Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: Agent Provocateur

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The only reason I didn't give this one star is that the first couple of chapters are fairly good. Not great, mind you, but fun and I liked the art. Both chapters are essentially one-off adventures with hints of things to come. Unfortunately, the glimpses of things to come are rather disjointed and whenever they pop up, you get the feeling that maybe a couple of pages of the book had gotten stuck together.

With chapter three, the main story begins in earnest. It's still almost holding it together as a passably decent read, although, again, it feels disjointed and you start wondering if maybe some of the pages got reprinted out of order or something. Even by the end of the fourth chapter, there's hope that the story will pull itself together in a moderately interesting fashion.

Which brings us to the last two chapters of this six-chapter story. They're nearly unreadable as the author attempts to weave together a grand, epic adventure with the universe at stake... and then has to resort to pages and pages of exposition to "explain" what's going on. And, trust me, the quotes have to be around the word "explain", because even after you wade through that turgid prose, you still don't have much a clue what's going on and, even worse, aren't the slightest bit emotionally invested in the people its happening to.

And it's not even any fun to look at either, as the funky style of the cover art is replaced by fairly generic comic book art. Give it a pass.

The Doctor and Martha Jones are looking for some down time to relax and take in the scenery. But, someone has been trailing the Doctor, and it's a big question as to what that someone wants. Something big is going on in the universe, and a Time Lord is needed. Now, it is up to the Doctor to figure out who the players are, and what they actually want.

Right, it's quite true, this graphic novel is a bit of a mess. Chapter 1 pits the Doctor against a Sycorax slaver, but what this has to do with the rest of the story, I don't know. After that, the story seems to bob and weave around like a punch-drunk fighter. What's going on, and who's doing what becomes almost impossible to figure out.

But, that said, I did enjoy reading this book. The author did a good job of presenting the Doctor and Martha Jones, and the book does contain a lot of interesting events. Plus, I must say that I liked the Doctor universe being presented in all of its extraterrestrial glory (which is hard to do in a live action production).

So, while this is far from being a great graphic novel, it is a fun and interesting Doctor Who story. I can't give it a thumb's up, and won't give it a thumb's down. I give this book a guarded recommendation.

Doctor Who: Agent Provocateur was an enjoyable comic book to read. It follows a story with the Tenth Doctor and Martha and is full of intrigue and quite a few funny moments. I love how the book catches the friendly banter between the Doctor and Martha. The writers of this book did an excellent job of making this a fun story to read and I can totally imagine David Tennant and Freema Agyman saying the lines. The art was excellent as well. I especially love the panel with the Doctor and Martha at the beach with the doctor still sporting the upper half of his suit with swim trunks. Cracked me up! Overall, a great comic for a Doctor Who fan.

Doctor Who: Agent Provocateur is the full-color graphic novel collection of issues one through six of the new Doctor Who comics, featuring the latest incarnation of the time lord in his quest to keep all causality stable. Assisted by the capable adventurer Martha Jones, the Doctor becomes inextricably involved in a cataclysmic plan to harness the energy of planetary populations to seal a rip in space and time - but the plan is critically sabotaged by the manipulations of a psychotic murderer! A high-stakes science fiction extravaganza, Doctor Who: Agent Provocateur captures the spirit of the television series and highly recommended for fans everywhere.