Titan Comics 2016
Written by John & Carole Barrowman
Illustrated by Antonio Fuso & Pasquale Qualano
Coloured by Marco Lesko
Lettered by Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
In Scotland, Sir James Sterling, master of Torchwood House, has been assassinated by the rogue time agent Captain John Hart, making Sir James’ wife Lady Karina a widow and leaving many secrets behind him. Meanwhile, Gwen Cooper has been called back into action by Captain Jack Harkness and the crew of the Ice Maiden. Before Gwen can get on board, however, the Ice Maiden has come under attack from ninjas on jet skis who’ve emerged from a mysterious mothership!
There are a couple of things about this that I really like. It makes me miss the show and the characters and the way they would interact with one another. It makes me wish we had more Torchwood over the years as well. Though you have to give some major kudos to John Barrowman and his sister Carole because as writing team they really do an excellent job with this franchise. While he may be known for his acting he’s quite the accomplished author with comics and novels under his belt. Having played Jack in the series there’s no one quite as well suited to telling their continued adventures either.
If there’s one drawback for me it’s that I wish the artwork were tighter, cleaner and full of more detail. Though to be fair it’s not bad work at all. It just doesn’t, for me, fit into the world these characters live in. Still the use of page layouts with angles and perspective are handled nicely. The backgrounds are also utilised very well. So the work doesn’t detract from the story in any way shape or form. It just isn’t what I think of when I think this universe.
The characterisation here is absolutely lovely. Between Jack and Gwen falling into their old behaviour and ways to the crew of the ship plus with what we see between Lady Karina and Lewis well it really fleshes out the characters and ultimately the story incredibly well. There’s also that trademark serious silliness that we get from them here, I mean spaceships dispatching flying Ninja’s that’s crazy and the whole deal going on with Sir James Sterling’s research being of a more serious nature yeah it all balances out things extremely well.
There is some nice action going on here where we get to see the characters having to think on their feet as they fight these flying Ninja’s. It does nail that old feel of the show and makes me super happy that we get to see things like this. The mystery that Lady Karina doesn’t even realise she’s a part of adds a nice bit of tension to the story. Both have very strong representations here.
Titan Comics with Doctor Who and now Torchwood really understand the nature of the beast so to speak. They have the right talent to bring this to audiences and continue to capture that love and feel of the franchises that fans miss. Then there’s the fact that somehow you can just feel the love John has for his former character here as he continues to write his adventures. This is a must read for any fans of the show and for those just finding this it’s pretty new reader friendly and easy to follow and stands on it’s own two feet even for something follows the novel The Exodus Code.