Dead Man's Hand (comic story)

Dead Man's Hand
Doctor:	Eleventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Main enemy:	Es'Cartrss of the Tactires
Main setting:	Deadwood, USA
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::IDW Publishing]]
Editor:	Denton J. Tipton
Writer:	Tony Lee
Artist:	Mike Collins
Colourist:	Charlie Kirchoff
Letterer:	Shawn Lee
Release details
Printed in:	Doctor Who (2012) #13 - 16
Release date:	September 2013 - December 2013
Format:	American comic book 4 issues
Doctor Who (2012)
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Dead Man's Hand was a four-issue comic story in Doctor Who (2012). It was the first Doctor Who comic to feature the War Doctor. It was the last multi-chapter story published by IDW under its licence from the BBC, and was a sequel to one of its first story arcs, COMIC: The Forgotten.

Although originally scheduled for monthly issue, due to IDW's licence to publish Doctor Who expiring at the end of 2013, the final two issues were published on an accelerated weekly schedule.

Summary

The Doctor and Clara cross paths with Oscar Wilde and Calamity Jane in the frontier town of Deadwood as they pay their respects to the recently passed Wild Bill Hickok. But soon they discover the grave is empty, and that the town is being plagued by a masked gunman who shoots his victims with nothing but a finger!

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Eleventh Doctor
• Clara Oswald
• Oscar Wilde
• Calamity Jane
• Wild Bill Hickok
• Es'Cartrss of the Tactires
• First Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Second Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Third Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Fourth Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Fifth Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Sixth Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Seventh Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Eighth Doctor (Matrix projection)
• War Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Ninth Doctor (Matrix projection)
• Tenth Doctor (Matrix projection)

References

• Clara makes several references to the American TV series Deadwood, which featured many of the real-life individuals she meets in this story.

Notes

• The frame in Part 3 showing all incarnations of the Doctor together in the Matrix is composed almost identically to the grouping of Doctors seen at the end of TV: The Day of the Doctor.

Continuity

• The Doctor claimed to have travelled with two children before. This may be a reference to his grandchildren, John and Gillian (COMIC: The Klepton Parasites), however it is more likely a reference to Angie and Artie Maitland, whom the Doctor recently travelled with at Clara's behest (TV: Nightmare in Silver).
• After Oscar destroys the ship of the aliens with the Sonic Screwdriver, he states that it now looks like a Junkyard. The Doctor says that he spent some of the best times of his life in a Junkyard with his granddaughter. (TV: An Unearthly Child) When Oscar asks what happened to her, he states that they lost contact. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• Oscar Wilde holds a strong resemblance to the Eighth Doctor. At one point, he puts on the original costume of the Eighth Doctor after finding it in the TARDIS. (TV: Doctor Who) In the TV movie, the Eighth Doctor's outfit is actually a Wild Bill Hickok costume intended for a party; Hickok is also a character in this story.
• All 12 known Doctors appear within the T'keyn Nexus, including one deemed not worthy of the name Doctor, who is the only incarnation who does not speak. The Eighth Doctor attempts to defend him (TV: The Night of the Doctor).
• The Doctor is able to deduce the identity of Es'Cartrss of the Tactires by its reaction in the T'keyn Nexus to seeing the Tenth Doctor; the events of their encounter are retold in brief. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
• Clara is not familiar with the Last Great Time War at this point and asks the Doctor to tell her about it, which he refuses to do. (She later, however, will indicate to the War Doctor that her Doctor did evidently inform her about it (TV: The Day of the Doctor).)
• The Doctor directly refers to Clara as "The Impossible Girl," placing this in the post-The Name of the Doctor timeframe. The two are still meeting on Wednesdays to have their adventures (as per throughout Series 7).
• The final issue ends with the Doctor suggesting several possible destinations: visiting actor Archie Maplin in Hollywood (COMIC: Silver Scream), having tea with H. G. Wells (COMIC: The Time Machination), or visiting Kevin, a robot dinosaur currently working as a security guard (COMIC: Space Squid). Clara suggests visiting Dallas in November 1963 (TV: Rose; PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy), but the Doctor suggests Shoreditch instead (TV: An Unearthly Child); in TV: The Day of the Doctor, Clara will be seen teaching in a school in Shoreditch, though in the modern day, not 1963.

Cover gallery

to be added