By now we’re well into the reign of Time Lord number twelve
on Doctor Who, played with swagger and an edge of
dickishness by Peter Capaldi. Still, there are likely some, possibly many, of
you out there who miss the human cartoon that was Matt Smith’s eleventh
incarnation of the character. But fear not, that version of the long-lived,
beloved character is still alive and well, albeit in a drastically different
form, that of comic books. It does actually seem like a fitting medium for a
rendering of Smith, and the newly minted continuing series is back with issue
#3, “What He Wants…” and it has what you need.
Over the course of the previous two issues, the Doctor
picked up a new travelling companion, a sarcastic, unemployed librarian named
Alice, who has, thus far, fit into his adventures rather nicely. She’s shown
she can handle herself in a tight spot or two, and that trend continues in this
latest outing. Issues #1 and #2 have been more episodic in nature, like
standalone installments of the show, but now you start to get a larger
narrative arc coming into play, which was something of a worry before. As fun
as these separate escapades can be, your attention was going to start wandering
before long.
On this particular jaunt, the Doctor and Alice, accompanied
by an early version of Alice’s dead mother’s favorite rock star—a kind of
proto-David Bowie—wind up back in Mississippi in 1931. The overall story is a
parallel with the Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil to learn how to
play guitar legend, which, incidentally enough, also prominently features
Robert Johnson. Turns out he and the Doctor are old pals, and you can probably
imagine how they go together.
But there are also more sinister doings afoot back on the Delta,
and the mysterious ServeYouInc, who you may remember from the theme park
debacle in the last episode, has reared its ugly head yet again. And this time,
they snare the Doctor with their sales pitch, so it’s up to Alice, the least
charismatic rocker in the history of popular music, and a monster truck named
Bessie to save the day. But even with potentially dire consequences and mildly
serious overtones, this is a bouncy, bounding undertaking that skips from event
to event.
Beyond the up-tempo fun and adventure of this particular story,
something much grander and wider is being set up. ServeYouInc is obviously up
to no good, and this is something the Time Lord and his companion are going to
need to look into in greater depth moving forward. You also get hints of what’s
going on inside that strange little head of the Doctor—you get hints at his
greatest hopes and dreams and desires—which certainly promises to be an
interesting avenue to explore.
Even with a storyline that’s beginning to sprawl, the Doctor
Eleven comics are still taking a very different approach than the Doctor Ten
series, also from Titan Comics. While each issue of this run is an individual,
standalone adventure, with the other, each monthly title feels more like a
smaller piece of an episode. It’s almost as if each issue ends with what would
be a commercial break on the show, picking up moments after you leave off.
This early into the run, the individual issues are still a
great deal of fun, but you’re glad to see a bigger picture start to form. If
that wasn’t there, all the fun, wacky shenanigans in the universe weren’t going
to keep you buying this title from month to month, but they’re definitely
moving in the right direction. This is the Doctor at his popcorn peak, running
around through time, dragging random stragglers on adventures, and basically
having a damn fine time of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment