Fractal Matter

Written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews
Art by Will Conrad
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Review by: Frank Davis

Joss Whedon’s ongoing saga of space pirates returns to comics in a new miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. Whedon with returning Co Writer Brett Matthews and artist Will Conrad delivers a very amusing twist on the Serenity story by telling an earlier adventure of Captain Mal Reynolds and his rag tag crew as they pull off a heist that just might work.

The beauty of Whedon’s work is that itserves really well as an untold story of his TV series Firefly and can serve as another prelude tale to the Serenity movie. What is truly shiny about this miniseries is that Better Days actually feels and sounds like an episode of Firefly. The story involves a robbery scheme that is well layered and with this robbery on top of a robbery, complications involving clients having no money comes into play so then we see more theft and the scenes itself work well because the characters are familiar to the fans who love them. Kaylee is still pining for Simon, Inara deals with a guy with some anger issues, and Jayne continues to be amazed when he is unable to make something blow up. The only comment that can be said is that there is not enough River so far, buy that is just this reviewer being particular. If it was not for flipping the pages of the book, this felt like another story to the filmed part of the Serenity saga.

Whedon and Matthews jump right in the tale as the story moves quickly in the 22 pages of the first issue the plot is established, most of the characters make panel time with their usual wit, or in the case of Jayne a true lack of it. The art by Will Conrad, like in the previous Serenity miniseries is both true to the essence of the characters yet has a smooth flow that gives the story an immediacy and tension that is equal to the original work. This miniseries delivers some truly fun entertainment.

Overall, this is highly recommended work. The one caveat to this miniseries is that a passing knowledge of the set ups and characters makes Serenity- Better Days not the most new Reader Friendly experience, In this case, Whedon is rewarding those who loved him the hardest, the Firefly/Serenity fans and he fortunately just wants to give the readers another look at his underdog saga. So for those who missed Serenity, they should feel at home here. I know I do.

Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Ariel Olivetti
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Review by: Ross S

Cable. He’s a bit like marmite. You love him or you hate him. Initially little more than a gun toating kewl cyborg, he has grown over the years into a fully formed character that forms a key part of the X-universe. That growth has by no means been without growing-pains. The characters history as the son of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, sent into the future as a baby, only to return to the past to save the future is not without a certain degree of convolution. Especially once you factor in his own clone, his power upgrade, his de-powering, that whole techno-organic virus thing and his kind of re-powering. As such dumping him out into the time stream at the end of Messiah Complex, where he can do his own thing without creating paradoxes every time he orders a beer, is probably one of the best things that could happen to the character. This new series, Cable’s third I guess if you include the late lamented Cable & Deadpool series, sees us catch up with Cable us he hops through the time stream protecting the ginger Messiah baby.

Duane Swieczynski is a writer I haven’t come across before, his past work has been predominantly crime writing, both fiction and non-fiction, and journalism. It’s hard to judge the quality of his writing from this issue, since an enormous amount of it is Cable’s internal monologue. I always preferred the warrior priest version of Cable rather than the grim mercenary, and the tone that Swieczynski gives Cable here is definitely one of war weary soldier, rather than wise sage. While that isn’t necessarily to my taste, it is a wholly accurate interpretation of the character, and fully in keeping with his recent trials and tribulations. The dialogue seems a touch ham-fisted at times, with a little too much stress on the fact that Cable is a rock hard uber-soldier, but that is softened by a little humour surrounding the baby, and in fairness I think that this first issue is really about setting the scene and the tone of the series, rather than deep characterisation.

The tone itself is almost like that of a spaghetti western, albeit transported to a near future apocalyptic New York, with Cable literally mosying into town and facing off the local hoods. There is a scene at the end where he walks into a diner to come face to face with Bishop, apparently hunting him and the baby through the timestream, which you could transport wholesale to a saloon. It’s so cute you almost wonder if it’s supposed to be ironic. As for Bishop, he is another character who seems to have been floating in limbo a while and who can only really benefit from being slung out of continuity. His journey from cop to baby killing machine seems almost complete here, and I found it fabulous that he has also had an arm replaced by a robotic one; the opposite to Cables. It’s a simple use of mirror images but it really works to enhance the similarities and differences between these two time-slipped, trained killers.

What Swieczynski might lack in terms of stellar dialogue he seems to very much make up for in panel direction. The flow of the story is spot on, a lot of cinematic perspectives and sudden angle changes are used to great effect, and the whole thing comes together very nicely. Olivetti’s art loses some detail at times, but it’s incredibly lush and fits the cinematic style of the piece almost entirely.

I’m in two minds about this first issue. On one hand, the dialogue was a little lacking, and the take on the character isn’t one I’m mad keen on. On the other hand as a piece of visually driven writing, and as a play on the theme of the Western it works incredibly well. In addition one thing it definitely has going for it is the possibility of surprise. There aren’t really limits on location, on new characters, on alternative versions of existing characters. I don’t really have any idea where they intend to take this or what they intend to do with it. That at least makes it exciting and fresh for the X-line. I’d definitely recommend you picking this up, it’s not likely to blow your mind and it’s going to be a slow burner, but I it won’t necessarily be what you expected I have a feeling that it might end up being rather good a little way down the road.

Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost
Artist: Clayton Crain
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99
Release Date: 13th February

The return of X-Force to Marvel’s publishing roster is a very interesting venture. It delivers on the old marriage advice of having the bring using something old, new, borrowed, and blue. What X-Force delivers is a blood drenched, action filled tale that serves as a continuation of the broader themes that writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost dealt with in their New X-Men run, and serves as a good start to the restarted series.

The premise of the rebooted X-Force makes sense in context to the history of the team, yet the mission statement has changed. In the Messiah Complex crossover, Cyclops restarted the X-Force to hunt down and kill the enemies of mutantkind and after the end of the event; Cyclops decides that a kill squad would still be needed. So he has Wolverine, X-23, Warpath and Wolfsbane form a team that go hunt and kill.

The first foes of the new X-Force are the Purifiers, religious fundamentalists who want to kill mutants. With over 40 children killed by the Purifiers on the Xavier mansion, Cyclops decides to resolve to stop the death with death. The various character motivations of the leads are various and torn. Warpath wants revenge for a fallen friend who died in Messiah Complex. X-23 loves the work of murder because it allows her to avoid those messy feelings she had in New X-Men. Wolverine is more than willing to do the death himself and is happy that Cyclops will let him do what he does best, but has no interest in other people going on his path and Wolfsbane who wants to know why an old tormenter is involved with the Purifiers. As for the Purifiers, they are up to no good by digging up an old X-Men foe and returning this character in a manner that combines two concepts together that both makes sense in the context of the writing staff’s previously used characters, and fuses them with a long lost X-Men opponent with a similar methodology to the Purifiers to set up a foe of really dangerous intentions.

This mix of characters will bring many fun conflicts and lead to a lot of death. As for the characters, The Purifiers in action in the series are truly terrifying. The X-Force cast is very well handled. Kyle and Yost continue their long-term evolution of X-23 from cipher to mix up teen discovering love and now back to the road of that of killer afraid of being a person. Wolverine will be perpetually annoyed in this book. Between leading the team he also has to see first hand how X-23 falls apart. Wolfsbane and Warpath have grudges to settle with the Purifiers for very different reason and how these emotional issues can make both of these characters liabilities will deliver great drama in coming issues.

The scripting for X-Force is by the New X-Men writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost. During their time on New X-Men they earned a reputation of being creators that are not willing to let characters get off easy. Characters have a habit of dying in their work and in a very ironic manner their previous work has built into X-Force in such a natural way that it allows them to continue their overall metaphor of updating the X-Men as a Parable about Intolerance and Racism. The writing of X-Force is both new-reader friendly to readers who came to the X-Men books due to Messiah Complex; whilst allowing those who were reading New X-Men to continue the overall plot of that title.

The art by Clayton Crain is very bloody and violent. Crain’s style of fully rendered computer generated art is state of the art. His style has evolved over the years and in X-Force his style of highly stylized art is both funky and communicative. The story is very well serviced by the art. Each character is distinct and well defined. The team outfits are both logical to the context of the series and allow a uniform look to the characters. Crain also draws claws, knives, and blood very well. His backgrounds sometimes can fade away, and sometimes get lost in the forefront character action but the emotional lines of Crain’s line art beyond all the digital work has helped define a new precedent for a series that has had the varied art style that has included Rob Liefeld, Adam Pollina, Jim Cheung, Whilce Portacio and Mike Allred. Clayton Crain delivers strong storytelling with a distinct style that delivers excitement and fun.

Overall X-Force is great fun that will expand and further the allegorical elements of the X-Men story while allowing the creators, readers, and characters question how far should a dream be protected and what does this do to the dream on how a final solution to violence creates greater violence. Marvel has a great book on its hand on X-Force and hopefully the series is embraced for trying harder that it needs to. Blood and murder can be easy, but it is leads to a slippery slope. X-Force is a compelling must read.

WRITER: GARY RUSSELL
ARTIST: NICK ROCHE
PUBLISHER: IDW
PRICE: $3.99

The history of Doctor Who in comics goes back almost as far as the show itself. In fact, the comics adventures of the Doctor continued throughout the time that the show itself was off the air. For the last 28 years his thrilling adventures in time and space have been serialised in Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine, and have been worked on by some fairly well known creators, including Grant Morrison, Steve Dillon, Simon Furman, Bryan Hitch, Dave Gibbons, Alan Grant, Pat Mills, John Ridgeway, Paul Cornell and Dan Abnett. Now, in addition to those stories (and the TV series, the books, the audio adventures…), IDW are publishing the first ever all-new full-length Doctor Who comic.

Quite frankly it’s doubtful you’ll be reading this review if you don’t already have some interest in Doctor Who, so there’s not much point in filling in you in on the history of the show. IDW’s adventures take place at an as-yet-unspecified time in the show’s most recently transmitted season and features the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (as played onscreen by David Tennant) and his companion Martha Jones (as portrayed onscreen by Freema Agyeman).

We start the story with a brief introduction of the most basic back-story (Time Lords, Doctor, TARDIS), including the first visual depictions of anything relating to the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey, and then we’re off into the story proper. The Doctor and Martha are engaged in a quest to find the most perfect chocolate milkshake in the cosmos, as one might do if one had access to a time machine. A stopover at a diner on a space station leads to an encounter with a shape-shifter, and then to an encounter with one of the Doctor’s recent foes – a Sycorax (from The Christmas Invasion).

To say that Gary Russell has previous experience with the Doctor is an understatement – he’s written for the DWM comic strip, the Virgin Publishing New and Missing Adventures ranges, the BBC publishing Past and Eighth Doctor ranges, has written several behind-the–scenes books on the series, edited Doctor Who Magazine between 1992 and 1995, produced the audio dramas from Big Finish productions from 1998-2006 and is the current Script editor on the show itself. The man knows his Who. As such, the Doctor and Martha remain perfectly in character throughout, from the better moments, such as his usually overly talkative nature coming to the fore in a confrontation with the Sycorax, all the way down to the lesser moments, such as his gurning opening splash-page appearance which recalls cringe-inducing moments such as the Doctor’s singing of the Ghostbusters theme in season two’s Army of Ghosts. Right and wrong, this is the Doctor we’ve been watching onscreen.

Nick Roche is probably best known for his Transformers work, so seeing him drawing wall-to-wall humanoids is a bit of a change. His Doctor captures both the lively energy and enthusiasm of David Tennant and his more thoughtful side. It isn’t always perfect but it’s pretty good – Tennant appears to have a face that translates well into comics, as most artists that have tried seem to have nailed him pretty much straight away. His Martha Jones is not quite as strong, although again that seems to be in keeping with the attempts of others to translate her into artwork – even the makers of the recent animated Doctor Who episode The Infinite Quest couldn’t quite master that. Although much of the earliest online opinion on the art seems divided, overall Roche has done some very strong work here.

The weakest aspect of the entire issue (apart from the gurning, which is at least in character) is the ending. There’s no final page reveal, no shocking cliff-hanger designed to induce the sound of the closing theme in your mind, it just seems to stop.

An interesting first issue, and definitely worth picking up if you’re a fan of the show – although those of you outside the USA are going to have to find your own way of getting hold of it due to the wonderful world of licensing issues.

Happy times and places.

Discuss this topic here.

Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: John Romita Jr.
Publisher: Icon/Marvel
Price: $2.99
Release Date: 27th February

With only a leper’s handful of comics out in 2007, this year sees a number of Millar-related comics hitting the stands. Alongside his mainstream Marvel work with Fantastic Four, Wolverine and 1985 lands another of his Millarworld titles – Kick-Ass. Showing once again his grasp of subtlety with the title, Kick-Ass sees Millar reunited with his one time Wolverine artist, John Romita Jr in a book that is being put out through the Marvel imprint, Icon.

After obtaining a inked and lettered version of the first issue, I can report this comic lives up to its title in that it involves a lot of ass being kicked, but perhaps not in the way you might imagine. Kick-Ass centres around the exploits of wannabe superhero, and nerdish teenager, Dave Lizewski. Essentially narrating the his origin story, Dave takes us through the reasons behind wanting to buy a wet suit off Ebay and wearing it under his school clothes, but doesn’t quite get around to why someone would want to electrocute his testicles.

The aim of the title is to take realistic super-heroes to the “next level”, and the Millar publicity machine has been working overtime on this little series, faked-up vigilante videos on Youtube, a soundtrack, retailer advertising incentives, etc. Whilst this realism aspect is touted, it’s not utterly realistic (I doubt you could sit in class with a wet suit on without squeaking…) but I don’t see that as a bad thing mainly because it’s funny and ridiculous, brash and just damn good to look at. The sense of humour that runs through the book is Millar’s acerbic black humour, opening with a wannabe superhero trying to find his wings, through to Dave declaring Whedon’s X-Men run as making “Buffy look like shit”.

Whereas Millar’s Fantastic Four has a sprinkling of Millar’s patented pop culture references, Kick-Ass is crawling in them. Mainly they are used to try and ground the protagonist, explaining his likes and dislikes, his social situation and so on. They only jar because you just don’t like some of the focal points of the references, either to films or bands or celebrities – but that really isn’t the aim. What really centres the book is the basic concept that a teenage boy wants to dress up and go and right some wrongs, create some justice – Christ, just feel something exciting instead of being nobody.

John Romita Jr’s artwork is consistently excellent, I refuse to believe the man can draw a bad comic book, and you only have to look at recent output to prove it - Amazing Spider-Man, Eternals, World War Hulk - and it continues here. Effortlessly covering the social aspects of high school to a wetsuit clad vigilante taking his first steps into the criminal element, every page is delightful, I look forward to seeing the coloured version.

And so Kick-Ass looks to be a great book. The only elements that will raise some questions are to how the story will develop; this really is a scene-setting issue with only a couple of hints of what might be down the line; and what American teenager actually likes the Stereophonics? Consider this comic the antithesis of Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and enjoy the ride.

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Writer: Joe Hill
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Publisher: IDW
Release Date: 6th February

Let’s get the Stephen King thing dealt with up front. Yes, he’s Stephen King’s son. No that really doesn’t have any relevance to this comic as Joe Hill’s a writer in his own right and was before anyone knew who his dad was.

Right with that dealt with let’s get on with Locke and Key 1. This is the setup for a 6 part series, though Joe Hill has talked in interviews about it being the first part of a 68 part story he wants to do over time. Nothing like an ambitious plan.

Locke and Key deals with 3 children who become involved with the mysterious The Keyhouse. The first issue has them arriving at the property, but also looks back at the violent incident that led them to move here, which is very much connected to their family’s involvement with the house. A dual narrative set in both the present and the past establishes a little of the characters so that they don’t remain cyphers whilst the central mystery is introduced. This is a book definitely written for the comic format rather than an adaptation of some forgotten prose work. There are some lovely visual sequences that could not have been done in prose and the creators play well with a locked camera allowing visuals to mix from different times whilst still keeping a coherent narrative. For a relative newcomer to comics it’s highly impressive and gets across important information quickly and without a reliance on talking heads.

As for that central mystery we get just a glimpse of it this issue, but with a sequence that invites interest as to what is happening. In an interview with Hill he talked about how “within the house are secret doors with transformative powers, the power to fundamentally change a person’s identity.” Hill establishes a history for the kids with a human adversary and then starts to tantalise us with a more mystical enemy. There’s enough substance here to give a satisfying read, but nothing is overexplained leaving the reader to want more. It’s a solid setup that intrigues and doesn’t seem too generic.

Rodriguez’s art is at first a little cartoony, but you quickly appreciate the expressiveness and attention to everyday detail that it contains. The switch in timelines is conveyed well through the art without the need for captions to explain what is going on. By the end of this first issue I was perfectly happy with the art and indeed impressed at various sections.

Locke and Key is an enjoyable young horror book. There is some surprisingly tense and bloody scenes given the art, but as an introduction to a wider tale it does its job. I’m intrigued and curious to learn more. This Hill bloke might have some writing chops after all.

Discuss this topic here.

Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Bryan Hitch
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $2.99
Release Date: 13th February

Millar and Hitch are back. Following their glorious run on The Ultimates the world’s greatest self-publicist and his stupidly talented drawing buddy are hitting mainstream Marvel with a year-long run on Fantastic Four. Unless you’ve been clinically dead for the past few months, you probably already knew this. What you really want to know is “is it any good?”

Of course it is.

This first issue sets out exactly as Millar and Hitch declared it would by chucking as much craziness as possible whilst being just plain entertaining. Taking a cue from Back to the Future, part 3 we join the Fantastic family on a time sled running from a bunch of Indians and heading straight into the path of an oncoming mail train. For reasons that will become apparent when you read it, Ben is dressed like a Shakespearian character during all this. As what amounts to an almost throwaway opening, there is more enjoyment to be had in those opening three pages than some entire series of other comics.

A promising start then. The rest of the issue follows the various team members as they go about various commitments: Johnny has a reality TV program to consider for his new venture, Ben and Reed have an appointment with some academics and Sue has a new superteam to create. The main story kicks in when a woman comes to the Baxter building to ask Reed to come with her and help with a project that will affect the entire world. And, boy, she isn’t kidding either.

Millar and Hitch work together so well, you can almost see the point where the script throws an idea that Bryan just takes and makes into some of the most technically impressive art you’re ever going to see. I must have seen the double splash page at the end of the book about twenty times now, but it still staggers. It must look amazing on the oversized pages that Hitch is drawing these pages, which are the same size Kirby used for his FF work (Approximately the size of a house. Possibly.). Of course, the grandiose pages are spectacular, but Hitch gets to play with a lot more characters in this title. The main team all look great, even though Johnny seems to have no eyeballs in this issue, and the interaction of all of them with the citizens of New York wonderfully extols the virtues of what the Fantastic Four should be at the same time as looking great. As a note, my favourite Hitch moment in this issue comes when the Ben is plummeting down a few floors in the Baxter building – one panel with just the utterance of “Aw, crap!” that makes you realise the essential element here – fun.

Hitch has loosened his pencil work up for this title slightly from the denseness of The Ultimates (which has also had the knock-on effect of Bryan drawing at the speed of light. Possibly.) and this is not a bad thing, the book looks gorgeous. Ably assisted by Paul Neary and Paul Mounts on inks and colours respectively, it is a joy to see this level of quality on a mainstream continuity monthly title. Coupled with Millar bringing Steve McNiven onto the regular Woverine title, there seems to be a real drive to make ongoing titles the star attractions once again, not moving everything off into stand alone books.

Millar’s script is strong, pulling on the work he did on the Ultimate Fantastic Four title and mainlining it into the original team effortlessly. The characterisations are all present and correct, particularly Ben who shines throughout. True, it has some of his almost trademark cultural references that some people seem to think have no place in a comic book (but those people will complain about anything put in front of them). You should really know what to expect from a Millar book these days to be honest. In this instance it’s a title that once again will be restored to the world’s greatest as the Millar/Hitch (or Mitch to their friends. Possibly.) team show everyone else how to make comics enjoyable again.

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Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Alex Milne
Publisher: IDW
Price: $3.99
Release Date: Late February

Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

For those who are unaware of such things, Arcee is a female Transformer that showed up in the Transformers Animated movie back in the eighties. Instantly baffling to everyone who stopped to think about why robots would need genders, matters weren’t helped by colouring her pink in some misguided attempt to get that generation’s buyers of My Little Pony interested. Luckily, Arcee didn’t seem content with staying at home and transforming into a kitchen sink and was more often than not fighting alongside the lads. Even though, to be honest it’s a bit of a hard sell, and so having a spotlight issue for her goes some way to show how strong the IDW Transformer comics are in terms of quality and dedicated readership. Believe me, you’re all going to want to get this issue.

Simon Furman has made Arcee into a devastating force of nature, a destructive revenge machine that will destroy anyone or thing that gets in her way. She wants someone’s head and will not stop until she gets it. Quite frankly, she has serious mental issues going on. It’s a brave move that makes a lot of sense, Arcee is more than equal to those around her, in fact she goes toe-to-toe with some big hitters here and more than holds her own.

The chaos that blows through this issue is superbly rendered by Alex Milne, I think this might be some of the best work I’ve seen from him. Highly detailed and dynamic, Alex goes through page after page with a deft storytelling skill, there are hardly any instances when it isn’t apparent what is happening - even when the action really heats up.

Furman creates a great stand-alone issue, but also manages to chuck in more continuity elements than you would think possible. I won’t go into to much detail, but alongside Arcee’s motivation for destruction there are: gestalts, Banzaitron, Ultra Magnus, Jetfire, and a hint at a device that is going to cause a lot of trouble. And that’s not even half of the goodies contained within this issue for those following the overarching storylines running throughout IDW’s Transformers titles.

Elements of that issue I mentioned back at the start of this review about questioning why robots need gender in the first place are answered here, although they actually raise more questions in my mind. Jhiaxus is the culprit, fundamentally changing Arcee’s coding to create the first female Transformer and then tossing her aside like a failed experiment. Aside from really quite distasteful comments about post-op Tran-nies or PMS (the experiment has apparently left Arcee awash with conflicting sensory perceptions including a link to Jhiaxus, but definitely not the ability to hunt down shoe shops) that I won’t bore you with, the mental effects of this experimentation are apparent to see with Arcee hell-bent on getting hold of Jhiaxus. What was the motivation for introducing gender? Was it just done for the sake of doing it? Whilst we may or may not get answers to these questions soon, we are sure to be in for a hell of a ride. The conclusion of this issue certainly suggests there is one serious smackdown coming.

So whilst I am not convinced this is going to bring in a swath of female readers, nor does it’s content hold up to well in presenting a female transformer as rational (this may well be purposeful, Jhiaxus would certainly be interested in creating more chaotic Transformers) it does successfully re-create Arcee as the Autobot most likely to kill you than give you the time of day. For that reason alone, this is great stuff.

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Writer/Artist: Jamie Smart
Publisher: Slave Labor
Price: $3.50
Release Date: 27th February

Preview available: www.slgcomic.com

Moral of this story is never accept a cat from your friend or neighbour since face it, cats are demon spawn.

The Keeper of the Underworld releases the demon spirit of Bubu but to exist in our world he needs a mortal form, after a bit of research it was discovered that only a cat (in this case Ubu) could hold Bubu’s spirit.

And thus Ubu Bubu was born.

They can separate but prefer to be combined in the destruction of humanity. The first step of any dastardly plan is to find a hideout in this case Sissy and Henry’s home. Their mom’s soul gets eaten.

Henry just wants his cat Ubu back minus the Bubu bits and Sissy just wants to avoid allergic reactions (which seems impossible due to her being allergic to cats and the general outdoors). And you know, get people to realise that Bubu is out there and possibly destroy him.

All in all a fun romp especially if you like cats, demons and torturing small children. Some of the jokes are dire but it goes with the characters. If you’ve enjoyed some of SLG’s previous comics, Lenore, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, etc don’t miss Ubu Bubu unless of course you’re allergic to cats.

And in case you are, there are pills for that.

Discuss this topic here.

WRITER: GARY RUSSELL
ARTIST: NICK ROCHE
PUBLISHER: IDW
PRICE: $3.99

The history of Doctor Who in comics goes back almost as far as the show itself. In fact, the comics adventures of the Doctor continued throughout the time that the show itself was off the air. For the last 28 years his thrilling adventures in time and space have been serialised in Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine, and have been worked on by some fairly well known creators, including Grant Morrison, Steve Dillon, Simon Furman, Bryan Hitch, Dave Gibbons, Alan Grant, Pat Mills, John Ridgeway, Paul Cornell and Dan Abnett. Now, in addition to those stories (and the TV series, the books, the audio adventures…), IDW are publishing the first ever all-new full-length Doctor Who comic.

Quite frankly it’s doubtful you’ll be reading this review if you don’t already have some interest in Doctor Who, so there’s not much point in filling in you in on the history of the show. IDW’s adventures take place at an as-yet-unspecified time in the show’s most recently transmitted season and features the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (as played onscreen by David Tennant) and his companion Martha Jones (as portrayed onscreen by Freema Agyeman).

We start the story with a brief introduction of the most basic back-story (Time Lords, Doctor, TARDIS), including the first visual depictions of anything relating to the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey, and then we’re off into the story proper. The Doctor and Martha are engaged in a quest to find the most perfect chocolate milkshake in the cosmos, as one might do if one had access to a time machine. A stopover at a diner on a space station leads to an encounter with a shape-shifter, and then to an encounter with one of the Doctor’s recent foes – a Sycorax (from The Christmas Invasion).

To say that Gary Russell has previous experience with the Doctor is an understatement – he’s written for the DWM comic strip, the Virgin Publishing New and Missing Adventures ranges, the BBC publishing Past and Eighth Doctor ranges, has written several behind-the–scenes books on the series, edited Doctor Who Magazine between 1992 and 1995, produced the audio dramas from Big Finish productions from 1998-2006 and is the current Script editor on the show itself. The man knows his Who. As such, the Doctor and Martha remain perfectly in character throughout, from the better moments, such as his usually overly talkative nature coming to the fore in a confrontation with the Sycorax, all the way down to the lesser moments, such as his gurning opening splash-page appearance which recalls cringe-inducing moments such as the Doctor’s singing of the Ghostbusters theme in season two’s Army of Ghosts. Right and wrong, this is the Doctor we’ve been watching onscreen.

Nick Roche is probably best known for his Transformers work, so seeing him drawing wall-to-wall humanoids is a bit of a change. His Doctor captures both the lively energy and enthusiasm of David Tennant and his more thoughtful side. It isn’t always perfect but it’s pretty good – Tennant appears to have a face that translates well into comics, as most artists that have tried seem to have nailed him pretty much straight away. His Martha Jones is not quite as strong, although again that seems to be in keeping with the attempts of others to translate her into artwork – even the makers of the recent animated Doctor Who episode The Infinite Quest couldn’t quite master that. Although much of the earliest online opinion on the art seems divided, overall Roche has done some very strong work here.

The weakest aspect of the entire issue (apart from the gurning, which is at least in character) is the ending. There’s no final page reveal, no shocking cliff-hanger designed to induce the sound of the closing theme in your mind, it just seems to stop.

An interesting first issue, and definitely worth picking up if you’re a fan of the show – although those of you outside the USA are going to have to find your own way of getting hold of it due to the wonderful world of licensing issues.

Happy times and places.

Discuss this topic here.