Bad Luck Chuck #1
Written by Lela Gwenn
Art by Matthew Dow Smith
Colors by Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letters by Frank Cvetkovic
Cover by Matthew Dow Smith
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 27, 2019
Cover Price: $3.99

What do you get when you combine a bad attitude with entropy at its ugliest? Bad Luck Chuck #1 is what. Chaos incarnate, available for a price, that is exactly what she is and she is damn good at it, too. She might be cursed but Charlene “Chuck” Manchester has found a way to make a living from it.

Unfortunately for her, she is a natural disaster in human form and that has not gone unnoticed. Her arrival and the subsequent destruction that follows has caught the attention of at least one person who is determined to catch her in the act. The only problem with that plan is that she apparently never leaves any evidence of the prosecutable sort. To be fair, though, the reader is left with the feeling she could not care less.

Doctor Who: Prisoners Of Time #11
Written by Scott & David Tipton
Art by Matthew Dow Smith and Charlie Kirchoff
Cover by Francesco Francavilla, Charlie Kirchoff, Dave Sim
IDW Publishing
Publication Date: November 13, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

If only it were possible that Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time could be a simulcast event. What an amazing spectacle it would be”¦ but therein lies the charm of this comic series: Scott and David Tipton are able to jump through time and grab Doctors and Companions as we remember them – amalgamating them into a major story that has become the comic book story of the year as far as I am concerned.

Issue #11 of Prisoners of Time shifts gears from the previous issues. Whereas 1-10 all had a particular stand-alone adventure for each Doctor, with an ongoing arc in which a Nemesis is kidnapping the companions; in this installment, the issue BEGINS with the kidnapping – forcing the Matt Smith Doctor to investigate where this man from his past (and now his enemy) could be.

Doctor Who Omnibus, Vol. 2
Written by Tony Lee, Jonathan L. Davis, Matthew Dow Smith, Al Davison, Matt Sturges
Illustrated by Al Davison, Matthew Dow Smith, Blair Shedd, Kelly Yates, Brian Shearer
Colored by Lovern Kindzierski, Charlie Kirchoff, Phil Elliot, Al Davison, Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettered by Chris Mowry, Robbie Robbins, Neil Uyetake, Al Davison, Shawn Lee
Cover by Tony Lee Edwards
IDW Publishing
Release Date: October 23, 2013
Cover Price: $29.99

Doctor Who Omnibus, Vol. 2 is a massive collection featuring the tenth Doctor, as portrayed by David Tennant. It collects issues #1-16, as well as the 2010 annual comic, and an eleventh doctor story, “A Fairytale Life.”

Now, I’m a pretty big Doctor Who fan, and the tenth doctor is my favorite, but this collection largely fails to capture that Whovian magic I was looking for. I would have expected to have larger, more explosive stories in a comic because the special effects budget has no limits, but I found the majority of the stories were contained to a handful of “sets” and sometimes felt claustrophobic.

Doctor Who, Vol. 2 #14
Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art by Matthew Dow Smith
Colors by Charlie Kirchoff
Lettering by Shawn Lee
Covers by Mark Buckingham, Charlie Kirchoff, and Matthew Dow Smith
IDW Publishing
Release Date: February 01, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Doctor Who #14 is the second part of an ongoing escapade entitled As Time Goes By. As the title and cover art suggest, the story finds the Doctor along with companions Rory Williams and Amy Pond in Casablanca during World War II. The concept is clearly influenced by the celebrated film featuring Humphrey Bogart, with the exception that the Silurians have shown up to cause trouble.

Doctor Who Volume II: Issue #11
Written by Tony Lee
Art by Matthew Dow Smith
Colors by Charlie Kirchoff
Lettering by Shawn Lee
Covers by Mark Buckingham, Charlie Kirchoff, and Matthew Dow Smith
IDW Publishing
Release Date: November 9, 2011
Cover Price: $3.99

“I’m a woman now: women are cool…”

Many decades ago, the concept of swapping the minds of two characters became a very clichéd plot device. Used across the genres of horror and science fiction, the device eventually found its way into more family friendly media such as Freaky Friday, and has even been used in a few of our favorite Looney Tunes cartoons in years gone by. Doctor Who Volume II #11 (and its predecessor, #10) takes on this plot device, and though clichéd as it is, it fits nicely into the Whoniverse.