It's been a couple of years since IDW gave the current, Eleventh Doctor a solo ongoing. There was the weird combo of Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation. To launch the new(ish) series, the premiere film and TV licensed publisher enlisted homegrown comics star Andy Diggle. Readers may know him as the creator of The Losers (made into a major motion picture). Not afraid of a challenge, Diggle has followed some hugely successful runs at Marvel. He had the unenviable task of picking up Thunderbolts after fellow Brit, Warren Ellis, transformed the series. He did a great job of moving forward despite having to lose nearly all of the characters. It is with this sense of adventure that he was tasked to resurrect Doctor Who, a comic that hasn't had the same revitalization as the television series.
Diggle picks up with The Doctor and married companions Amelia "Amy" Pond and Rory Williams. With his two part "The Hypothetical Gentleman", the trio find themselves in 19th Century London. They encounter a married couple comprised of a female telepath and her husband that builds a sort of interdimensional portal resembling a mirror, based on plans she channels and draws. The device has sat dormant without a power supply. That is, until The Doctor and the Ponds show up in the TARDIS, which serves as a giant battery. The narrative is a bit flat but there is an interesting plot thread as the unknown being that comes from the other side of the mirror seems to know The Doctor and is intent on absorbing time.
This first graphic novel also collects another two part story called "The Doctor and the Nurse", from writer Brandon Seifert (Witch Doctor). Amy is sick of hearing Rory and The Doctor bicker. She lays down the gauntlet and tells "her boys" to make with the bonding. They land the TARDIS in London (again, and a mere 30 plus years than in Diggle's story) where Amy leaves them in a pub to get better acquainted. Neither man looking forward to it, they jump back in the big blue box with the intent of fast forwarding to later that night so Amy believes they hung out. Both Ponds have their own separate madcap adventures with appearances of Cybermen, an agent of The Silence, and even Ian Fleming.
Seifert's story is far more fun than Diggle's but both are paced well and would be easy to imagine as actual episodes. As far as art, I prefer Mark Buckingham's more photo realistic approach in "Gentlemen" (a real hallmark of IDW) than Philip Bond's jagged edges in "Nurse". While not the greatest comic ever, this graphic incarnation of Doctor Who is probably the best since most of its newer fans were born.
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