REVIEW: “Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious” Comics (“Defender of the Daleks” and “Monstrous Beauty”)

Time Lord Victorious, the first Doctor Who multimedia crossover event, is a story told via multiple mediums—including novels, audios, short stories, and comics. The novels appear to contain the core storyline of the event—the Tenth Doctor’s battle against the Kotturah—leaving the audios, short stories, and comics to flesh out that main story. With the Big Finish audio dramas detailing how the Eighth Doctor gets drawn into the story and the short stories fleshing out the world of Time Lord Victorious, that leaves the comics to flesh out the Tenth Doctor’s backstory before the events of the novels and to explore how the Ninth Doctor joins the fray. While both comics feel a bit disconnected from the rest of the Time Lord Victorious event, “Defender of the Daleks” and “Monstrous Beauty” are still fun Doctor Who stories well worth a read.

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REVIEW: “Doctor Who – The 13th Doctor, Volume 4: A Tale of Two Time Lords”

There will always be something devilishly fun about multi-Doctor stories. I don’t know if it’s the knowledge that, in-universe, they’re just not supposed to happen or if it’s the joy of witnessing multiple incarnations of the Doctor interacting with each other at the same time. Whatever it is, it’s fun to witness. So, the moment I heard that Titan Comics’ ongoing 13th Doctor line would feature an arc where the 13th Doctor, Yaz, Graham, and Ryan meet up with the 10th Doctor and Martha Jones during the events of Blink, I was super excited. It sounded like a bucket and a half of fun. And, having read the arc, it was exactly as much fun as I’d have liked – though, as always, I wish it was a bit longer. (4.5 out of 5 wands.)

(NOTE: There may be mild spoilers for A Tale of Two Time Lords ahead.)

Doctor Who: A Tale of Two Time Lords (written by Jody Houser, illustrated by Roberta Ingranata)
The Thirteenth Doctor is back with her friends – Yaz, Ryan and Graham – in a brand new time-travelling adventure. This time she faces the horrific Weeping Angels – who else can help her out but one of her previous incarnations: the Tenth Doctor himself! Landing in the swinging 60s, the Thirteenth Doctor and fam are stranded in the middle of a territorial battle between the Angels and the creepy Autons, all the while having to avoid her former self and causing the universe to implode! What could go wrong?

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REVIEW: Doctor Who 2019 Christmas Special – “Time Out of Mind” by Jody Houser

Doctor Who - Time Out of MindAs the saying always goes, if the BBC won’t give Doctor Who a Christmas special on TV, then the comics will pick up the slack! And pick up the slack they do as writer, Jody Houser, and illustrator, Roberta Ingranata, team up once again to tell a new story with Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor and her friends – this time as they go against a holiday threat as scary as anything they’ve faced to date. It’s fun, it’s festive, and Houser and Ingranata continue to show the vast understanding they have for these characters.

Doctor Who: Time Out of Mind (written by Jody Houser, illustrated by Roberta Ingranata) 
The 13th Doctor and co visit an inter-galactic fair for some down time, only to realise things aren’t all as they seem. Both their minds and the TARDIS’ logs have been tampered with, and in a bid to discover just what in Gallifrey’s name is going on, they head to a distant planet where they encounter a mysterious festive figure involved in an audacious plot…

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REVIEW: “Doctor Who – The 13th Doctor, Volume 2”

13th doc vol 2With Jodie Whittaker’s second season as the 13th Doctor delayed until 2020, fans of Doctor Who are left to turn to other mediums to get their fix of new Doctor Who stories. Thankfully, Titan Comics continues to put out new 13th Doctor comics each and every month. And they’re really good, too, with each arc comprising a single storyline that feels like a complete episode of the series!

Doctor Who – The 13th Doctor, Volume 2 by Jody Houser, illustrated by Rachael Stott and Roberta Ingranata
A mysterious podcast leads the Doctor, Yaz, Graham, and Ryan throughout history as they work out how they’re involved in its creation and just who’s behind “Hidden Human History”.

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REVIEW: “Stranger Things: The Other Side”

Stranger Things - The Other SideStranger Things is massively successful. It’s probably Netflix’s biggest hit in the past five years, or so. So, it was only a matter of time before it started branching out into other mediums. Earlier last month, the first official novel – Gwenda Bond’s Suspicious Minds (my review of it here) – was released, but prior to that, Dark Horse Comics released a limited series – written by Jody Houser and illustrated by Stefano Martino – telling the unseen story of Will Byers during the events of season 1. It’s a great idea for a tie-in comic, but is the execution as good as the concept? Mostly, yeah.

When Will Byers finds himself in the Upside Down, an impossible dark parody of his own world, he’s understandably frightened. But that’s nothing compared with the fear that takes hold when he realizes what’s in that world with him!

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REVIEW: “Doctor Who: The 13th Doctor – Volume 1”

Doctor Who - Thirteenth Doctor Vol 1Doctor Who has a long history in comics, branching all the way back into the earliest days of the show. That history continues in the present, with Titan Comics’ line of Doctor Who stories – the latest being a new series of stories featuring Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor. Just like the newest series of the show did, this comic – written by Jody Houser and illustrated by Rachael Stott – features an all-new adventure with all-new side characters and an all-new villain. Unlike a good chunk of the newest series, however, this story actually features a satisfying beginning, middle, and end.

Bursting straight out of her hit new television adventures, this first collection of the Thirteenth Doctor’s comic book tales is a scorchingly fresh incarnation, taking the show – and its comic strip adventures – where no Doctor has gone before!

Facing off against vile villains and misunderstood monsters in flavours both human and alien, the Doctor and her friends must push the limits of time and space, confronting evils deliberate and accidental all throughout history – and uncovering secrets long-hidden and wonders never-seen along the way!

Perfect for fans old and new alike, this is an awe-inspiring jumping on point to the Doctor Who comics mythos.

Buy it, read it, then travel back in time to read it for the first time all over again…!

Collects Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #1-4.

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REVIEW: Mother Panic, vol. 1: A Work in Progress

checklist-vo-21-06-17-7Better late than never, I suppose. I meant to review the first volume of Jody Houser’s Mother Panic back when it came out a few weeks ago, but life gets in the way sometimes. So here we go. Mother Panic is one of the several new comics from the Young Animal line from DC, headed by Gerard Way.

Written by Jody Houser and illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards, Mother Panic: A Work in Progress tells the story of Violet Paige, a rich young celebutante with a bad attitude and a worse reputation. No one would ever suspect that this tabloid-fodder wild child has a secret hidden beneath her spoiled heiress exterior—a secret that has driven her to become the terrifying force of vengeance against her privileged peers known as Mother Panic! But even as Violet launches her all-out assault on the rich and twisted, her shaky allies threaten to betray her, and every one of Gotham’s guardians—from Batwoman to the Dark Knight himself—is hot on her trail. Will Mother Panic continue to strike terror into her enemies’ hearts? Or will her violent quest for justice reach an equally violent end?

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