The Clockwise War promised a lot. It was the last Twelfth Doctor story in DWM, it featured the return of classic DWM character Fey, and the cover promised a look at a younger version of the War Doctor at long last. Somehow, The Clockwise War managed to pull all of this off to become the best DWM comic story since The Flood, and given how much I like the 8th Doctor’s DWM run, that says a lot! So let’s take a closer look…
Sin Eaters serves as a farewell to the Ninth Doctor Titan comics, giving us a good, pretty much stand-alone two-part story, then a somewhat hurried triple bill to end on. It’s good though, it’s a shame that out of the original foursome of “New Who” that the least served Doctor TV-wise would be the first to get their run cancelled, but hey-ho… let’s take a closer look!
It’s time to finish catching up (pretty much) with the Titan Comics releases by covering “Year 3”, starting with… a story that came out at the end of the run, but as it stars the Seventh Doctor I thought I’d read the stories in Doctor order, rather than release order. Operation Volcano shares a lot of similarities to the Third Doctor Titan story I raved about last year, especially with accurate drawings of the lead cast, but does the story hold up on its own? Well…
So the Audio / Comic Companion Debut Marathon comes to a close with the Eleventh Doctor’s Titan Comics companion Alice… plus John Jones and ARC, who last far less, but do travel with The Doctor, to be fair to them! Anyway, let’s have a look at “After Life”, which unlike the 10th Doctor stuff, is actually four short stories with connected themes, rather than all being multi-part affairs…
As we near the end of the Audio / Comics Companion Debut Marathon we reach the Titan comics range, a range I started covering on this blog from “Year 2” onwards, so this is slightly awkward as I’ll be going back to the start, before beginning to tackle “Year 3” in a month or so… Oh well! The Tenth Doctor’s new companion for the range, Gabby, is a fun character and their adventures get off to a good, and less complicated, start… so let’s have a look!
This is a rare one, an IDW comic story (well, stories). I wasn’t a big fan of the IDW series, and re-reading these two confirmed that opinion. Wonky artwork (especially Silver Scream!) and endless, relentless call backs right from the off. The stories aren’t bad, but I just don’t like the presentation, not helped by the fact that I only own them digitally thanks to a Humble Bundle a fair few years ago. Either way though, I consider them “canon” to my personal Doctor Who timeline, so Emily and Matthew are indeed comic companions, so here they are in this marathon! Let’s take a look…
The Comic/Audio Companion Debut Marathon enters the “NuWho” era of Doctor Who (and sadly, but not unexpectedly, skips the Ninth Doctor…) as we get the one and only Tenth Doctor comic companion from Doctor Who Magazine, though the first of three comic companions for Tennant’s incarnation of the Time Lord… So let’s have a look!
Ophidius introduces us to Destrii, who will go on to become a companion for the Eighth Doctor down the road, but it’s also the first Doctor Who Magazine comic to be published in full colour, which would continue from then onwards, so once again this Audio / Comic Companion Debut Story has more of an impact than just the new companion. While Ophidius is the lengthier story, Beautiful Freak is perhaps one of the more well written and sombre stories in Doctor Who in general, so is definitely the star of this double bill. Let’s take a closer look, regardless…
Endgame is not just the debut for Izzy, but it’s the start of the Eighth Doctor’s great run in Doctor Who Magazine. As his Big Finish audio tenure went on the Doctor got more and more cynical and sarcastic, where as these comics have him just like in the TV movie: very excitable and funny. Izzy is a great companion too, a “nerdy” character within a very nerdy sci-fi series works great. So let’s take a look at Endgame (the story, not the whole Graphic novel…) and kick off the Eighth Doctor’s lengthy part in the Audio/Comic Companions Debut Marathon!
We reach the titular story of the Phantom Piper graphic novel, and the story doesn’t disappoint, well unless you’re not familiar with some past DWM stories, then it might… but I was fine! So let’s take a look at what the hell I’m going on about, shall we?
