) the weaker areas. Dr. J gives this one a….
Grade: B
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Titan Comics
Release Date: August 23rd, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
