REVIEW: Doctor Who Comic Issue #2.1 Out Now In The UK

The latest issue of the UK's Doctor Who Comic is now available in shops and online and features strips from Titan Comics' 'Doctor Who: Four Doctors' crossover event series. Doctor Who screenplay writer Paul Cornell and artist Neil Edwards have joined forces to bring fans an extra special multi-Doctor adventure that sees the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, as played onscreen by David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi, join forces for the first time. The series was originally released during August and September in the USA, Canada & Australia.

The comic is available to buy now in newsagents and supermarkets or online here.

Doctor Who Comic: #2.1

What universe-shattering event brings the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors crashing together, fuelled by the actions of a mysterious face from their past? Joined by their loyal companions Gabby, Alice and Clara, can the most recent incarnations of the Time Lord work together to overcome an unexpected foe and keep the laws of time and space intact – or will they be betrayed by one of their own? As history warps around them and the future looks increasingly uncertain, only three Doctors thinking and working together offer any chance of getting out of this trap alive! If only they didn't distrust each other on sight!

Review

The story opens on the planet of Marinus, devastated by the last great Time War. The War Doctor has been forced to form an alliance with his previous foe the Voord against their common enemy.

Roll forward a few generations and the Twelfth Doctor has never heard of the planet. However, Clara Oswald has photographic evidence that not only the Twelfth visited the planet, but also the Tenth and Eleventh. What’s more, the existence of the photograph is the trigger of a chain of events that will spell the end of the entire Universe. And Clara believe that she is the only person that can make it happen.

Her solution is to enlist the support of the other companions, Gabby Gonzalez, currently travelling with the Tenth Doctor and Alice Obiefune, companion to the Eleventh. However, her planned secret meeting in Paris backfires, the three Doctors come face to face and the expected timey-wimey complexities ensue. Before long the Doctors are squabbling and sniping, followed by the inevitable running for their lives from mortal danger. And Clara has made another miscalculation. If you tell the Doctor that there’s a place he should never visit in order to prevent the certain destruction of all things as we know them, you can guarantee that there’s absolutely one place that the Doctor will visit. Before long three versions of the TARDIS are materialising on the surface of Marinus…and a trap is sprung! With only their wits and the Eleventh Doctors packet of comics to depend on, can the Doctors and their companions break away from perhaps their greatest ever enemy?

Paul Cornell’s script is innovative and satisfyingly twisty without becoming over-complex – always a danger when the story crosses timelines and potentialities as this one does. What’s more he captiures the voices and the personalities of not only the three Doctors but also the three companions and does each one of them justice. This is carried over into Neil Edwards artwork, who had clearly studied the body language, gestures and facial expressions of David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in great detail in order to reproduce them so faithfully on the page. The tactic of viewing the action through the eyes of the companions works well too – certainly for Gabby and Alice the concept of the Doctor having multiple incarnations is a novel one and it’s interesting to see their bafflement at the non-compatibility of the Time Lord’s different selves.

The latest edition of the magazine also includes a couple of humour strips and an exclusive competition to win a copy of Doom Coalition, the latest Eighth Doctor adventure from Big Finish.

The five-chapter special Four Doctors concludes in the next issue and also introduces two new adventures: Gangland, starring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, and Echo starring the Tenth Doctor and Gabby. Issue #2.2 goes on sale on 5^th November. For for more information including subscription deals please visit www.titanmagazines.com.