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: War of Gods by Nick Abadzis, James Peaty, Giorgia Sposito, Warren Pleece, et al.

With this, I am finally caught up on reviewing my Titan Doctor Who comics, so finally I can review something else! Until I read some more, anyway...

Collection published: 2017
Contents originally published: 2016-17
Read: May 2021

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol 7: War of Gods

Writers: Nick Abadzis, James Peaty
Artists: Giorgia Sposito, Warren Pleece with Arianna Florean
Colorists: Arianna Florean, Adele Matera
Letterers: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

To be honest, this is wretched. A series that began by emulating Russell T Davies's "domestic" style has ended up embracing the "planet Zog" style of Doctor Who he used to rail against. The Osirians are doing some kind of evil space thing, and all space itself is under threat. Who cares? I found the dimensions of the threat murky and confusing (I swear three different issues ended with Sutekh being released from captivity), I don't care about Anubis or the actress lady, and the personal hook of Gabby and Cindy is pretty much nonexistent. Bad and dull. Giorgia Sposito is fine as an artist, but she's no Elena Casagrande or Eleonora Carlini. I wanted to jump off the book at this point, but some people claim Year Three is a return to form, and my library has it all via Hoopla, so I guess I'll give it a shot.

There's also a one-issue story set during vol 6, about Gabby going to London for the first time. I didn't find the idea that the Doctor would be all mopey about London because Rose, Martha, and Donna were from there very convincing (it seems to me that he has a lot more London memories from across 900 years of life, and we've never seen him react to a place like that before), and I don't think Warren Pleece's art is a good match for the tenth Doctor (loved him on The Eleventh Doctor, though), but aside from that it was a fine enough insubstantial story.

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 Third Doctor: Heralds of Destruction

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

Review: Doctor Who: Conversion by Al Ewing, Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Boo Cook, and Warren Pleece

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

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol 3: Conversion

Writers: Al Ewing & Rob Williams

Artists: Simon Fraser, Boo Cook, Warren Pleece
Colorist: Gary Caldwell
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This book wraps up the SERVEYOUinc storyline that's been running through these Eleventh Doctor comics, though first there's a cute story about an alien overlord who tries to take over the Earth by writing free comic books. The remainder of the book is pretty dramatic, grim stuff, though, with the Doctor working hard to make good for his guilt over what he did during volume two when he took over SERVEYOUinc. Stories include the TARDIS crew being split into three different dimensions, Cybermen intervening during a civil war in ancient Rome, and the Doctor facing down his mother. They're weird, off-kilter stories, and all the better for it. There's no point where this ever feels like it's trying to be the telly version! The Doctor's guilt is a strong thread here, and one I enjoyed: I don't think Matt Smith every played it quite this way in tv, but I think he could have, and quite well. This is a baggage-ridden Doctor, full of self-loathing, a characterization that occasionally lurked in the background; Ewing & Williams yank it into the foreground to good effect. Jones and ARC are written out in the this volume (I like how Jones went), and the ending promises that Alice will stick around for the next volume, which is good because I like her.

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: The Fountains of Forever

Review: Doctor Who: Serve You by Al Ewing, Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Boo Cook, and Warren Pleece

Comic PDF eBook, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2015)
Acquired September 2018
Read December 2019

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol 2: Serve You

Writers: Al Ewing & Rob Williams

Artists: Simon Fraser, Boo Cook, and Warren Pleece
Colorist: Gary Caldwell
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This opens with a timey-wimey issue, which didn't entirely succeed for me in practice, but I liked the idea, because it played with time and the comics page in much the same way that Moffat played with time and television on screen. It captures the spirit of its era without feeling like it's trying to recreate it slavishly in another medium. The next two stories bring us back into the SERVEYOUinc story arc, as Alice deals with the apparent resurrection of her mother and the destructiveness of grief. It's good, character-based stuff, showing how much the character of Alice has come to life in half-a-dozen issues of this title. (I do wish ARC and Jones were taken more seriously, however.)

The last story here serves as a mini-climax to the SERVEYOUinc story arc (though I think there is more to come), with the Doctor momentarily taking over the company and being corrupted by power. I liked the idea, but didn't think the execution entirely rang true. Still, of the four Titan Doctor Who strands I've read so far (those featuring the ninth through twelfth Doctors), the eleventh Doctor one is clearly the most interesting and most successful. It's the only one I think is trying to do something other than ape its screen era.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Lucifer, Part II: Devil in the Gateway

Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway

Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Scott Hampton, Chris Weston, James Hodgkins, Warren Pleece, Dean Ormston
Colorist: Daniel Vozzo
Letterers: Todd Klein, Ellie de Ville

Comic trade paperback, 158 pages. Published 2001 (content: 1999-2000). Borrowed from the library. Read December 2011.

Since we last saw Lucifer in Murder Mysteries, mulling over the injustice of the Lord, some 13 billion years have passed. More than that if Murder Mysteries takes place before the creation of the universe, which it probably does. Since then, Lucifer has rebelled against the Lord, been consigned to Hell, given up Hell (its dominion passing into the hands of a pair of angels), and set up in a piano bar in L.A. because, you know, what else would you do? His former consort, Mazikeen, works there with him.

And he'd probably be there, enjoying himself just fine, if Amendiel, an angel himself, didn't pop into Lucifer's bar, Lux, from the Silver City to ask Lucifer to undertake a mission that the Lord can't be seen to directly intervene in. In "The Morningstar Option," someone's granting wishes, or something. It's all very vague and cosmological. Lucifer recruits a human girl who tied into the phenomenon and strikes out to put a stop to it. The story actually reminded me a lot of "The Thessaliad" in The Sandman Presents: Taller Tales in that Lucifer, like Thessaly, knows the ways these kinds of stories work, and therefore undertakes the story in line with the way it should go.

In the second story here, "A Six-Card Spread," Lucifer heads off the Germany to get another former angel to read some cards for him. Of course, there's trouble afoot, what with a bunch of racist thugs running around and the cards themselves gaining intelligence. And Lucifer's not the only person after them... (Who would have guessed that?)

In both good and bad ways, these remind me of the early Sandman stories. There are big, neat ideas being played with. But there's also a protagonist for whom no problem ever seems to exist. As in the Sandman stories, I found myself focusing on the minor mortal characters, because they had lives and problems and such. Lucifer only has smugness, and that works much of the time... but not all of it. I found "The Morningstar Option" more interesting, but "A Six-Card Spread" got bogged down in all the mythology of the cards, which I didn't find very interesting. Part of the problem (again, like early Sandman) is that the story often doesn't seem to operate by rules the reader is aware of. Lucifer and all the myriad demons do things when they need to, and that is that.

The villains of "The Morningstar Option" bothered me, in that they were gods from before our universe or something... but that didn't really matter. They could have been wish-granting Star Trek space aliens for all the difference it made to the story being told. Just saying "gods" didn't do a whole lot to make the story different.

The book ends with a short story, "Born with the Dead," about a girl whose dead grandmothers give her advice, which comes in handy when her best friend is murdered. I liked it a lot, probably for the same reason I liked a lot of the Sandman fill-in stories-- it had a protagonist I could identify with. Lucifer's here, but it's a small bit at the end.

Last time I read a Mike Carey take on a Sandman spin-off, I got the excellent The Furies. So far, this isn't bad, but it's no rival either.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Sandman Mystery Theatre, Part VII: The Hourman and The Python

Comic trade paperback, 199 pages
Published 2008 (contents: 1995-96)
Borrowed from the library
Read February 2011

Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Hourman and The Python

Writers: Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle
Artists: Guy Davis, Warren Pleece
Colorist: David Hornung
Letterer: John Costanza

This is the first volume of Sandman Mystery Theatre to draw connections with the wider DC universe-- in this case, the appearance of Rex Tyler, here called the "Man of the Hour," but eventually to become the superhero "Hourman." The Hourman is an oddly imbalanced story; half of it is about Wesley and Dian's evolving relationship, as usual, and half of it is about the Hourman's attempts to begin a crime-fighting career. They cross over in that Wesley discovers the Hourman in the course of his own activities as the Sandman, and the Hourman's investigations lead him to the same crime the Sandman is hearing about in his dreams. The relationship stuff is good, especially now that Dian is actively helping Wesley's crime-fighting, but it's overshadowed by the stuff with Hourman; I love a good origin story, and this is an excellent one. It doesn't help that the mystery here is perfunctory; Wesley spends more time investigating Rex Tyler than he does the crime, and the crime itself is stealing jewelry from an immoral and obnoxious rich person. It's hard to get worried about this. Far more interesting is Rex's fumbling attempts to help a family in trouble with local gangs.

The second story here, "The Python," is the first SMT story that completely did not work for me. To start with, it suffers from the same problem as every story with a fill-in artist: Warren Pleece is not Guy Davis. His art is simpler than Guy Davis's and more cartoony, which isn't really appropriate for the gritty atmosphere of SMT, but it's also just less accomplished. There's a lot of ugly or distorted faces, and not always in spots where they're wanted, I think. But also, the mystery this one just doesn't work-- earlier SMT stories suffered from a superfluity of suspects; this one has almost none, and then the murderer is someone completely different, with no previously indicated means, motive, or opportunity. (But still a contrived link to Dian.) It's lame, and the Sandman scarcely contributes until the obligatory fight scene at the end; everyone's favorite asshole cop Lieutenant Burke does most of the work again. Which is cool, I like Burke, but this isn't Lieutenant Burke Mystery Theatre. The other thing that doesn't work about "The Python" is that while Dr. Death and The Night of the Butcher showed Dian's initial horror at Wesley's secret life and then acceptance, and "The Hourman" showed her actually helping him, she all of a sudden backslides here for no readily apparent reason. Call my cynical, but I think Wesley and Dian's split is solely to set up the crossover in the next installment...