Marvel Zombies: Battleworld by Simon Spurrier, Kev Walker, et al.

Marvel Zombies: Battleworld

Collection published: 2022
Contents originally published: 2006-15
Read: January 2024

Writers: Simon Spurrier, Robert Kirkman

Artists: Kev Walker, Sean Phillips

Inker: Jason Gorder

Colorists: Frank D'Armata, June Chung

Letterers: Clayton Cowles, Randy Gentile

 

I almost didn't even notice this existed, but while I was reading Nextwave, something I read clued me into its existence, which claimed that it was a really good Elsa Bloodstone story. I normally would be doubly skeptical of a story tying into both Secret Wars (ugh) and Marvel Zombies (double ugh), but then I saw it was by Simon Spurrier, who was one of the contributors to Titan's excellent The Eleventh Doctor: Year Two series, so I decided to give it a chance.

 

I read the Ms. Marvel Secret Wars tie-ins back in the day; I only have the foggiest notion what it was about. I think a bunch of timelines got smushed together into the same planet? You don't really even need to know that to understand this, as long as you're willing to accept 1) Elsa Bloodstone is commanding an army against a horde of zombies, and 2) it's possible to run into multiple versions of the same character.

 

This isn't high art, but it is surprisingly enjoyable and well done for what it is. Spurrier and artist Kev Walker take the post-Nextwave version of Elsa Bloodstone, but treat the character more seriously than Ellis and Immonen did. What would it be like to grow up with all this trauma? How would it affect you as an adult, and how could you relate to others after it happened? Spurrier explores this with a mix of horror and humor, and I wouldn't say I loved it, but it's much better than it needed to be. Walker impressed me as an artist, too; good with both character and action. At one point, I thought, "wow this guy should draw Star Wars"... later I realized he was the artist for Marvel's Doctor Aphra series, and I was probably subconsciously remembering some of the art I'd seen for that.

 

Don't mess with Elsa in any timeline.
from Marvel Zombies vol. 2 #3 (script by Simon Spurrier, art by Kev Walker)

 

The collection also contains one issue of the original Marvel Zombies series as a bonus, but no one's tricking me into reading that shit.

This is the fourth post in a series about Elsa Bloodstone. The next installment covers Monsters Unleashed! Previous installments are listed below:

1. Bloodstone & the Legion of Monsters (1975-2012)
2. Bloodstone (2001-06) 
3. Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E. (2006-07)
   

Review: Doctor Who: The Malignant Truth by Si Spurrier, Rob Williams, I. N. J. Culbard, and Simon Fraser

Collection published: 2017
Contents originally published: 2016
Acquired: March 2020
Read: May 2021

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol 6: The Malignant Truth

Writers: Si Spurrier & Rob Williams
Artists: I. N. J. Culbard & Simon Fraser
Colorists: Marcio Menys & Gary Caldwell 

Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

"Year Two" of The Eleventh Doctor comes to an end. I will admit that I did not entirely understand how this all fit together; maybe if I had read this story arc all at once instead of spread out across six months. (But then, it originally appeared across an entire year!) But, to be honest, I didn't really care. This is great stuff: great character moments for the eleventh Doctor, for Alice, for the Master, for the War Doctor, for the Squire, even for Abslom Daak! And great, weird concepts. I think more than any other Doctor Who tie-in creators, the writers and artists of this series have captured the weirdness and the horror of the Time War. Some genuine creepy bits-- counterbalanced by some genuine punch-the-air moments. I look foward to seeing where this comic goes in "Year Three"; indeed, it may be the only Titan ongoing I actually do follow into Year Three.

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: Supremacy of the Cybermen

Review: Doctor Who: The One by Si Spurrier, Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Warren Pleece, Leandro Casco, Leonardo Romero, et al.

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

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol 5: The One

Writers: Si Spurrier & Rob Williams
Artists: Simon Fraser, Warren Pleece, Leandro Casco, Leonardo Romero

Ink Assists: Adriano Vicente, Wellington Dias & Raphael Lobosco
Colorists: Gary Caldwell, Rod Fernandes, Ariana Florean, Nicola Righi, with Azzurra Florean
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

The out-thereness of Titan's Eleventh Doctor series continues: in this one they visit River Song and go to Shada, the prison planet of the Time Lords. We begin to learn more about the role of the Master in these events, and the Squire struggles to prove herself-- as does Alice. All this plus Abslom Daak is hilarious but also tragic. It's hard to judge any of this on its own terms, as each issue works on its own but also propels you into the next: what is going to be the pay-off to all of this in the final volume of The Eleventh Doctor: Year Two? But the ride is enjoyable, human, and creepy, and I continue to be all in on it. Still far and away the best of Titan's Doctor Who ongoings. My only complain is that Simon Fraser somehow manages to make River Song look ugly!

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 Fourth Doctor: Gaze of the Medusa

Review: Doctor Who: The Then and the Now by Si Spurrier & Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, and Warren Pleece

Collection published: 2016
Contents originally published: 2015-16
Acquired: September 2018
Read: December 2020

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol 4: The Then and the Now

Writers: Si Spurrier & Rob Williams
Artists: Simon Fraser, Warren Pleece
Colorist: Gary Caldwell
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This volume solidified my belief that The Eleventh Doctor is far and above the best of Titan's three ongoing Doctor Who comics. Alice continues on as a companion from "Year One," but two more are added: the Squire and Abslom Daak of Doctor Who Magazine fame.

The invocation of Daak is more than a surface-level continuity thing; I actually think it reveals something important about the creative team's intentions. Coincidentally, I started reading through the Panini collections of the DWM comic strip around the same time I started this, and The Then and the Now reminds me of the classic fourth Doctor run by Pat Mills, John Wagner, and Dave Gibbons (I haven't actually gotten to Daak yet; his material is reprinted in one of the seventh Doctor volumes) in that it doesn't read like an attempt to imitate what the tv show does in comics form, but instead it takes what the tv show does and filters it through a comics prism. Si Spurrier and Rob Williams and their artistic collaborators are doing their own thing that draws on stuff the tv show did... but is really nothing like it in terms of tone and affect.

The story focuses on the eleventh Doctor's guilt over what he did as the "War Doctor" during the Time War; he's being hunted by a bounty hunter (the Then and the Now of the title) for a crime he doesn't remember committing... but is perfectly willing to believe he committed. He and Alice are joined by the Squire, a companion of the War Doctor he doesn't remember, and Abslom Daak, who finds himself at loose ends as a "Dalek killer" with no Daleks to kill. Each story here sees the Doctor retracing his steps through the Time War as Alice has strange visions ("EXTERMINHATE") and we get glimpses of the War Doctor and a mysterious child. There's lots of great stuff here, both horrifying and gentle, and never for a moment do you feel like you're watching the tv show. I like this portrayal of a guilt-wracked Doctor; I like the new weird TARDIS team he has inadvertently assembled; I like the guesses and glimpses we get of the Time War (once again demonstrating that Big Finish Time War is the least interesting Time War). My only complaint would be that Alice herself feels a bit lost in the epic Doctor angst of it all, compared to how much her character was foregrounded in "Year One" (her visions feels more like a plot device than a character point), but I am hopeful that future volumes in "Year Two" will remedy this.

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 Eighth Doctor: A Matter of Life and Death