Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Volume 2 – Doctormania

Some unwanted attention brings the Doctor, Rose Tyler, and Captain Jack Harkness to a planet where the Doctor is a huge celebrity, complete with a rabid fanbase! But is the work of this Doctor impersonator hiding something darker? And when the Doctor receives a phone call from an old friend, he discovers gargoyles and flying superheroes in San Francisco! Just what’s going on? And more importantly, who’s behind it?

The Ninth Doctor works overtime in this collection of two stories from his recent comic adventures, and neither of these would feel out of place in the episodes from Christopher Eccleston’s time on Doctor Who. But the breakneck storytelling does create one or two issues for the reader.

In the first adventure, events are so dependent on understanding what has happened before that it feels like a Volume 1 recap is in order, and, in the second, the final twist depends entirely on knowledge that new readers might not have. So, in short, both stories feel slightly compromised, no matter how enjoyable they are.

Doctormania feels more like an intermediate title than a standalone book, and that hurts the reading experience some.