Continuing with my thoughts on various year arcs of Doctor Who comics (as I finish reading them, it’s time for my thoughts on the 12th Doctor’s 3rd year.

The 12th Doctor, unlike 10 or 11, didn’t have much in terms of repeat companions or an ongoing plot arc. We had a stand alone companion at the start of the series, before going with Bill and Nardol for the rest of the series conclusion – and those stories didn’t have particular ongoing arcs.

That said, the two stories we get with Bill and Nardol are generally very strong. The first one – the Wolves of Winter – features the return of both the Ice Warriors and Fenris (from the 7th Doctor Story The Curse of Fenris), while the second has the 12th Doctor and the Weeping Angels. The latter story is particularly notable as while it still keeps the Weeping Angels creepy, it also does some interesting stuff with the Doctor having taken them on enough that he’s got a good idea now of how to handle them – presumably after losing Amy and Rory he put together a solid battle plan for what to do should he face the creepy bastards again.

Just to add some fun to the equation, the story also features the return of the Host (from Voyage of the Damned), which makes for an interesting combination. In particular, I need to give major props to Francesco Manna, the artist for that story for fantastically selling the Weeping Angels in a sequential art medium – taking the concept of a monster whose scare factor is “They move when the camera isn’t on them” – and figuring out how to make that work on the comic page.

Probably the big weakness of this year of the comic, though, is the lack of any real ongoing plot thread – 10 had shared companions across the whole season. 11 had the introduction of The Scream – a Silent who desperately wants to be noticed (leading to some incredibly creepy art – and one really creepy cover). This one didn’t have any real hook to it. One of the companions from 10’s Year 3 is teased to be returning in year 4 of the 12th Doctor, and I’m definitely looking forward to that. However, this year, on the other hand – stands alone well enough, but doesn’t have anything to really grab the reader, when it comes from going from story to story.

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