Doctor Who: The Chains of Olympus by Scott Gray

Doctor Who: The Chains of Olympus Reviews

• 
  Andrea

  I really liked this volume. I especially liked the final story, "The Cornucopia Caper". It was very Foglio-esque.
• 
  Doug Bolden

  Even more so than IDW's popular comic line of Doctor Who, the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips (a few pages monthly, with each story being from something like 1-8 months total, averaging around 3-4) is a fascinating visual glimpse into the Whoniverse, precisely because while IDW is largely tapping into into the mythos of the show, the DWM strips have often existed slightly outside of it: hence how we get shape-shifting penguins and Dalek-killers and surreal landscapes with confusing time/space plots featuring actual floating clocks up in the sky. It is Doctor Who as a Saturday morning cartoon, or it can be, with some of the more recent strips feeling a bit as though they were playing back to center.
  
  That's why I like this collection, because overall it has that late-80s-/early-90s-DWM-strip feel back. The eponymous "The Chains of Olympus" is fairly Eleventh-Doctor-normal, with the Doctor meeting one of his human-heroes (and the stress that brings him), with an alien invasion (of sorts) in historical Earth that is partly a cool-idea and partly a commentary on the show itself. The volume picks up some shine with "Sticks and Stone", a silly-yet-scary story about a graffiti artist reaching critical-meme-mass. Has exactly the sort of thing the TV show would struggle to show, and exactly the sort of bad-guy that wouldn't work on screen, working perfectly on page. Then the big-boy in the room is "The Cornucopia Caper", with its good-guy-scoundrel Horatio Link and its various bad-people-guilds and a giant treasure-filled space-ship. It is exactly what makes the DWM strips sing. Especially when you notice the various Easter Eggs on the ship, a bit of nice fun.
  
  The downside to this volume is, compared to the previous two DWM comic strip collections, it is half-sized. If you were to add it and its sister, Hunters of the Burning Stone, you would get roughly the same number of strips as the previous DWM volumes like Child of Time and The Crimson Hand. Made even more perplexing is that the two volumes are one mega-arc, with a storyline that develops across the both of them. They would have made a nice collected unit, but are split into two.
  
  Still, on its lonesome you get two great stories and one good story (with some great moments) and the commentary pages are excellent as well. Worth the price, though you will need both volumes to appreciate it fully.
• 
  Adam Graham

  This collects about a year's worth of material in three comic strip stories.
  
  First up is Chains of Olympus:
  The Doctor, Amy, and Rory arrive in Ancient Greece as the Doctor came to meet Socrates. However, he's quickly disappointed to find Socrates in a very downbeat mood after a satirical play ruined his reputation, leaving him with only one student. The Doctor is deeply disappointed, but has worse things to deal with. Two men melted a statue of the goddess Athena and now Zeus is returning and smiting Athens. The Doctor has to find out what's going on and save Anthens.
  
  The comic strip is beautifully drawn. Not only does Zeus return, but we get to see a whole lot of Greek Mythological gods and monsters brought to life by Mike Collins. The script is clever. The Doctor gets more scenes with Socrates than anyone else, but Amy and Rory have their moments. This is one time when its appropriate to bring out Rory's armor (even if it's for Rome rather than Greece.) In the actual TV show, the call-back could get a little old. But here, it works a treat. Overall, a great start to the Second Season of the Eleventh Doctor in comics. Grade: B+
  
  For the second strip of this year, we get a Modern London story in Sticks and Stones which finds the 11th Doctor wandering about while Rory shops for ingredients for Amy to make dinner. However, a grafiti artist is defacing the city in spectacular ways that have made an impression on the public and even gotten the attention of the Doctor.
  
  This is the type of story a Doctor Who comic should tell-something outlandishly visually interesting that's not easy to communicate on television. It's got a clever concept, but its chief fault is that the story was only told over two issues and this one really needed some space to breathe. Still, it's a solid and fun story. Grade: B-
  
  In the Cornucopia Caper, The Doctor, Amy, and Rory arrive on a planet where a burglar is in the midst of a big heist. Amy's taken by the burglar, and the Doctor sets out to deal with the angry guards by convincing them he's the police. Unfortunately, for him, he discovers this is a planet run by thugs.
  
  This one has a great concept and some interesting guest characters. It moves at a nice pace, with solid artwork, and also drops hints as to what's to come next in the strip's overall story arc. Grade: B+
  
  Overall, a nice year of Doctor Who Comic Strips and definitely worth a read.
  
• 
  Angela

  This includes the 50th anniversary comic story. The Doctor keeps getting the same phrase said to him throughout his adventures in this volume. He has no idea what it means. Until one day he meets up with Ian and Barbara, in a story that ties up everything from the previous volume and this one.
  
  I really liked the ideas in this volume, the modern UNIT, and how much impact Ian has had on the Doctor. A must read volume. But you really should read the volume before too.
• 
  Shannon Appelcline

  The Chains of Olympus (442-445). A well-done melding of "the supernatural" with the science of Doctor Who. Socrates also makes a delightful character, and whole Greek setting is well-done [7+/10].
  
  Sticks & Stones (446-447). A cute little story with some nice big ideas and good Rory. The modern London setting is also nice. Nothing too deep [6+/10].
  
  The Cornucopia Caper (448-450). A cute little caper, full of high adventure inside a neat 2300AD style society, run by the criminal [7+/10].
  
  I will say that I've gotten tired of how these recent DWM stories treat arcs: having weird asides at the end of most of the stories which lead to something bigger at the end. It seems particularly trite here after the same concept was used in the last few collections.
  
  I also have to say shame on Panini for publishing half a story. I don't know what possessed them to suddenly publish a half-length volume, but I hope they won't repeat it.
  
  Nonetheless, this is a fun volume, if a bit too color-by-numbers, in the same form as the other volumes for 10 & 11.
• 
  Steven Shinder

  Three fun stories. Loved the creature designs.
• 
  Michael Holloway

  First published in Doctor Who Magazine, these comics follow the adventures of the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams. They do a good job - the tone certainly feels like the TV series - but I thought the stories could do with more expansion. The foreshadowing of the next volume also comes across as very heavy-handed. They were enjoyable to read, but I would recommend buying DWM instead and reading them there. The only new info, commentary on each comic, doesn't really add anything, compared to that in similar DWM compilations.
• 
  Alex Sarll

  The title story has its moments - not least Socrates debating a pseudo-Zeus out of existence - but details such as a heroic Plato hint, and the back-matter confirms, that the writer is no expert on the period. Two pleasant but hardly essential capers follow. Why does the DWM strip so often feel like the slightest episodes of the TV show, when the Titan comic confirms that neither the medium nor running alongside the parent programme need be an insurmountable hindrance to producing excellent work?
• 
  Beth Huddleston

  Doctor Who and the Greek Gods. . .I particularly liked the discussion in the back of the book on how the writer and artist created ancient Athens visually and their decisions to portray the Greek Gods as negative reliefs as if from pottery or a mural.
• 
  Holly Saywell

  Brilliant. I can hear Matt/the Doctor's crazy voice inside my head!!
• 
  Laura

  Great stories! Any of these could have been featured on the show. I especially liked "The Cornucopia Caper." Horatio Lynk would have been an awesome companion for the Doctor!
• 
  Brian

  Cape may