The Boy With the Displaced Smile

"The Devil's own work served with a smile."

Writer: James Peaty
Format: Comic Strip
Released: 26th April 2017
Printed in: The Twelfth Doctor #3.04

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis

Under attack, the Twelfth Doctor flashes back to a dangerous incident from his travels alone. Can he break a small town free from the curse... of the boy with the displaced smile?

Verdict

The Boy With the Displaced Smile was a very decent continuation of the Twelfth Doctor's third year of comic strip adventures and after recently concluding his era on television for a second time, I was more than happy to be delving back into his comic strip run! I'm not too sure about the whole interlude thing that happened with this release coming part way between Beneath the Waves, but I was very happy to find this comic strip in the graphic novel titled of the aforementioned story. The local library service in Bristol is superb with access to over 150 libraries free of charge so getting this has been a real help in terms of expenditure! The Doctor travelling was quite unusual but he soon found a friendly character in the form of Penny. She was a really great character and there were definitely signs of a companion in her. I had thought that Hattie was going to join the Twelfth Doctor but I did have my suspicions that we were getting a new companion here. Alas, it was not to be. The Sweet Haven setting was excellent and the image of a grin in the sky was quite something! It definitely made me smile and I also thought the artwork was fantastic. A very colourful story which always makes for pleasant reading. The Doctor and Penny's frantic escapes indoors from the locals was exciting and I liked how the men were actually terrified of what they were hiding from. The Doctor deducing that they had no food left was really good and I liked that he wanted to go straight to where the problem arose. The Saprophytes were an intriguing enemy but the Doctor knew all about them and their reality-warping emo-parasitic nature. I thought they could have had a little more time to express themselves but they were actually really creepy with them having taken the form of a child. That always seems to make things scarier but the Doctor didn't seem flustered at all. I thought the characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor was pretty decent throughout which was a positive. Duane and Decker were interesting characters and I thought the idea of taking things into their own hands and gaining control by committing suicide was an awful idea. Luckily, the Doctor had given Penny his sonic sunglasses and he transported them to eye of the storm where the Saprophytes were easily defeated by gunshot. Penny telling the Doctor to be happy was a lovely way to finish but I was little confused as to how the possessed child's smile saw the grin disappear and deserve the name of the story. Overall though, a very good comic strip!

Rating: 8/10