After Life

"Or what? Don't do cryptic! I do cryptic. I already bagsied cryptic! You can't have cryptic!"

Writers: Al Ewing & Rob Williams

Format: Comic Strip

Released: August 2014

Series: DW11 #1

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Alice

Synopsis

After rebooting the universe with a second Big Bang, the Doctor has seen his new friends Amy and Rory married, and given them a honeymoon to remember. Leaving the Ponds to settle into their newlywed life, the Doctor is travelling the cosmos alone, checking for anomalies in Reality 2.0 - a mission that is about to change his life forever! 

Verdict 

After Life was an absolutely brilliant start to the new American range of Eleventh Doctor comics. A really emotional and great story! The introduction of new companion Alice was done so wonderfully and immediately we felt her pain. We were made to feel sorry for her, to feel pity and sorrow for having lost her mother and with her life seemingly falling apart. It really was quite sad! But then a rainbow dog that's not actually a dog and the Doctor appear in quick succession and suddenly we have an intriguing story on our hands! The chase through London after the dog by the Doctor and Alice was very comical and the semantics regarding the tail were hilarious! The comic really captured Matt Smith's take on the Doctor brilliantly which I think Jonathan Morris failed to do during The Child of Time graphic novel. Giving the Doctor a new companion in comic strip is a breath of fresh air as I think things become a whole lot more interesting when a common character is being explored as well as telling a story. The appearance of the Time Lord in the shadows was one I was incredibly shocked and excited about. The Doctor was distracted and ran into a lamppost but I'm hoping that this appearance is part of some sort of arc that's been planned. You can't just not explain the appearance of a Time Lord, I'm not having that! The more comic-like feel the American range has as compared with DWM is super in my opinion. It really does feel like a different range which is good. The Doctor showing up in Alice's house was really nice as he could see that she was sad and didn't like that. He wanted to make her happy, give her some fun. So, in typical style of the Doctor, the pair went on a casual chase for a rainbow dog in the House of Commons. I thought the American take on British politics was extremely humorous, and I loved how weak and puny they made the Prime Minister look! Tremendous. The concept of the alien rainbow dog (that's not the official species name) was an interesting one, feeding off negative emotions. Well, Earth has to be the right place for that! His attraction if you like to Alice added to the pity the reader is supposed to feel for her which was excellent. It was clear she was distraught at losing her mother. The Doctor showing her the TARDIS was pleasant and the fact that it was upside down at first was superb. A nice chance for some more humour that has to come with this Doctor. Seeing the swimming pool again was great! I thought the ending was a tad cheesy and similar to Hide with the dog being reunited with his lover. A squid. But overall, a tremendous start to the range! I like how these stories will be set between A Christmas Carol and The Impossible Astronaut as there's a nice gap there with Amy and Rory settling as newlyweds for the Doctor to hop off galavanting. A great start and now he's going to show Alice some happy things! 

Rating: 9/10