Black Death White Life

"The only thing that keeps this world healthy is constant war."

Writer: Charlie Kirchoff
Format: Comic Strip
Released: September 2009
Printed in: IDW #3.06

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

After the Doctor and his companion Martha Jones mistakenly land the TARDIS soon after the Great Plague of London, the discovery of a healer draws them into a mystery that could mean the end of the companion's life. Is the Plague still around?

Verdict

Black Death White Life was another decent comic strip from IDW and I am now only one adventure away from completing the second volume of Tenth Doctor Archives. This one saw a slight drop in standard but it was still very much enjoyable and it also saw the return of Martha Jones as companion for the Tenth Doctor. I actually thought she had a slightly poor outing as companion here and she didn't really do much apart from get infected and need curing which was a bit of a shame because she can offer so much more. Sicking with the negatives, I thought some of the artwork was very shaky in this adventure and I was very much confused by one instance of the Doctor's coat quickly alternating to a cream-like colour! It was very random and obviously a quite glaring production error. Thankfully it didn't take away from the story but it was noticeably bad. The drawing of both the Doctor and Martha at the start was also a bit off which was a shame. Anyway, into the story itself and I liked the 1669 setting as it wasn't too far removed from the Doctor and Martha's visit to the Globe Theatre in The Shakespeare Code. With the last record of there Great Plague having been recorded in 1666, the presence of plague doctors here was very intriguing and I thought the artwork for them was superb. Martha managing to explain that they were aliens was good but I do wish we learned a tad more about them before the reveal of them being a Macro-Virus. That name seemed a bit naff, as did the provider of the resolution being an immunoglobulin, but somehow it seemed to work in quite the enjoyable way. The pace of the story was fantastic and I think that's once again where the standalone nature of the IDW stories is working an absolute treat. It flew by! There was some excellent action and I thought the characterisation of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor was pretty good throughout. I really liked the reference to The Visitation and the Doctor's relationship with the Healer. The ease with which he deduced that with just one person having the cure, he must have a relationship with the disease was great and what followed was quite simple but done very well with the speed. The Doctor convinced the Healer to use his abilities and to not fear the Macro-Virus, but to instead eradicate it. With a TARDIS trip to its home planet to help with the process, it was an amicable end, even if war had to prevail. Overall, a decent comic strip!

Rating: 7/10