Written by >> Tony Lee
Art by >> Al Davison
Colors by >> Lovern Kindzierski
Letters by >> Robbie Robbins; Chris Mowry
Edits by >> Denton J. Tipton
Covers by >> Al Davison, Paul Grist and Phil Elliot, Tommy Lee Edwards
Publisher IDW PUBLISHING
I’m about six issues behind in reading the new ongoing Doctor Who comic from IDW so here is where I find myself, a true Doctor Who addict, reading the first story arc of this series a long time after it was released. The plan is to write a review for each issue every week until I’m all caught up starting with the first two issues in this review. I always say I’m going to do that with the television episodes but for some reason never get into actually getting it done.
I seem to remember the golden age movie business backdrop being used before in a Doctor Who strip in Doctor Who Magazine? If I’m not mistaken it was a 5th Doctor story as I’m trying to recall? Though with a character which has been around this long, and has traveled through so many forms of storytelling so many times, the Doctor is bound to cross the same themes again from time to time. My main focus should be in writing this review on how this story moves but I had to think about the old story when seeing the setting of this first storyline of the ongoing. I have tons of fan wank canon in my head.
I have really enjoyed the different approaches IDW has taken with the art and writing teams on all of their Doctor Who comics, especially the one-shots, and I came in not knowing if I would really enjoy Al Davison’s tackling of my all time favorite character. I loved his covers right off the bat and once I got into the story I really thought his fit this story in fine fashion.
This is three paragraphs in a row that I was going to start with “I” but who cares, I’m no Roger Ebert.
But then again, that’s a good thing in so many ways.
I wish this story had been given at least three issues to get a little more into the supporting characters and this story has a couple of nice ones but I understand them on the publishing side of things wanting to complete one story quick to start the ongoing so I’m fine with the two issue story.
Long sentence there folks. Did I make any English Geeks brain hemaridge?
Good.
I hope though in the future of this series they let stories develop at the pace they need. Not that any publisher seems to have a grasp on what stories need more issues and which ones should be cut short and save the padding. Maybe they could have even started the series with a few of the well crafted one-shots they have been publishing? The, A Room With A Deja, one-shot would have worked great as a standalone issue number starter.
Anyways, what I think could have worked doesn’t matter. They started with the two part story Silver Scream to launch the ongoing and I thought it was a nice start to the series after reading it a few times. But that is what it was. It was “nice” and nice is one step above “ok” and that is how I see Tony Lee’s writing within the Doctor Who universe as a whole. It’s not bad in total but with such a historical character as the Doctor just the same as with Batman, Spiderman, Superman, ok and nice is not good enough. This series should have big names working on it and spiced with other lower level names thrown in. I’m trying not to rip Tony Lee on this because the ongoing is just getting started so maybe I should end this review now and judge future stories on just their merit alone.
Review by Brian C. Williams
REVIEW: DOCTOR WHO #1 and #2
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