Philip Bond

Despite continuing with the same Doctor and same companions as the last, this volume restarts the numbering, I guess because of the arrival of superstar writer/artist team Andy Diggle and Mark Buckingham. Well, like too many superstar teams on IDW comics, they don't last long-- all of two issues! And to be honest, it's neither's best work. Diggle's writing is not flooded with continuity references like previous Who scripter Tony Lee, but it shares Lee's lack of depth. And Mark Buckingham can show more do great work, but I find his tie-in work distractingly over-referenced at times.

It's the second story here, "The Doctor and the Nurse," by Brandon Seifert and Philip Bond, that's delightful. Amy forces the Doctor and Rory to undertake some male bonding, but they hate the idea so much they jump into the future to finish early-- only the TARDIS misses its destination. Meanwhile, Amy gets embroiled in the hijinks of the previously-unknown-to-me-but-delightfully-real-except-that-some-people-actually-died-in-it Great London Beer Flood. Seifert's writing nails the characters and humor, and I loved Bond's Dan McDaid-esque art, cartoony but very reflective of the characters' personalities. It's a shame these two didn't take over the title. (I feel like I say that a lot. I guess a lot of the "guest" contributions on IDW's Doctor Who stuff are often better than the "actual" ones!) show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-hypothetical-gentleman-by-andy-diggle-mark-b...

Two completely different stories in a single album here, both featuring the Eleventh Doctor with Amy and Rory, both pretty firmly tied into the sequence of events in the TV series.

“The Hypothetical Gentleman”, by Andy Diggle with excellent art by Mark Buckingham, starts with a somewhat disconnected section fighting Nazis in London in 1936, and then takes the team to 1851 and a time-stealing monster. I show more found the pacing of squeezing two stories into the space for one a bit odd, but the 1851 bit of the story worked perfectly well as Doctor Who.

The second half, “The Doctor and the Nurse”, is written by Brandon Seifert with art by Philip Bond. I didn’t warm to Bond’s art which seemed to me cartoonish and not really looking like the characters. The story is a comedy about the Doctor and Rory having some guy time together, while Amy finds herself dealing solo with the Silents infiltrating the TARDIS. Comedy Who can go horribly wrong, but this one sticks the landing. show less

'Kill Your Boyfriend' came out a year before Columbine. The eponymous Columbine. The tragic and fearful Columbine. It would be understandable in this post-Columbine, post-Vtech, post-9/11 world if a reader might have difficulty with some aspects of this story, but if art is war on another battlefront, Morrisson is a sniper behind enemy lines.

Like a sniper, his work is rarely pretty to see, skilled as it may be. It reminds us of the suddenness of this big, ugly world. Sometimes Morrison show more misses his mark, usually when he grows overly self aware. However, the lighthearted and straightforward tone of this book means he has little chance to derail his own story.

Morrisson is a prophet by way of pessimism. It seems that by expecting the worst from mankind, we can rarely be disappointed. However, like Chekhov, Morrisson is tempered by a firm belief in a single person riding over that bloody tide by strength of personality.

This need not mean the unattached, humorless anti-hero that is so often cast as Nietzsche's Ubermensch; Too often, we forget that Nietzsche was the philosopher who told us to love and seek beauty and dance, and that skepticism can free us from the static even as it reminds us why our heart aches.

Morrisson tells of growing up confused, self-unknown, with a need to scratch an itch without a place. Morrisson tends to find that place in an unlikely locale--be it a cybernetic dog or a homicidal teen girl.

Morrisson's search for beauty in all things horrific and horror in all things beautiful comes from his need to be different at any cost. In The Invisibles, this often interferes with our empathy or even our comprehension, but it is not so forced here.

If it upset you that 9/11 turned into the unquestioned Iraq war, or that the Vtech massacre will more likely result in a new book by Dr. Phil than in any change in how we treat each other, then perhaps it is time to take a little revenge. Perhaps it is time to sit back for a moment and wonder what it might be like to Kill Your Boyfriend. show less

I'm trying to figure out where this fits in on the Grant Morrison scoring chart. Essentially, it's fine - fairly amusing, some good character interactions (particularly between Ali, his brother and their father) and great visuals. A short, diverting read.

But the plot just feels rushed and half-baked, and that really rankles with me for some reason. It's like Morrison lost interest in it halfway through. Possibly sooner. Lots of cosmic out-thereness to camouflage the lack of coherence. A deus show more ex machina here (but the actual mechanics of the story were so confused it's not even clear that it was necessary), a Morrisonesque breaking of the fourth wall there (ditto - to be uncharitable Morrison is papering over the obvious cracks with a veneer of his go-to tricks, in an effort to distract us); but you're left scrabbling to find the sum of its parts.

The Indian/Pakistani background quickly becomes superfluous to the story (again to be uncharitable, the main relevance seems to be that the family owns a corner shop), which is fine, except that such a lot is made of the background in the packaging of the book. And there's a very odd blend of Hindu and Muslim cultures used in the book. Its name, the font used in its logo, the poses of the characters on the cover, the demigods (the Ultrahadeen) are all rooted in Hindu culture (i.e., a culture which is predominantly Indian); but the characters are of Pakistani origin and are Muslim. There's no reason why these two different cultures couldn't be utilised in the same book, but there is no reason in this book why they are. They are presented here without distinction, which just seems lazy.

The best thing about the book is Philip Bond's charming art - for that alone the book probably deserves 3 stars. I would like to read a story illustrated by Bond, with the same characters, but without all the mythic, supernatural and superheroic elements. While he does carry off the Demigods, battleships, demons etc. just fine, it's in the smaller things that his art really comes to life.

So on the Morrison scale of things - the book is short (generally a good sign for a Morrison work); it has few pretensions, and is not trying to carry A Bigger Message (again, normally in its favour); unfortunately, through lack of time or interest, Morrison didn't seem to care enough about the story to make it cohere (kinda fatal in the Morrison canon). And that makes it very minor Morrison - a shame, as Philip Bond (not to mention the readers, and Southern Asian culture as a whole) deserved better. show less