Agent Provocateur

"One survivor, one person to remember... one key to the past."

Writer: Gary Russell
Format: Comic Strip
Released: February-August 2008
Series: IDW Doctor Who #1-6

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

Over the course of seemingly unrelated adventures, the Doctor and Martha find that events are being manipulated by an alien Pantheon who need the Doctor to clean up their mess. They just want the best milkshake the galaxy has to offer, but end up in a heap of trouble...

Verdict

Agent Provocateur was a really intriguing read and a decent start to my reading of the IDW comic strips! It was incredibly different to the stuff produced in DWM and from Titan and I really just found it fascinating. The story was more six interconnected adventures than a single one spreading over six parts but those connections were strong so that was absolutely fine. I thought it was good to start off with a familiar enemy in the form of the Sycorax and the Doctor realising that it was just after him and not Martha was really good. I thought the first page backstory and what exactly Doctor Who is all about and just who the Doctor is was really beneficial to new readers and a clear target at setting the scene for the comic series as a whole. Now, the artwork was somewhat questionable and often fluctuating, which was going to happen with a number of different artists, but it wasn't great in terms of consistency. I did think the drawing of Martha particularly was quite horrendous for the first few parts as her likeness wasn't captured at all. I also found that the characterisation of both the Doctor and Martha was quite poor at the start but it did improve considerably as the adventure went on. I just found the whole thing really interesting and it was quite unlike anything I've ever read in the Doctor Who world. It was clearly  written for the American audience which was fine and I did enjoy the multiple jumps in setting. That kept things fresh. The Pantheon were an intriguing bunch and I liked how they all came together to see if they could lure the Doctor into fixing what they did wrong. The inclusion of the Catkind was a big positive and I liked that we got to learn a lot more about their history. I also liked the continued reference to The Lazarus Experiment where Francine lashed the Doctor. He hadn't got over that at all. Reading Martha's gratitude towards the Doctor for being on her travels was really nice but I thought their relationship was weirdly presented with the likes of them sharing a drink with two straws. Bubastion was an interesting character following the Doctor and Martha around and I also thought Silas Wain was intriguing and there's definitely unfinished business there which I was quite surprised about given the circumstances around his departure from the Doctor. Tharlot made a good villain but I thought his demise came a little suddenly but it was in quite horrific circumstances! His desire to have the sonic screwdriver and use it as a weapon was incredibly unique but I liked how the Doctor used it with the sonic canon to destroy the beast from the other universe that had contracted Tharlot and saw that this universe was saved. Overall, an action-packed and incredibly intriguing adventure!

Rating: 7/10