Tuesday, November 10, 2009

You don't see that every episode of Doctor Who, yes?

Must be the Americanized version.
I mentioned this one a while back, then couldn't find it...until now! Obviously. I mean, I wouldn't bring it up again unless I had it handy. I wouldn't say, "Hey, remember that issue with Death's Head versus Doctor Who that I said I had? Well, still looking!"

The evil chairman of Intra-Venus Inc, Josiah W. Dogbolter, has a plan to "exploit the infinite corridors of time," with his company's new invention, the Dogbolter Temporal Rocket. I mention the name 'Dogbolter' just because it reminds me of the classic Dogwelder from Hitman. Dogbolter plans to use the prototype to get even with "that pipsqueak Doctor and his Tardis!" Man, what did the Tardis ever do to you?

In short order, Death's Head is hired for the job, since he already had a grudge against the Doctor. (Why isn't explained here, but I believe DH used to be a much larger robot before the Doctor shrank him...) After rattling around time a bit, DH catches up with him as he performs during a children's show sometime in the twentieth century. The Doctor hightails it out of there, and leaves in the Tardis.

Death's Head somehow manages to smash into the Tardis, with no explanation; and that's actually pretty damn impressive: offhand, I don't know of any other force, from the Daleks to the Cybermen, that have been able to do that. An annoying alarm goes off, and the Doctor explains that it's a geiger counter: the temporal rocket also contains a bomb, Dogbolter set DH up.
Well, later there would be upgraded versions of DH, almost like...regenerations?
DH has the Doctor take the Tardis back to Dogbolter's building, where they manage to ditch the bomb. Dogbolter may or may not have made it to his bomb shelter, but the Doctor seems a little blase about dumping that thing in the middle of a city or wherever. It also seems a little careless to just drop Death's Head off wherever the Tardis next lands, even if the Doctor gives him a stout lecture:
The FF's alarm system needs an upgrade, like yesterday.
Of course, I have only a passing familiarity with the seventh Doctor, but I understand he was a bit more of a manipulator than previous incarnations. (As well as aggressively anti-gun.) Maybe ditching Death's Head on the roof of Four Freedom's Plaza was all part of some master plan. Like goosing up sales for Death's Head.

From Death's Head #8, "Time Bomb!" Written by Steve Parkhouse, pencils by Art Wetherell, inks by Steve Parkhouse.

3 comments:

plainwater said...

Thanks to this blog, I now believe Death's Head to be the greatest comic book character in the history of the medium.

chiasaur11 said...

He's in a work coming out tomorrow, hmm?

Dealing with some S.W.OR.D. agents, it seems. Never been very good at getting along with authority. Job at the TVA went a bit... sour, and it's been awkard ever since.

Still, money's money, huh?

chiasaur11 said...

Sorry to be commenting twice in a row, but I've finally read the issue in question.

It's quite good, even aside from surprisingly large role for our favorite freelance peacekeeping agent. Glad I picked it up.

So, yeah.