Doctor Who: A Confusion of Angels by Richard Dinnick, Francesco Manna, and Pasquale Qualano

  Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Time Trials, Vol 3: A Confusion of Angels

Collection published: 2018
Contents originally published: 2017-18
Read: November 2021

Writer: Richard Dinnick
Artists: Francesco Manna and Pasquale Qualano
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

Like Dinnick's previous The Twelfth Doctor: Time Trials volume, this one is an over-egged continuity pudding. Like in that volume, he starts with two things that do kind of go together: the Weeping Angels and the Heavenly Host (from "Voyage of the Damned") are both angelic villains. But also like The Wolves of Winter, it just keeps adding stuff, because then we have the Judoon, and then also Margaret Slitheen, and I'm not really sure why, as nothing really goes together, and everything is done short shrift. I found it all pretty dull.

On top of that, the artists seem to be phoning it in, down to using the bridge of Star Trek's USS Voyager, complete with a prominently displayed Intrepid-class MSD! Slapping a Photoshop filter on it just isn't enough, dudes.

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: Free Comic Book Day 2018

Doctor Who: The Wolves of Winter by Richard Dinnick, Brian Williamson, Pasquale Qualano, et al.

Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Time Trials, Vol 2: The Wolves of Winter

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

Writer: Richard Dinnick
Artists: Brian Williamson & Pasquale Qualano with Edu Menna & Marcelo Salaza
Letters: Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt

This contains two stories, the first Titan adventures (other than the 2017 Free Comic Book Day Special) to include Bill after four volumes of one-off companions. The first is pretty over-egged, featuring Vikings, the Ice Warriors, the Flood (from "The Waters of Mars"), and the Haemovores (from The Curse of Fenric). None of the components gets the space it needs to be interesting. I couldn't keep track of the Vikings; the Ice Warriors were similarly dull; the inclusion of the Flood felt pointless; and the Haemovore idea came in so late it did a major disservice to one of my favorite classic series stories.

The second story, "The Great Shopping Bill," seems like it should have been fun, but Pasquale Qualano's art completely fails to communicate the setting. It's supposed to be a delightful intergalactic supermarket, but it looks like a couple of shelves.

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: Branches

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