The Doctor’s new local perception filter needs work.
Doctor Who Special 2012
IDW Publishing (August, 2012)
COVER ART: Mark Buckingham COLOR COLORS: Charlie Kirchoff LETTERER: Shawn Lee EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton “In-Fez-Station” WRITER: Len Wein ARTIST: Matthew Dow Smith COLORIST: Adrian Salmon “Time Fraud” WRITER: Richard Dinnick ARTIST: Josh Adams COLORIST: Charlie Kirchoff “Escape Into Alcatraz” WRITER: Tony Lee ARTIST/COLORIST: Mich Gerads “The Eagle Of The Reich” WRITER: Andy Diggle ARTIST: Mark Buckingham COLORIST: Charlie Kirchoff
As you can see, this special contains four adventures with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory. The first finds our crew hitting Morocco for a festival. Naturally, the Doctor breaks out the fez…and it could doom the world! Nice of Wein to actually use the Doctor’s current object of fascination (although he’s now switched to Stetsons) instead of the usual “everyday object will kill you” story that pops up so often. It’s a fun tale.
Our next tale finds another time traveler of the avian Ra’Ra’Vis whose time corridor drags the TARDIS to its destination. Throw in some fake Time Lords and you have a pretty good tale. I also notice that both tales do a good job with the old narration boxes. I haven’t seen them in some time unless a character is narrating. A fun story and a nod to Torchwood: Children of Earth. (Naturally I had to look that up since I don’t watch that “spin-off”.
The first two stories featured New Who foes, one of them exclusive to the IDW comics. Our third and fourth stories don’t. An old friend of the Ninth Doctor’s is in trouble and hides out in Alcatraz. However, hit men are after him and it’s up to the Doctor to save him. A bit short but decent.
In our last tale, a Nazi black science agent that the Doctor somehow knows is after a Phoenix egg. Not really much here, but it does lead into issue #1 of the next relaunch (why do they keep doing that?). I’m guessing Diggle is the next writer but I really don’t have enough to go on here since it’s shorter than the last story. I hope to have issue one (already on shelves) next week.
All together, an entertaining book and worth getting for any Whovian.
Related articles
- Andy Diggle Boards the TARDIS For All-New DOCTOR WHO (newsarama.com)
- Exclusive Preview: IDW’s ‘Doctor Who Special 2012’ (geek-news.mtv.com)
BW Media Spotlight 