If there is one thing that basically all Whovians can agree upon it’s that at one time the Weeping Angels were the coolest new villain in the Whoverse. Then they became over used and helped send the Ponds off in a really “Meh” kind of way. Frankly they became a tired device on the show and the creators/writers stopped playing by the rules they were introduced to us by. So when I saw that our Tenth Doctor was going to be going up against them again (something that didn’t happen on the show) I was interested instantly. The story takes place during the First World War and uses the narrative device of letters back home to give us insight into the characters we’ve been thrown in with. After some setup we have Gabby and the Doctor discovered by some British soldiers who have stormed the German trenches only to discover them empty. Meanwhile we’ve seen the angel at work zipping people away.
What the story does well, is place that fear around the angels again. The first two times on the show they were scary as shit. The idea of being thrown completely out of your time and forced to start over isn’t the super scary part, but the “don’t blink” part is. That’s returned to us via a German soldier who has sown his own eyes open and is shouting, “Don’t look away” and so on.
That’s the brilliance of the angels as their weakness is a steady gaze. But how long can you not blink for? Here’s a harder question, how long can you not blink for when you know you can’t blink? I think that there’s an added layer of mental difficultly when you look at it that way.
The story is off to a good start. It’s interesting and has injected some of the TV feel into the comic which is honestly important. The easiest thing in the world is to stay off earth and not bother with history because you don’t want to overlap the show or be constantly compared to it. But there’s a charm to doing it right. The fact that it’s British soldiers of all soldiers is something the show does constantly. The fact that it’s a war they’ve landed in is great too because the Doctor hates war. That’s why Robbie Morrison excels as the writer for this series, he gets the show, but then also the comic medium.
Daniel Indro joins this issue as the artist. His style is very different from the previous art on the series, but he fits the story and that’s key. You couldn’t have the same tonality for the story with the previous art, it would come off too bubbly. Indro’s hyper-realistic style is a nice fit and captures the war realistically which helps with the believability of the story. I like his style, but I hope they continue to play with the art and match the mood of the story, that’s pretty key to the success in my opinion.
Overall this was a solid read and a great return for the weeping angels. I’m really curious to see how many issues come from this and what the creative team has up their sleeve to keep it different from what’s come before.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Robbie Morrison Artist: Daniel Indro Publisher: Titan Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 1/14/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital