So big I couldn't fit it in my scanner.
Doctor Who GN #12: The Widow’s Curse
(originally printed in Doctor Who Monthly #s 381-399 and Doctor Who Storybook 2009)
Panini Comics collected the various issues in 2009, but I was only able to get it a few weeks ago and with my other reading, just finished it this week. Originally I wasn’t going to review this because there are too many stories and it’s kind of old. However, I didn’t want to have a review week of four days. I’m just going to zoom through the 9 stories reprinted here, but here’s a quick credit list.
WRITERS: Rob Davis, Dan McDaid, Johnathan Morris, and Ian Edginton ARTISTS: Mike Collins, David A. Roch, John Ross, Martin Geraghty, Roger Langridge, Adrian Salmon, & Rob Davis COLOURISTS (UK spelling 😀 ): James Offredi, Geranit Ford and sometimes the artists LETTERER: Roger Langridge EDITORS: Clayton Hickman, Scott Gray, & Tom Spilsbury
The first batch of stories feature Martha Jones as the companion:
“The Woman Who Sold The World”: The Doctor and Martha find they’re saving a world that’s defaulted on a loan. More interesting than it sounds. Trust me, it’s a good one.
“Bus Stop”: Feel sorry for the poor guy on a bus that the Doctor is using to escape aliens.
“First”: The Doctor and Martha stumble upon an expedition by Ernest Shackleton, famous for trying to reach the South Pole, and his latest expedition comes across aliens.
“Sun Screen”: Our heroes travel to a solar station as it’s being attacked by creatures that feed on energy.
“Death to the Doctor”: A fun story that features lesser foes the Doctor has beaten (nobody from the show, as far as I know) in a nod to the original series. (There’s even a spaceship that looks like two hair dryers taped together.)
“Universal Monsters”: A story where for once the Doctor is very, very wrong when he finds a group on another planet right out of a horror picture.
Sadly, only three storylines were written featuring Donna, including the title story.
“The Widow’s Curse”: One of the few things I credit Davies for is the creation of the Sycorax, and unlike the one appearance in the first IDW miniseries, the female band here are well in keeping with the story, and “The Christmas Invasion” is a set-up for the story.
“The Immortal Emperor”: The entry from the 2009 Storybook finds the Doctor and Donna learning that an ancient Chinese emperor has been turned into a cyborg.
“Time of My Life”: This should have been the title story. If somebody could scan the final page for my readers, I would very much appreciate it. Because Donna had been wrongly taken from the show (thanks to Davies not liking any character on this show that wasn’t his Doctor, Rose, or Captain Jack, who he wanted for Torchwood), she was also taken out of the magazine strips. This story features a short series of adventures and ends with a fantastic moment where the Doctor stumbles across a message Donna left for him, just as he left for Rose at the end of the first new season. Every time I read that final page, it makes me well up a bit and remember just how poorly Russell T. treated her in the end of the series. I wish I could fit this in my scanner to give it a proper scan.
As a whole, they’re all pretty good stories, but it’s not “The Widow’s Curse” but “Time of My Life” that is the best story here. Although the former makes it seem more like a Doctor Who title, I still think the latter should have been the title, and this story alone makes the whole book (all very good stories) worth buying.
Up Next: “Best Scene of the Reading Week” in the Weekly Wrap-Up with Jake & Leon.
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