Ending this little trilogy of Titan comics multi-Doctor crossovers we have two different Doctors crossing over in the Eleventh and the Eighth but the alternate timeline Rose that was created in the previous story is a central character, which is why I felt these needed to be put up one after another rather than reverse release order like most of the rest of this marathon. Also I want to point out that this story was advertised as celebrating 25 years of the Eighth Doctor but honestly about 90% of the story is Rose/Tenth Doctor/Eleventh Doctor stuff, so… great. Oh well, let’s take a look!
As mentioned in the opening paragraph the war-torn Rose from the alternate Sea Devil-ran Earth in the previous story was left to her own devices and ended up not only liberating several planets from oppression but ending up leading them in a massive Empire where she crowned herself Empress, complete with an amusing underling called D’Pau. Sadly for her though she’s having dreams and visions of this universe’s Rose and her life with the human version of the Tenth Doctor in the other alternate universe (man this can get confusing) and it’s becoming rather upsetting for her. For various vague reasons that Rose ends up pulled back into this universe but winds up with the Eighth Doctor instead of one she knows. The two are quick to hit it off but Rose knows not to give away much given the whole timeline thing…
Hello TV Movie publicity picture pose!
Meanwhile Empress Rose instructs D’Pau to capture The Doctor and bring him to her so he can help her with her visions and he manages to snag the Eleventh Doctor instead of one of the ones she’s familiar with, so he gets locked up in a dungeon and his TARDIS is put under examination. This leads to the Eighth Doctor and Rose trying to take down what turns out to be quite the unpleasant Empire and therefore running into alt. Rose and the Eleventh Doctor…
Honestly there isn’t much meat on these bones. The art is “okay” at best and the story is so Rose focused that frankly it was an insult to claim this was in any way celebrating the Eighth Doctor, plus his hair changes from short to long from panel to panel, which is annoying. There’s a somewhat amusing twist for the final part but generally it’s just not a very good story…
The Continuity:
They said the name of the show! *Gasp!*
As mentioned the “Empress Rose” comes from the previous Titan Comics crossover “Alternating Current” featuring the Tenth and Thirteenth Doctors, while the other Rose is living a blissful life with a daughter and her human Tenth Doctor as seen in Tenth Doctor TV story “Journey’s End”… well, the human Tenth Doctor heading off with Rose was seen in that story, the whole daughter thing is new…
The Eleventh Doctor is post Amy and Rory but has yet to hide himself away in Victorian London as seen in “The Snowmen”, whereas the Eighth Doctor is visually a mess, looking like a mish-mash of the “Night of the Doctor” Time War outfit and his original “TV Movie” clothes so combined with his ever-changing hair length I have no idea where this might be in his timeline…
Overall Thoughts:
When did the Eighth Doctor become the Tenth?!
“Empire of the Wolf” is paper-thin and focused so strongly on Rose that framing it like a multi-Doctor story, let alone an apparent celebration of the Eighth Doctor, was damn-near false advertising. The art isn’t great either, leading to an overall strong feeling of “meh” once your done with reading it. I won’t be bothering with this again…
The two Doctors put their heads together and the Eleventh decides to show Empress Rose how the planets she “saved” are doing and shows her that a lot of the planets the freed people are now treating those who previously mistreated them in the same way they were, leading to Rose feeling despair that she hadn’t done anything good after all, but the Doctor tells her its not too late to change things.
Negative points for putting the Eleventh Doctor in a fez, but bonus points for the generic soldiers that are dressed like the Foot Clan from the TMNT Arcade beat ’em up!
When they get back though little gag character D’Pau has usurped Empress Rose and taken control of her Empire with the help of the Sontarans, but the two Roses soon physically beat up a bunch of guards before the two Doctors get the two Roses to touch hands, the shockwave of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect magically sending the Sontarans away and allowing Empress Rose to retake control. She promises to steer her Empire in a brighter direction while the other Rose returns to her timeline to see a panicked John Smith relieved she’s okay. The two Doctors soon part ways as well, with the Eleventh confirming that his younger self won’t remember any of these events…
Hogan Reviews 