Doctor Who: The Many Lives of Doctor Who by Richard Dinnick et al.

 Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor: The Many Lives of Doctor Who

Published: 2018
Acquired: March 2020
Read: November 2021

Writer: Richard Dinnick

Letterers: Sarah Jacobs and John Roshell
Artists: Mariano Laclaustra, Giorgia Sposito, Brian Williamson, Arianna Florean, Claudia Ianniciello, Iolanda Zanfardino, Neil Edwards, Pasquale Qualano, Rachael Stott

Inker: Fer Centurion

Colorists: Carlos Cabrera, Adele Matera, Dijjo Lima, Enrica Eren Angiolini

This story (which is a volume 0 to Titan's Thirteenth Doctor series) takes place while the twelfth Doctor is regenerating into the thirteenth. As this happens, they think about various aspects of their life, leading to a series of mini-stories about all the previous Doctors. I will be honest, I pretty much hated it, mostly thanks to the narration of the Doctor. The twelfth Doctor's speech at the end of "Twice Upon a Time" was ponderous enough; it didn't need this added to it. "Earth. You have a fondness for it. Especially London," they'll think to themself, and then we get a third Doctor adventure. No shit! "Remember Gallifrey. Your home planet?" As the book goes on, they seem to get increasingly strained. "You're not ill all that often. And human medicine isn't really your thing." Is this really stuff intrinsic to the Doctor that they need to be reminded of?

The mini-adventures are fine, but pretty insubstantial, and kind of over-stuffed with continuity callbacks. I get that Titan was trying to capitalize on the thirteenth Doctor hype, and needed some stuff to draw attention to its new offerings, but both this and The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor seemed pretty pointless. The best way to introduce a new Doctor is just to introduce a new Doctor! They don't need all this palaver.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Thirteenth Doctor: A New Beginning

Doctor Who Free Comic Book Day 2018

Doctor Who Free Comic Book Day 2018

Published: 2018
Read: November 2021

Writers: Nick Abadzis, John Freeman, George Mann, Jody Houser
Artists: Giorgia Sposito & Arianna Florean, Christopher Jones, Mariano Laclaustra, Rachael Stott
Colorists: Marco Lesko, Carlos Cabrera

Letterers: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This Free Comic Book Day offering contains three-and-a-half stories, only one-and-a-half of which have been collected, so I picked it up. It's a weird artifact, in that when it came out, Titan clearly planned to do some stuff it never actually got around to doing; instead, it massively shrank its output when it began its Thirteenth Doctor comic.

It begins with "Catch a Falling Star," a twelfth Doctor story that picks up from the end of The Good Companion, showing Gabby being picked up out of the time vortex by a later incarnation of the Doctor than her own. Mostly it's recap and set-up, one assumes so that people could jump on with the new twelfth-Doctor-and-Gabby comics that the closing caption promised with its "THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES THIS NOVEMBER!" But November 2018 saw no such comics released, nor did any subsequent Novembers, even though Abadzis wrote the scripts. It's cute, though; I always like it when Florean draws Gabby's diary.

It continues with "The Armageddon Gambit," a slim story that serves as an utterly nonessential prologue to Operation Volcano, Titan's seventh Doctor miniseries... but at least that actually came out! Interestingly, it's by John Freeman, editor and occasional writer of the DWM strip during the era the comic seeks to recreate. This is actually collected in the Operation Volcano trade paperback, so you can read it there.

It ends (kind of) with "Midnight Feast," an eleventh Doctor story that offers some faint amusement. This story ends with "THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR WILL RETURN!" He never really did, appearances in The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor and The Many Lives of Doctor Who aside.

It actually ends with "And Introducing...", a one-page three-panel strip where the thirteenth Doctor gets out of the TARDIS, by the Thirteenth Doctor creative team. Not sure if it really needed a writer, but I guess someone had to write "VWOORRRP" down so the letterer knew to put it on the page.

So, overall, a bit of a curio, but if you were invested in Gabby's story from the Tenth Doctor comics, it's definitely worth a few minutes to read what turned out to be the end of her adventures.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The First Doctor: "In-Between Times"

Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension by George Mann, Cavan Scott, Rachael Stott, Mariano Laclaustra, et al.

Collection published: 2018
Contents originally published: 2017
Read: September 2021

Collection published: 2018
Contents originally published: 2017
Read: September 2021

Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension, Book One

Writers: George Mann, Cavan Scott & Nick Abadzis
Artists: Rachael Stott, Adriana Melo, Cris Bolson, Mariano Laclaustra, Carlos Cabrera, Leandro Casco, & I. N. J. Culbard, with Pasquale Qualano, Mony Castillo, Klebs Jr, JR Bastos, & Fer Centurion
Colorists: Rod Fernandes, Marco Lesko, Dijjo Lima, & Hernán Cabrera

Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

 

Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension, Book Two

Writers: Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby, George Mann & Cavan Scott
Artists: Ivan Rodriguez, Wellington Diaz, Rachael Stott & Mariano Laclaustra, with Anderson Cabral, Marcelo Salaza & Fer Centurion
Colorists: Thiago Ribiero, Mauricio Wallace, Rod Fernandes & Carlos Cabrera, with Mony Castillo
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

 

Titan's Doctor Who crossovers got bigger every year. This one is eight issues and two collected editions, and crossed through its ongoings (instead of just featuring characters from them), taking in issues of The Tenth Doctor: Year Three, The Eleventh Doctor: Year Three, and The Twelfth Doctor: Year Three. It also features the ninth Doctor, Rose, Jack, Tara, Madame Vastra, and Jenny; Jenny, the Doctor's daughter; the fourth Doctor and second Romana; and River Song in a set of specials. Plus every other incarnation of the Doctor puts in at least a one-scene cameo. Is that enough already?

 

It is, in fact, too much. It follows the Big Finish model: the characters are mostly separate for most of it, which means they undertake pretty generic adventures, and then the characters come together at the end, which means the narrative doesn't have room for anything other than simple solutions and generic Doctor sniping... something we've seen twice in the past two years! I have posited in the past that Big Finish's nostalgic crossovers are pointless because they bring together characters we see in ongoing adventures all the time already, and the same is true here. There is no novelty to bringing "back" the tenth Doctor, Gabby, and Cindy when I read their adventures already. The only characters we don't already see all the time in Titan adventures are Jenny, the fourth Doctor and Romana, and River, but the first of those I had no desire to see come back, and the others I listen to the adventures of already via Big Finish. (Plus, I didn't find the stories or dialogue very good; the River story in particular was confusingly written and poorly illustrated.)

 

If we aren't getting nostalgia, then we're not getting anything, because this story isn't really about anything. A dimension turns people into mindless zombies... as Doctor Who threats go, it's definitively bottom tier and generic. Does this story have any interesting themes or clever characterization? Basically, no. The one exception is the Eleventh Doctor issue, which isn't by any of the regular Eleventh Doctor writers but is at least by regular Eleventh Doctor artists Leandro Casco and I. N. J. Culbard. It's a decent tale of the eleventh Doctor and Alice being trapped on ancient Gallifrey and becoming inadvertently involved with the Time Lord's early TARDIS experiments. The rest of it all is sound and fury, signifying nothing. I'm glad that after three goes, Titan finally abandoned these annual events; I had mixed thoughts about Four Doctors, but it was overall pretty interesting. The latter two have been exercises in tedium.

 

(If, like me, you are curious about what issues are collected where, the collected editions give incomplete information, and the Tardis wiki is flat-out wrong. Book one collects what was originally published as parts 1-4 and 7: The Lost Dimension: Alpha #1, Ninth Doctor Special #1, The Tenth Doctor: Year Three #9, The Eleventh Doctor: Year Three #10, and the Jenny and Alice stories from The Lost Dimension Special #2. Book two contains parts 5, 7, 6, and 8 in that order: the fourth Doctor story from The Lost Dimension Special #1, the River Song story from The Lost Dimension Special #1 and 2, The Twelfth Doctor: Year Three #8, and The Lost Dimension: Omega #1. Thanks to a friendly Gallifrey Base poster for working this out for me. Not confusing at all! I also have a feeling the credits are incomplete or inaccurate.)

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Tenth Doctor: Facing Fate: The Good Companion

Doctor Who: "The Promise" by Alex Paknadel, Mariano Laclaustra, et al.

Doctor Who Free Comic Book Day 2017: "The Promise"

Published: 2017
Read: September 2021

Writer: Alex Paknadel
Artists: Mariano Laclaustra, Pier Brito, Nico Selma
Colorists: Carlos Cabrera, Brittany Peer

Letterers: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

The stories from Titan's first two Doctor Who Free Comic Book Day specials were included in their regular collections, but as far as I can tell, this one and the next were not, so I added them to my marathon of Titan stories I've been reading from Humble Bundle and Hoopla. This is a twelfth Doctor story—the first to include tv companion Bill Potts—that includes flashbacks to the ninth, tenth, and eleventh Doctors (i.e., everyone who starred in an ongoing, though the ninth's had been cancelled by this point). It's fine; I am not sure I entirely bought all the Doctor's actions, but whatever, it's sixteen pages and I didn't pay any money for it! My biggest complaint is that when the Doctor tells Bill something happened to the ninth Doctor "before Tara," that is clearly a comment aimed at the continuity-obsessed audience, and not anything he would ever actually say to Bill!

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Tenth Doctor: Vortex Butterflies

Doctor Who: The Terror Beneath by George Mann, James Peaty, Mariano Laclaustra, Warren Pleece, et al.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Time Trials, Vol 1: The Terror Beneath

Collection published: 2017
Contents originally published: 2017
Read: September 2021

Writers: George Mann & James Peaty
Artists: Mariano Laclaustra & Warren Pleece with Fer Centurion
Colorists: Carlos Cabrera & Hernán Cabrera
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

"Year Three" of Titan's Twelfth Doctor ongoing has the umbrella title "Time Trials," but no kind of ongoing storyline is introduced in its first volume. Indeed, my guess is that the umbrella title is so vague because there won't be one, that kind of thing being much harder to weave into an ongoing that's beholden to what's happening on screen. (The twelfth Doctor was still on screen when these comics came out; "Year One" did have a minor ongoing plot, but "Year Two" didn't.) Like the last couple volumes of Year Two, the Doctor is still companionless here, but he does pick up one-off companion Hattie from The Twist for a perfectly okay outing about spooky underwater things in a seaside village. Mann has settled in as a serviceable writer of twelfth Doctor comics: rarely wretched, but in no way does the twelfth Doctor looking at the "camera" and saying, "I always thought the Jon Pertwee era was the best one" capture what the twelfth Doctor era was like on screen, which often pushed at the boundaries of screen Doctor Who to such an extent as to irritate me. Just try to be interesting, Mann! I do think Mariano Laclaustra is good at atmosphere, and he's probably this comic's best artist who wasn't Rachael Stott.

There's also a one-issue story by James Peaty where the Doctor lands in a town terrified by a floating smile. Warren Pleece turns in some excellent, disconcerting art, but the story itself is entirely predictable and obvious.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Eleventh Doctor: The Sapling: Roots

Review: Doctor Who: Sonic Boom by Robbie Morrison, Mariano Laclaustra, Rachael Stott, et al.

Collection published: 2017
Contents originally published: 2016-17
Acquired: March 2020
Read: July 2021

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol 6: Sonic Boom

Writer: Robbie Morrison
Artists: Mariano Laclaustra & Rachael Stott, with Agus Calcagno & Fer Centurion
Colorists: Carlos Cabrera, Hernán Cabrera & Rodrigo Fernandes, with Juan Manuel Tumburus
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

I had some initial issues with Robbie Morrison's earlier contributions to The Twelfth Doctor series, but his final volume shows that he's totally worked out the kinks. This contains two stories, one three issues long and one two. The first is "Terror of the Cabinet Noir," with another between-Clara-and-Bill temporary companion, in this case Julie d'Aubigny, a real seventeenth-century opera singer-- among many other things. I don't remember taking much notice of Mariano Laclaustra's art before, but this is gorgeous and well-suited to the story. Both the twelfth Doctor and Julie sparkle in their repartee. The plot isn't going to set your world on fire, but I really enjoyed reading it.

The second is kind of goofy, and not as good as it probably should have been; the Doctor confronts the writer and artist team behind Time Surgeon, a comic series based on his own exploits (mentioned back in vol 4). I wish it had been a bit more meta and playful. Still, Morrison and artist Rachael Stott effectively communicate Twelve's dripping disdain for the entire set-up, and he gets some good jokes you can imagine Peter Capaldi nailing.

from Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Year Two #12 (art by Mariano Laclaustra, with Fer Centurion and Agus Calcagno)

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Twelfth Doctor: Ghost Stories

Review: Doctor Who: The Twist by George Mann, Mariano Laclaustra, Rachael Stott, et al.

Collection published: 2016
Contents originally published: 2016
Acquired: March 2020
Read: April 2021

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol 5: The Twist

Writer: George Mann
Artists: Mariano Laclaustra & Rachael Stott, with Agus Calcagno & Fer Centurion
Colorists: Carlos Cabrera, Alexandre Siquiera & Rodrigo Fernandes, with Thiago Ribero & Juan Manuel Tumburus
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This volume contains two twelfth Doctor stories, with a new short-term companion between Clara and Bill. The first, "The Twist," is set on a human space habitat in the far future, and the Doctor investigates a series of mysterious disappearances while also attending a rock concert. It's okay. It has a twist that's kind of dumb, and I didn't buy the resolution, but I enjoyed the ride well enough.

The second, "Playing House," is actively dumb. The big twist here is so obvious you feel insulted. The bigger-on-the-inside place the Doctor discovers... is a TARDIS! Wow, who would see that coming?

Also, I feel that between George Mann's three original companions (Engines of War's Cinder, The Eighth Doctor's Josie Day, and this volume's Hattie), I am far too able to triangulate what he thinks is sexy. He very clearly has a type!

from Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Year Two #7 (art by Mariano Laclaustra with Agus Calcagno & Fer Centurion)

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Tenth Doctor: Sins of the Father

Review: Doctor Who: Doctormania by Cavan Scott, Adriana Melo, Cris Bolson, et al.

Collection published: 2016
Contents originally published: 2016
Acquired: September 2018
Read: April 2021

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Vol 2: Doctormania

Writer: Cavan Scott
Artists: Adriana Melo & Cris Bolson [with Mariano Laclaustra]

Colorists: Matheus Lopes & Marco Lesko
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

I didn't care for vol 1 of this series, and I feel much the same about this. In my review of that one, I wrote, "[t]he plot seemed to pile complication on complication and incident on incident for the sake of it." The same is true here. More specifically, the stories read like they were made up as they went along, with no attempt at unity of character or theme. The first one, "Doctormania," is about the Doctor, Jack, and Rose arriving on a planet where everyone is a big fan of the Doctor; it turns out that this is because a Slitheen is running around in Doctor skinsuit. But the story isn't really about this in any meaningful way, the implications and permutations of this concept aren't explored. Instead, they're discarded and it becomes a story about Rose being stuck on a jungle planet with a Slitheen, and the climax of the story is about negotiations between different factions in the Raxacoricofallapatorius solar system. There's a brief return to the original hook at the end, but the permutations of the story feel arbitrary and inorganic. I hate saying something doesn't follow "rules" for writing, but it really doesn't live up to the MICE Quotient. It's an event story, but the event that is solved at the ending isn't the one that was a problem at the beginning!

The second story, "The Hunted," wastes a good premise too for no readily apparent reason. The Doctor is summoned by Mickey-- only it's post-"Journey's End" Mickey who's married to Martha, not the useless "Mickey the idiot" that he knows. I think there's potential here for a story about how the Doctor has misjudged Mickey, but it's not used, it's just a random continuity detail, not a storytelling concept. Worse, Martha is there to just be a mute woman in distress for Mickey to worry about! Like, she's a protagonist in her own right, you shouldn't be treating her like this... except that, of course, she's a woman. The actual plot of the story (something something superpowers something something mutations something something a wormhole) is too dependent on techno-gubbins to be interesting. I think a lot of writers who try to imitate Russell T Davies-style Who don't get that, for all its flash and speed and color, his stories were about something, they were about people in real and meaningful ways rarely equaled on television. These stories have flash and speed and color, but aren't about anything at all.

This also contains what was originally published as a Free Comic Book Day story, "Hacked." There are no credits for it anywhere in the book: if I was artist Mariano Laclaustro, I'd be pretty hacked off.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Twelfth Doctor: The Twist

Review: Doctor Who: Hyperion by Robbie Morrison, George Mann, Daniel Indro, Mariano Laclaustra, and Ronilson Freire

Collection published: 2016
Contents originally published: 2015
Acquired: September 2018
Read: October 2020

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol 3: Hyperion

Writers: Robbie Morrison, George Mann
Artists: Daniel Indro, Mariano Laclaustra, Ronilson Freire
Colorists: Slamet Mujiono, Luis Geurrero
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

I'm of two minds about Titan's Twelfth Doctor ongoing. I find the plots very uninteresting. Evil fire monsters who are ancient enemies of the Time Lords invade the Earth, blah blah blah. It's Doctor Who at its most generic, which is a shame, because on screen, the Peter Capaldi era was Doctor Who at some of its most inventive and clever. In his three seasons, we only got three alien invasion stories by my count, and all of them (the 2014 Missy/Cyberman two-parter, the 2015 Zygon two-parter, and the 2017 Monks trilogy) did really interesting and clever stuff with the concept, and mostly used alien invasions as a way of exploring other issues: mortality, xenophobia, compliance and resistance. The Hyperion storyline does nothing like that; these are just stompy alien fire monsters who want to burn down the Earth and drain the sun, and the human guest characters are about as complex as a bad drawing. Plus there's this really clunky bit where the Doctor leaves in the middle of a crisis to get the stuff he needs to defeat the aliens from other times and places, which I think creates more problems than it solves.

But writer Robbie Morrison really gets the voices of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara. I can imagine Capaldi saying these lines, and can hear how he would balance warmth and coldness in that way only he can do. So even if the experience of reading the overall story was meh, the experience of reading any individual page was usually pretty enjoyable, so long as the Doctor was on it. (On the other hand, George Mann, who pens a single-issue story about Victorian vampires, writes a pretty generic Doctor.) So far the best this series has been is the Las Vegas story in vol 2, which was fun and inventive just like the twelfth Doctor's era on screen. If Morrison can do more stuff like that and less stuff like this, he can do something really interesting, I reckon. I hope so.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: Four Doctors

Review: Doctor Who: Fractures by Robbie Morrison, Brian Williamson, Mariano Laclaustra, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2015)
Acquired September 2018
Read May 2020

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol 2: Fractures

Writers: Robbie Morrison [with George Mann]

Artist: Brian Williamson & Mariano Laclaustra
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This volume contains three stories, thankfully largely ignoring the tedious "Hyperion" storyline introduced in volume 1 of The Twelfth Doctor, except for small references. The first story is a tie-in to the "new UNIT" era, with Kate Stewart; I found it dull. I think it's supposed to be scary, but neither writing nor art really carries an element of fear, and I found the motivations of the villains confusing and unconvincing.

The second story was, even if not as strong as some of Titan's tenth and eleventh Doctor stuff, the best twelfth Doctor comic yet. It's the first of these comics to really capture was worked about Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman on screen, as the Doctor and Clara swan through 1960s Las Vegas, battling gangsters being aided by aliens. Lots of colorful art and colorful characters, and great ideas, I really enjoyed it.

The whole book ends with a brief short focusing on Clara, which didn't make much of an impression.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: The Eleventh Doctor: Conversion

Review: Doctor Who: Terrorformer by Robbie Morrison, Dave Taylor, et al.

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2014-15)
Acquired September 2018
Read November 2019

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor, Vol 1: Terrorformer

Writer: Robbie Morrison

Artist: Dave Taylor with Mariano Laclaustra
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

If I ever become Grand Czar of Doctor Who Tie-Ins, I would have a stamp made for rejecting proposals, and it would read, "IF YOUR BORING NEW VILLAIN IS AN ANCIENT ENEMY OF THE TIME LORDS, IT'S STILL BORING." This volume opens with "Terrorformer," a painfully by-the-numbers Doctor Who story with cartoonish characterization, and a terribly uninteresting villain that I'm sure we're doomed to hear more about going forward.

It continues with "The Swords of Okti," about the Doctor and Clara unravelling some kind of plot by an evil family and evil aliens across past and future India (picking up on some of the hints in the Moffat era that future India is a space power). This has its moments, but suffers from some weird tonal shifts; a guest character's dad dies, and moments later she's grinning widely and bantering about jelly babies.

I didn't think much of artist Dave Taylor's stiff, plasticky faces, especially the somewhat caricatured villains in the second story.