Titan Comics 2015
Written by Paul Cornell
Illustrated by Neil Edwards
Coloured by Ivan Nunes
The Doctor is an immortal time traveler who, when mortally- wounded, regenerates into an entirely new body.
He has worn many faces in his long and adventurous life.
When the fabric of the universe is threatened, when the laws of time, space and all of reality start to break down...
...on those dire days, different incarnations of the Doctor can meet.
It should never happen. But this is one of those days…
I like this issue opens up, always nice to see that the Dalek’s are involved in some way shape or form whenever there’s something impossible happening with the Doctor’s. Greatest enemy for a reason and all that. That and the fact that this takes place towards the end of the great war and a Doctor on the outskirts of the council is on Marinus talking to his well friends there about the changes that could come as a result of the Time Lords winning. Though the whole encounter does raise interesting questions and who is that Doctor, is it one of the forms of the man we’ve come to know or is this someone new?
We start with the current Doctor #12 and Clara as she wakes up with the word Marinus in her head and the Doctor claims never to have heard of it. What’s Clara up to well we have a hint and it’s time to see the 10th Doctor and Gabby. Well anyway it’s really Gabby that’s the focus here it’s Paris 1923 and they’ve just dealt with Cybermen when Gabby goes into a restaurant to order food while the Doctor disposes of the head. Alice enters the restaurant next and it’s gathering of companions like no other.
Clara tells the girls a story and it’s rather remarkable actually that all three can accept what’s happening around them with little fanfare. They are all companions though and the picture Clara shows well that’s the clincher. The girls try to concoct a plan to avoid their three Doctors from meeting but in a fixed moment in time things are going to happen even if something tells this meeting could spark the end of all.
Ah Clara’s Doctor well he made sure that all three version did meet and it’s quite hysterical actually to read the dialogue coming from each regarding the other they have a much more difficult time accepting things than the girls do and Paul takes this to a whole new level of entertainment. With each different personality fighting to dominate the others with his superior thinking and reasoning. With all the arguing going on they’ve all forgotten one quite basic and simple thing that creating a paradox at a fixed point in time calls forth Reapers which we haven’t seen in ages!
The writing, dialogue and story itself are perfectly brilliant and it’s so much fun to see them this way with each other having a multi-Doctor event if they aren’t supposed to. I mean once one knows something about it they’ll ultimately make it happen anyway they can’t resist it! Not gonna lie though if the fourth Doctor is the one from the beginning and not the 9th i’ll be disappointed, i’ll get over it but still. I do like the fact that not once has anyone really questioned why they are all together, who or what caused this actually happen and think about it all logically and instead end up how they do.
Neil and Ivan make a wonderful team here as they bring all this to life with a style and grace fitting the characters and the subject matter. There’s something special about the artwork and the linework that just makes it seem kind of more old school comic book realism, like the days of Neal Adams or Mike Grell, which can make the human form so much more powerful seeming.
This is the kind of event big budget movies are made for and we’re getting here with better writing and characterization and top notch special effects every week for the next four weeks!