Doctor Who just wrapped up its 9th season since BBC revised the show in 2005, with yet another companion leaving the show for good. What started off as a children’s educational program turned into an international phenomenon, with 13 actors taking turns playing the Doctor as he leads his (mostly) human companions on adventures through time and space. While the show’s latest season is over, fans won’t have to wait long for a new episode since the BBC airs a Special episode every Christmas.However, once Christmas is over, it could be months before we hear a peep about the new season. To get comic fans through the anticipated long wait between Doctor Who seasons, here’s five comics that fans of the series should enjoy:
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Doctor Who
Well, this might be cheating a little bit, but did you know there’s an extensive catalog of Doctor Who comics? In addition to a host of “classic” comics that originally appeared in the Doctor Who Magazine, both IDW and Titan Comics have recently released comics featuring “untold” adventures featuring the Doctor and his companions. One of the neat things about the Doctor Who comics is that they often feature older versions of the Doctors and companions that have since departed the show. Currently, Titan Comics is publishing comics featuring the Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor. IDW also published a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover miniseries last year that pit the Doctor and various Enterprise crews against the Borg and Cybermen.
Silver Surfer
Marvel’s current Silver Surfer series is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a Doctor Who/Marvel Universe crossover. Written by Doctor Who super-fan Dan Slott with art by the retro master Mike Allred, Silver Surfer follows the enigmatic Sentinel of the Spaceways as he explores the weird and wonderful corners of the Marvel Universe with his companion….I mean, friend Dawn Greenwood. Silver Surfer not only features very Doctor Who-esque adventures, it also explores the more esoteric and cosmic aspects of the Marvel Universe. Characters like Eternity, Nightmare and the Queen of Nevers all appear in Silver Surfer, often in kooky and unanticipated ways. If you want a Doctor Who book with superheroes, Silver Surfer is probably the book for you.
Booster Gold
If you’re more interested in the time travel aspects of Doctor Who, you might like Booster Gold, a DC series set in the final days of the “pre-New 52 universe”. Booster Gold is a DC “C-list” character who traveled back from the 26th century to become a celebrity superhero. Booster Gold followed the character after he saved the DC Universe in the yearlong series 52, finally earning a level of respect from his peers. Right before the Justice League asks him to join their ranks, Rip Hunter (a fellow time traveler and self-proclaimed protector of the timestream) asks Booster to maintain his goofy loser persona so that he can secretly stop a group of supervillains from exploiting holes in time. While several different creative teams took over Booster Gold over its four year run, the core cast of Booster, Rip Hunter and Booster’s robot companion Skeets and Booster’s extended family all play a role as Booster tries to protect DC’s timestream from further destruction.
DC One Million
DC One Million was a special crossover event that ran in 1998, encompassing almost all of DC’s titles. The core four issue miniseries (written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Val Semeiks) followed the present day Justice League of America as they journeyed into the distant future to stop a deadly alliance between Vandal Savage and Solaris, an evil sentient star. Much like many episodes of Doctor Who, DC One Million featured a fantastical future and a complicated “timey-wimey” plot. Many of the tie-ins featured futuristic legacy versions of DC’s heroes, further fleshing out the future of the DC Universe. Morrison later “returned” to the world of DC One Million in his classic All-Star Superman series by introducing Solaris and several other concepts seen in the distant future.
Saga
While Saga doesn’t have the same innocence as Doctor Who, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’s popular comic series shares the TV show’s bold and fantastical take on science fiction. Saga is an epic space adventure following two young lovers trying to escape their warring governments as they care for their newborn daughter. Both Alana and Marko are former soldiers who fell in love while fighting on opposite sides of an interstellar war and went AWOL to start a family. Saga not only features bizarre alien races and strange worlds, it also features subversions of popular science fiction tropes and biting takes on society’s many vices and hypocritical double standards. With amazing and imaginative art and a compelling storyline, Saga is one of the best science fiction stories in comic shops today.
