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Doctor Who: Ghost Stories #1-8
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Ghost Stories
Don't miss the brand-new superheroic adventures of the Twelfth Doctor, Grant, and Lucy, as they soar from the rooftops of New York City to the far corners of the universe!
When we last saw Grant and Lucy, they were settling down together with Lucy's daughter, and Grant's superheroic costume was being stored away. But that wasn't the end of the story!
Soon, the Doctor is swooping back into their lives - because it turns out the alien gemstone that gifted Grant his powers of flight, super-strength, and super-speed has siblings all over the universe.
It's up to the Doctor, Grant, Lucy, and their daughter to track them down to prevent disaster - from a post-apocalyptic New York, to a world taken over by the forces of the Harmony Shoal, to a boneship in the depths of space... and more!
But is there something the Doctor isn't telling Grant...? Will the journey's end require Grant to give up his powers in order to save the universe?
There's only one way to find out!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - it's a police box VWORP-VWORP-ing through the temporal vortex, with a caped superhero swooping alongside!
Collects Doctor Ghost Stories #1-4
When we last saw Grant and Lucy, they were settling down together with Lucy's daughter, and Grant's superheroic costume was being stored away. But that wasn't the end of the story!
Soon, the Doctor is swooping back into their lives - because it turns out the alien gemstone that gifted Grant his powers of flight, super-strength, and super-speed has siblings all over the universe.
It's up to the Doctor, Grant, Lucy, and their daughter to track them down to prevent disaster - from a post-apocalyptic New York, to a world taken over by the forces of the Harmony Shoal, to a boneship in the depths of space... and more!
But is there something the Doctor isn't telling Grant...? Will the journey's end require Grant to give up his powers in order to save the universe?
There's only one way to find out!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - it's a police box VWORP-VWORP-ing through the temporal vortex, with a caped superhero swooping alongside!
Collects Doctor Ghost Stories #1-4
112 pages, Hardcover
First published September 20, 2017
4 people are currently reading
801 people want to read
About the author
George Mann
365 books675 followersGeorge Mann is an author and editor, primarily in genre fiction. He was born in Darlington, County Durham in 1978.
A former editor of Outland, Mann is the author of The Human Abstract, and more recently The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual in his Newbury and Hobbes detective series, set in an alternate Britain, and Ghosts of Manhattan, set in the same universe some decades later.
He wrote the Time Hunter novella "The Severed Man", and co-wrote the series finale, Child of Time.
He has also written numerous short stories, plus Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes audiobooks for Big Finish Productions. He has edited a number of anthologies including The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy and a retrospective collection of Sexton Blake stories, Sexton Blake, Detective, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.
A former editor of Outland, Mann is the author of The Human Abstract, and more recently The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual in his Newbury and Hobbes detective series, set in an alternate Britain, and Ghosts of Manhattan, set in the same universe some decades later.
He wrote the Time Hunter novella "The Severed Man", and co-wrote the series finale, Child of Time.
He has also written numerous short stories, plus Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes audiobooks for Big Finish Productions. He has edited a number of anthologies including The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy and a retrospective collection of Sexton Blake stories, Sexton Blake, Detective, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 19, 2023
Quality sequel to a 13th Doctor episode
December 21, 2023
Fun, bit fluffy but pleasantly surprised
May 12, 2024
In the first issue Lucy says her daughter is 8, but in issues 3 and 4 she says she’s 11. This level of care and thought are put into the entire book.
August 3, 2021
A sequel to "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" from Twelve's run... which defies the ending of the episode by beginning with superheroics. Unfortunately, the plot wobbles from standard superhero fare (with the Doctor added in) to standard Doctor Who fare (with a superhero added in). There are some interesting ideas in here, to include the Doctor's end-goal, but the whole thing seems kind of underdeveloped. Disappointing. (B-)
December 25, 2017
I read issues 1-4 and won't be collecting any more. The story is ok - there's a full arc in those 4 issues - but the art is questionable at best and there are a couple of glaring grammatical errors in issues 2 and 3. (Lucy's a reporter, she should know her object pronouns!!)
I don't know why DW comics are so bad for likenesses. There are a couple of panels in #3 that get the mains right, but there is no place where the child Jennifer (how is she 11 when 8 years ago she was an infant?) looks anything like a child.
I don't know why DW comics are so bad for likenesses. There are a couple of panels in #3 that get the mains right, but there is no place where the child Jennifer (how is she 11 when 8 years ago she was an infant?) looks anything like a child.
January 1, 2026
2016’s The Return of Doctor Mysterio offered more than another festive treat for viewers of Doctor Who. With superhero movies dominating cinema screens, the series with an open format that could take it anywhere in time and space turned to those movies and their comic source material for inspiration. The result was a fun watch that played on a number of tropes and presented what’s become an overlooked entry among Doctor Who’s Christmas specials. It is also isn’t surprising that, having pulled from the world of comics for Grant Gordon aka The Ghost, the character would have further adventures alongside Peter Capaldi’s Doctor in a limited series called Ghost Stories from Titan Comics soon after.
Originally published as eight digital comics collected as four print issues (as they’re presented here in this collected edition), Ghost Stories is made up of two halves. The first two issues very much continue the TV special’s feel of the Doctor being dropped into a comic book story. Those familiar with Superman (which was arguably the biggest inspiration for Grant Gordon/The Ghost, with Lucy playing the Lois Lane to him) will recognize much of the tropes at play in the two issues where the Doctor and Grant face a villain known as The Smoke in a future New York City. It’s a fun read, especially for anyone who is already a comics reader getting to see the Doctor in such a superhero situation.
Which makes it both interesting and perhaps a tad unfortunate that the situation is reversed in the second half. Moving beyond Earth, Ghost Stories instead becomes a fairly typical Doctor Who adventure which has a superhero among its temporary TARDIS crew. A superhero that, honestly, doesn’t add much but his presence to proceedings. True, writer George Mann wraps up a loose thread or two from the 2016 Christmas special, but with the Doctor taking center stage so much, Grant, Lucy, and Lucy’s daughter Jennifer could almost be any other companion from the show’s run. So much so that Mann (and by extension Lucy who serves as narrator) can’t keep what age Jennifer consistent over a limited run. While the final pages return things back into superhero territory, what made Ghost Stories something beyond just another Doctor Who story had long since departed.
Which is a shame because when it works, Ghost Stories is another fun crossover of Doctor Who and superheroes. Unfortunately, it wanders off halfway through back into more traditional Who fare, losing what made this worth checking out to begin with. The result is still readable but isn’t as strong as it could have been.
Originally published as eight digital comics collected as four print issues (as they’re presented here in this collected edition), Ghost Stories is made up of two halves. The first two issues very much continue the TV special’s feel of the Doctor being dropped into a comic book story. Those familiar with Superman (which was arguably the biggest inspiration for Grant Gordon/The Ghost, with Lucy playing the Lois Lane to him) will recognize much of the tropes at play in the two issues where the Doctor and Grant face a villain known as The Smoke in a future New York City. It’s a fun read, especially for anyone who is already a comics reader getting to see the Doctor in such a superhero situation.
Which makes it both interesting and perhaps a tad unfortunate that the situation is reversed in the second half. Moving beyond Earth, Ghost Stories instead becomes a fairly typical Doctor Who adventure which has a superhero among its temporary TARDIS crew. A superhero that, honestly, doesn’t add much but his presence to proceedings. True, writer George Mann wraps up a loose thread or two from the 2016 Christmas special, but with the Doctor taking center stage so much, Grant, Lucy, and Lucy’s daughter Jennifer could almost be any other companion from the show’s run. So much so that Mann (and by extension Lucy who serves as narrator) can’t keep what age Jennifer consistent over a limited run. While the final pages return things back into superhero territory, what made Ghost Stories something beyond just another Doctor Who story had long since departed.
Which is a shame because when it works, Ghost Stories is another fun crossover of Doctor Who and superheroes. Unfortunately, it wanders off halfway through back into more traditional Who fare, losing what made this worth checking out to begin with. The result is still readable but isn’t as strong as it could have been.
June 16, 2024
As a Doctor Who fan and a Superman fan, the Twelfth Doctor special The Return of Doctor Mysterio (2016) is one of my favorite episodes. I was curious to see how they would continue the story in comic book format.
And, well, not great, as it turns out.
I have thoughts.
The Doctor recruits Grant and family to find the remaining gemstones, the first of which turned Grant into the superhero known as "the Ghost" in the TV episode.
First, the TARDIS takes them to a dystopian future New York City which has been destroyed by war against "the Smoke," a man who acquired one of the stones and followed Ghost's example, only it all went wrong. Okay, so George Mann understands the superhero genre and conventions.
There are some things, as a superhero fan, I really appreciated about this segment:
The parallels to Injustice, with having a "Superman" type character out to control everything, to the point where he ends up becoming the villain.
The fact that the Smoke, in his human form, looks like Superman's villain, Lex Luthor.
The way the Twelfth Doctor clocks Smoke immediately as "he's not a super villain. He's just a very confused, very scared young man." Which is very much in keeping with the Twelfth Doctor's compassionate side.
Unfortunately, as is my problem with a lot of the DW tie-in comics, this suffers from ridiculous pacing problems. The whole story with the dystopian New York and Smoke could easily have been expanded and delved into both Ethan/Smoke and Grant/Ghost's characters, but instead it wraps up in just over one issue and we're off to chase the next gemstone.
The second story is much more confusing. They land on an alien world where the people have willingly allowed Harmony Shoal (the floating brains from the episode) to take over. This is due to a convoluted bit of exposition regarding how these people evolved, which only made things more confusing. Also, their whole bodies are their brains? Or something?
In the third part, we get the return of the Sycorax from 2005's The Christmas Invasion and just . . . why? Why are they here? They add nothing and they're not interesting.
Lucy, Grant's wife, narrates at the reader non-stop. And she doesn't come off like the character from the episode, either, but a much more generic "wife of the superhero" type. She's missing the humor that made her character work on screen, and the narration is all trite superhero cliches.
We get three different pencillers across a very short span of pages, and while the first two are relatively similar in style, the third is jarring. I also found it hard to tell what was going on in some of the scenes. Which is, you know, a problem in a comic book!
All-in-all, I was disappointed with this. I feel like it could have worked, had it stayed with the first story and expanded on that. It really felt like a "superheroes-but-with-the Doctor" story, but the book as a whole was too rushed and chaotic. Would not recommend, even if you loved the episode.
And, well, not great, as it turns out.
I have thoughts.
The Doctor recruits Grant and family to find the remaining gemstones, the first of which turned Grant into the superhero known as "the Ghost" in the TV episode.
First, the TARDIS takes them to a dystopian future New York City which has been destroyed by war against "the Smoke," a man who acquired one of the stones and followed Ghost's example, only it all went wrong. Okay, so George Mann understands the superhero genre and conventions.
There are some things, as a superhero fan, I really appreciated about this segment:
The parallels to Injustice, with having a "Superman" type character out to control everything, to the point where he ends up becoming the villain.
The fact that the Smoke, in his human form, looks like Superman's villain, Lex Luthor.
The way the Twelfth Doctor clocks Smoke immediately as "he's not a super villain. He's just a very confused, very scared young man." Which is very much in keeping with the Twelfth Doctor's compassionate side.
Unfortunately, as is my problem with a lot of the DW tie-in comics, this suffers from ridiculous pacing problems. The whole story with the dystopian New York and Smoke could easily have been expanded and delved into both Ethan/Smoke and Grant/Ghost's characters, but instead it wraps up in just over one issue and we're off to chase the next gemstone.
The second story is much more confusing. They land on an alien world where the people have willingly allowed Harmony Shoal (the floating brains from the episode) to take over. This is due to a convoluted bit of exposition regarding how these people evolved, which only made things more confusing. Also, their whole bodies are their brains? Or something?
In the third part, we get the return of the Sycorax from 2005's The Christmas Invasion and just . . . why? Why are they here? They add nothing and they're not interesting.
Lucy, Grant's wife, narrates at the reader non-stop. And she doesn't come off like the character from the episode, either, but a much more generic "wife of the superhero" type. She's missing the humor that made her character work on screen, and the narration is all trite superhero cliches.
We get three different pencillers across a very short span of pages, and while the first two are relatively similar in style, the third is jarring. I also found it hard to tell what was going on in some of the scenes. Which is, you know, a problem in a comic book!
All-in-all, I was disappointed with this. I feel like it could have worked, had it stayed with the first story and expanded on that. It really felt like a "superheroes-but-with-the Doctor" story, but the book as a whole was too rushed and chaotic. Would not recommend, even if you loved the episode.
November 9, 2023
This graphic novel sees the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) being reunited with old friends in the form of Grant AKA superhero The Ghost, sharp-minded New York reporter Lucy and their daughter Jennifer. To save the universe the Doctor enlists Grant's help to track down the sibling gemstone of the one which gives him his superpowers, travelling across time and space to do so.
I know a lot of Who fans didn't like the Christmas Special 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio', but personally I've always rather enjoyed it. It's clearly Steven Moffat's homage to the superhero movies and TV shows which were at their height at the time, whilst throwing in a bit of meta humour thanks to dropping Capaldi's often-caustic Doctor into the mix (plus Nardole's great, but that goes without saying).
So, I was pleased to revisit the premise of mixing Doctor Who with a superhero story, as well as revisiting these characters in particular.
The result absolutely feels like a superhero comic, complete with supervillains whose powers can match Grant's, and the Doctor's relationships with Grant and Lucy remain compelling.
Unfortunately, because of the episodic nature of the story being told and the very short nature of those episodes, the book as a whole doesn't hang together too convincingly, feeling a bit patchwork. For example, the return of the Sycorax could've been a uniting theme across the book but instead they simply turn up in the last quarter and a written out almost as quickly.
It's not that this is bad book by any measure, it's simply that I felt that, with these ingredients, it should've been better.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
I know a lot of Who fans didn't like the Christmas Special 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio', but personally I've always rather enjoyed it. It's clearly Steven Moffat's homage to the superhero movies and TV shows which were at their height at the time, whilst throwing in a bit of meta humour thanks to dropping Capaldi's often-caustic Doctor into the mix (plus Nardole's great, but that goes without saying).
So, I was pleased to revisit the premise of mixing Doctor Who with a superhero story, as well as revisiting these characters in particular.
The result absolutely feels like a superhero comic, complete with supervillains whose powers can match Grant's, and the Doctor's relationships with Grant and Lucy remain compelling.
Unfortunately, because of the episodic nature of the story being told and the very short nature of those episodes, the book as a whole doesn't hang together too convincingly, feeling a bit patchwork. For example, the return of the Sycorax could've been a uniting theme across the book but instead they simply turn up in the last quarter and a written out almost as quickly.
It's not that this is bad book by any measure, it's simply that I felt that, with these ingredients, it should've been better.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
November 11, 2021
More of a 2.5, but it doesn't really do anything wrong so I'm rounding up.
I think I've only ever seen The Return of Doctor Mysterio once, but the premise always stuck with me as something so totally not-Doctor Who and yet somehow made to work. The return of those characters (The Return of the Return of Doctor Mysterio?) isn't something I particularly needed, but this mini-series will scratch the itch for anyone who did.
It's a four issue mini-series about a quest to recover the other three crystals that match the one that gives Grant his powers, each of which is located on a different world and is being used for various nefarious deeds. Reminds me of the Keys Of Marinus, or other such multi-part fetch quest stories.
The art's a bit all over the place since 3 of the 4 issues are pencilled by different people, which would be fine if they swapped over when they changed planet, but since each issue kind of has two different locales in it, the divide gets super murky, and none of the three really gel together.
This is...fine. There's really nothing remarkable about it one way or another, but it didn't drive me into a rage like some of the other Twelfth Doctor comics often did, so it gets points for that. A shame that that's what we've come to, but here we are.
I think I've only ever seen The Return of Doctor Mysterio once, but the premise always stuck with me as something so totally not-Doctor Who and yet somehow made to work. The return of those characters (The Return of the Return of Doctor Mysterio?) isn't something I particularly needed, but this mini-series will scratch the itch for anyone who did.
It's a four issue mini-series about a quest to recover the other three crystals that match the one that gives Grant his powers, each of which is located on a different world and is being used for various nefarious deeds. Reminds me of the Keys Of Marinus, or other such multi-part fetch quest stories.
The art's a bit all over the place since 3 of the 4 issues are pencilled by different people, which would be fine if they swapped over when they changed planet, but since each issue kind of has two different locales in it, the divide gets super murky, and none of the three really gel together.
This is...fine. There's really nothing remarkable about it one way or another, but it didn't drive me into a rage like some of the other Twelfth Doctor comics often did, so it gets points for that. A shame that that's what we've come to, but here we are.
January 24, 2021
DOCTOR WHO - GHOST STORIES
Grant needs the Doctor, and Grant’s family, more than he realises!
(4 stars)
#1
"A quick whizz to the other side of the universe turns into a quick LEAP into a post-apocalyptic FUTURE."
.
#2
"These are the DISPOSSESSED, the people that lost their home to the conflict."
#3
"A hero doesn't freeze. A HERO always RISES to the occasion."
.
#4
"Take them to the holding area."
"I'm going to presume this is all part of your PLAN, Doctor..."
.
#5
"Anyone would think i was living through the pages of a comic book."
"It's NEVER too late to fight back, to start a revolution." - Doctor.
.
#6
The Sycorax!!!
.
#7
If the Sycorax were outsmarted by Tenth (in the show), then against Twelfth they will be a no-show ;)
.
#8
"Cosmic Housecleaning" tidies up the story arc.
..
Grant needs the Doctor, and Grant’s family, more than he realises!
(4 stars)
#1
"A quick whizz to the other side of the universe turns into a quick LEAP into a post-apocalyptic FUTURE."
.
#2
"These are the DISPOSSESSED, the people that lost their home to the conflict."
#3
"A hero doesn't freeze. A HERO always RISES to the occasion."
.
#4
"Take them to the holding area."
"I'm going to presume this is all part of your PLAN, Doctor..."
.
#5
"Anyone would think i was living through the pages of a comic book."
"It's NEVER too late to fight back, to start a revolution." - Doctor.
.
#6
The Sycorax!!!
.
#7
If the Sycorax were outsmarted by Tenth (in the show), then against Twelfth they will be a no-show ;)
.
#8
"Cosmic Housecleaning" tidies up the story arc.
..
December 24, 2017
This little bit of nostalgia is a fun way to revisit old friends. The 12th Doctor has not seen his Christmas companions in eight years but as usual appears with a mysterious quest to save the universe. Lives are upended and adventures abound.
The story is told in narrative fashion through the eyes of Lucy whose love and devotion to her family takes center stage. The Doctor is enigmatic as always, never divulging any more information than needed and asking more than anyone is prepared to give.
This was a fun, quick romp through the universe full of questionable physics that drive even more implausible plot lines. For the Doctor Who fan, it ticks all the right boxes. As a graphic novel, it feels more like fast food than literary genius or a masterpiece of art.
The story is told in narrative fashion through the eyes of Lucy whose love and devotion to her family takes center stage. The Doctor is enigmatic as always, never divulging any more information than needed and asking more than anyone is prepared to give.
This was a fun, quick romp through the universe full of questionable physics that drive even more implausible plot lines. For the Doctor Who fan, it ticks all the right boxes. As a graphic novel, it feels more like fast food than literary genius or a masterpiece of art.
May 29, 2018
Sigh. If there was a format that could take the Doctor Who Superhero idea and make it work it would be comics, but... Nope. WAY too much nonsense, poorly plotted, structured, paced and edited. Trying to teach Grant a lesson about not just punching his way through problems only to punch his way into the solution. Yawn. Booring. I am kinda shocked because George Mann is solid. but perhaps that just goes to show that superheroes in Who don't work after all. For a more detailed review, visit www.travelingthevortex.com (episode #378)
April 15, 2020
I've always thought "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" was kinda meh, so I was hoping this comic would make it feel less like a throwaway story. And it kinda does. The superhero stuff does translate better somewhat in comic book format. The setting is able to get grander, and there's some gorgeous art. But I thought the ending was a bit of a cop-out.
June 4, 2019
Great tale revisiting the Peter Capaldi led Christmas special and the welcome return of The Ghost,bringing superheroes to the world of Doctor Who. Another impressive outing from the reliable pen of George Mann,who seems to excel with licensed characters such as The Doctor and Judge Dredd.
June 9, 2019
Nice overall artwork, with some very pretty and colourful panels! The story itself is mediocre, but at least we get to see another story with Grant and his family as protagonists, who I really liked in the TV series.
September 7, 2024
My lack of familiarity with these companions and my not quite loving the art style contribute to my not being an enthusiastic reader of this volume. It isn't bad but I am woefully behind on Doctor Who and this really emphasizes it.
September 25, 2025
I really liked this book. The episode with Grant was one of my favourites from the 12th Doctor.
I've never read a Doctor Who comic before this and I can see that I'm really missing out on them. There's so much more to the character than they're able to fit into a TV show.
I've never read a Doctor Who comic before this and I can see that I'm really missing out on them. There's so much more to the character than they're able to fit into a TV show.
May 7, 2018
lame :/ capaldi wasn't drawn on point
Read
July 12, 2019Read issue 1.
Okay.
How does the artist make the Doctor look nothing like Capaldi?
Okay.
How does the artist make the Doctor look nothing like Capaldi?
December 22, 2020
A brilliant graphic novel sequel to one of my favourite episodes!
March 2, 2024
I'd rather read a DC comic.
October 3, 2025
A sequel to one of my favourite episodes? Sign me up! It wasn’t brilliant, but it was a bit of fun.
Read
February 3, 2018Because apparently Capaldi's only bad post-Clara story needed a sequel. The juxtaposition of Who and American-style superheroics could have been fruitful, like the Who-meets-Bond Trading Futures - but rather than use one of the writers who also has superhero chops, Titan gave it to George Mann, who doesn't, and is generally fairly middling even on his own turf. So we get a thoroughly generic affair in which the Ghost helps the Doctor collect plot tokens while learning that true heroism comes from inside, aaaah. Capaldi uses the American spelling 'honor', and looks about 12 for the first two issues - although given a child who's 8 in the first issue is 11 by the end of a pretty short adventure, perhaps some weird temporal leakage was afoot. Or perhaps this is just a shoddy effort all round. Titan seem to be pausing their Who line, maybe for a rethink. On this evidence, not before time.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews