Titan Comics 2017
Written by John Barrowman & Carole Barrowman
Illustrated by Neil Edwards
Coloured by Dijjo Lima
Lettered by Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Captain Jack and his Torchwood operatives aboard the alien tech-filled ship the Ice Maiden managed to thwart a plot by the alien Navigators to harvest the Earth, abetted by the Vervoids Now, the team must help the planet recover, and continue to look for answers amidst the wreckage. But there’s something – someone! – emerging from Station Zero, where the final battle took place... something that will change Jack and Gwen’s lives forever!
Honestly I wasn’t sure I was going to review this one, personal reasons, but thought better of letting something else effect what I do. Besides Neil’s doing the interiors and I do so enjoy seeing his work.
Picking up where the last arc left off is where we find ourselves. Only the opening here introduces something else to us. It is pretty instantaneously interesting and Neil does a great job telling the story basically from only a visual standpoint. While there is some narration to give us an inkling about what’s happening it’s really what we see that makes the impact here. It isn’t until we get to Jack and Gwen when the writing story begins to fill in the blanks and move things forward.
One of the aspects of this that I really like is how we see the interaction of the characters. The dialogue that we get is not only spot on, which we wouldn’t expect anything else from John having been the star of the show, but it keeps the characters evolving. So in other words the characterisation here is excellent. Also I’ve noticed that with each arc the structure of the storytelling seems to be getting stronger and stronger. The way the book flows from segment to segment is well done and has a more natural feeling to it.
Also I think it helps that the amount of characters we’re seeing in this first issue is more limited than in previous arcs which makes the story seem smoother. With the appearance of Captain John Hart so soon after they parted ways well that’s just fun. I mean the relationship he and Jack have is probably one of the more fun ones that we have ever seen. The literal love/hate they have for one another could almost be what an epic love story is based upon. Plus it’s something we just can’t get enough of.
Neil is amazingly talented and while this has that blend of cartoon and realness it totally works for this series. There’s some great attention to detail here with those moments that just pop and impress. The utilisation of the page layouts through their angles and perspective is fantastic as it really helps the storytelling feel more complete. Heck even the use of backgrounds here make a difference in the bigger picture just like they are supposed to do.
I have already said that the way the book flows is fantastic and I meant it and as Jack and John, yes I was tempted to say Jack and Jill, banter back and forth trying to make a deal is a highlight. It’s also how the revelation of what we’ve been seeing brings the two parts together. We’ve seen a whole lot of interesting plot twists and we’ve seen alien species time and again to either take over or destroy Earth. Now however it seems that these Vervoid’s are far more of a threat than anyone could have thought possible.
Torchwood was a great series that ended much too soon. However as it’s rightfully beloved by it’s followers this continuation of the show in comic book form makes up for it not being on telly. Overall this is an extremely well thought out and executed book not to mention entertaining as all get out.