Let’s Talk About… MLPFIM Transformers II #3, and first hint of evidence regarding the possible end of HASBRO IDW.

So this is a first look at the coming review, and yes I will take all the images tomorrow and write up both parts of the review coming up… but I thought I wanted to get this out… because I said I would, but also because I think this issue might be evidence of the coming end of days for HASBRO and IDW. And it all has to do with a name. But first…

So first story is with Octavia and HASBRO officially branded name DJ-Pon3, aka Vinyl Scratch according to the fandom. (guess you already guessed which name is the one I am going to be talking about but…) They decide that they are not going to get involved inthe battle now raging against the remaining free bots and the forces of Sombra, however fate has other plans for them.

They run into the fandom dubbed Young Six, and soon enough they must join them and Soundwave in a musical sound battle against the forces of Sombra. Actually this is a nice story, and it’s written by Tony Fleecs and he does great work so yay. Loved it.
The second story teams up Ratchet and Rarity, the two marshmallow colored characters (white equals marshmallow… yes that’s a tired old joke but go with it!) and we have a few more bots show up. I was more interested in the Octavia Vinyl Scratch issue… because yes. Throughout the story DJ-Pon3 is called VINYL SCRATCH!
Ok let’s get right down to it.

OFFICIALLY, if they were towing the line made by HASBRO? They would be calling her DJ-Pon3… which they have during her appearances in the past in IDW. And to be fair they are towing the line of Vinyl Scratch being mute (as she was in DHX Continuity). Wait, wasn’t she mute in IDW Continuity? No… look back to Ongoing #43-$5 (The Ponies of Dark Water). If I remember right DJ-Pon3 cameos in this one, and she talks!

Also MLPFIM #45 copies the cover from the recently published at that time GI Joe #199 (just before the 200th issue of Real American Hero… me. Remembering the full run of MLPFIM in comics, so you don’t have to.
So what is the importance of calling DJ-Pon3 Vinyl Scratch? Not much… unless you believe that HASBRO would not allow that, and IDW has nothing to lose by catering fully to the fans if they knew that their time was coming to an end. After all… the last time they were defiant seemingly (maybe) with another studio’s property? It maybe got them kicked to the curb.

So set your TARDIS to the summer of 2013, months before the 50th Anniversary Special of Doctor Who aired (The Time Of The Doctor if I remember right). IDW was in the process of publishing the third volume of their “ongoing” Doctor Who title. A title that was so unsuccessful it kept getting cancelled after 16 issues… waitaminute… that’s the same with present Doctor Who from Titan… except the second Doctor Who year for the Jodie Whittaker Doctor, which tanks practically instantly after it started! Not even a crossover with the Tenth Doctor David Tennant could save it! Presently a new Doctor Who comic is publishing and starring… Missy aka the Female Master. Eh.

Long story short that summer IDW was running a four issue arc which was Clara’s first appearance in comics, in which the pair were stuck in an expanded room in the TARDIS (which has become a mini enclosed skyworld with people trapped in said world). This was a fair enough first opening arc for Clara being introduced into Doctor Who the comic, and fine on it’s own… so why was this seemingly the straw that broke the BBC and got IDW kicked?

Dunno. Could be that the start of Doctor Who Series 3 #11 (and #12 if I remember right) basically spoiled the opening minutes of the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special, and the siege by the Daleks of Gallifrey… months before the special aired. I am pretty sure when I bought this digitally (and yes I have all of the digital comics from Series II & III of the IDW era… I don’t have the endless runs from Titan, but… I guess if it brought in more followers I could get those… long story short (too late)? The fact they kinda blew the first few minutes reveal of the start of the 50th Anniversary (and the siege of Gallifrey) might have got them kicked.

Also the final comic pubished, the SPECIAL, was set in our real world and kinda felt like fan service to me…. but in a good way. As opposed to a majority of Doctor Who comics which are… well… BORING! Another reason why I don’t buy them. For the few issues here and there that I loved of Doctor Who (Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi comic era) there are a ton (David Tennant, Matt Smith and yes Peter Capaldi) I found boring as all buck! And yes, I bought the first year of comics for Jodie Whiitaker and hated them all!

So yeah… given how we are getting a ton of fan service this year? I am wondering if this is not the end of the road for IDW and HASBRO. But I guess only the end of the year will reveal what happens next. But to recap…
If they pull the plug on Transformers and GI Joe comics, especially with GI Joe Origins Snake Eyes about to release in Late July? The fix is in.

If the mini series Generation ends without a fifth issue representing Generation 5? Then they’re saving all G5 content until the move… ala how IDW was not allowed to publish any Peter Capaldi appearances and could only reference him in the final Doctor Who special.Titan was the first to publish his comics.

Ironic since Titan, a formerly bottom tier publisher whose main gig was reprinting American comics in trade formats for sell in the UK, they’ve become the IDW of the UK in the years after getting the Doctor Who license. They have some good comics, like the comic version of Life Is Strange… but it still doesn’t make them any better than an IDW clone in the UK.

So we have the review of MLPFIM Transformers II #3 coming up… as for when we will next see possible signs of the final fate of Pony with IDW? Hmm… I’m thinking the next sign will come in September or October when MLPFIM ends it’s run… stay tuned.

Titan Comics’ 13th Doctor #10 Review

So lets get into it as this should be a short review, and I apologize if I dont get the timing of when one issue ends and the other starts just right, but that has been a constant problem for me reviewing this comic since I started bck at Trade 1 with the Hoarder so… make of it as you will.

The Review…

So the Doctor reunites with the Corsair, and I find out from reading it that apparently she met her when she was a he so… I guess I should look back into the 11th and 12th Doctor’s time (since both of them appear on covers for #11 & #12 respectively) but…

Anyway after a get to know each other again, which involves stopping a bully of an alien from being a jerk by allowing it to shoot itself with a faulty killgun, they talk the Corsair into taking a ride on the TRADIS. There she learns why the Doctor was looking for her, mainly the whole theft of the gem from the last issue. She laughs, and admits to doing it. Why? Because the race that the alien pantomime clowns stole it from wanted it back, and they wanted the first aliens to know an alien stole it because… because they stole it and were aliens so the ones who owned the gem originally wanted them to know that aliens stole it back.

Uh-huh. Also the comic I am pretty sure ends with the Corsair talking the Doctor and companions to go with her on a new heist because sure, that wont fall apart and go badly…. for her in anycase because she is a Neil Gaiman created character and as thus I dont think Titan has his permission to off and kill his characters. Also Time Lord character so odds are they wont really mess with her and she will be fine by title end. Probably the Doctor too because if anything these comics have taught me, be it IDW or Titan, is that none of these stories have any real consequences and nothing really matters. Sigh.

So tomorrow we continue with Issue #11, where apparently the Corsair has talked the Doctor into some mischief, but what kind? The kind that involves visiting a planet where giant airships in the shape of Cthulu sized flying tentacled squid monsteres fly the skies… to be continued.

Titan Comics’ 13th Doctor #9 Review

So this will be a brief review as we have four issues to go over…

Writer – Jody Houser (probably not related to Joe Houser who wrote the 2012 Max Payne 3 comic for MARVEL)

Artists – Roberta Ingranata & Rachel Stott

Colorists – Enrica Eren Angiolini & Tracy Bailey

Color Assistants – Viviana Spinelli, Aaron Daly & Shari Chankhamma

Letterers – Richard Starkings & Comicrafts’ Sarah Jacobs, John Roshell & Jimmy Betancourt

Editor – Jake Devine

Senior Designer – Andrew Leung

The Review

So the Doctor and her companions are pinched by the police of the planet of the… weird Space Pantomime Clowns? Why? Well apparently she is being accused of stealing something that she doesnt have and didnt steal. Why is she being accused? Because she is a curvy female (she does have curves yes?) with two hearts… so yes in this comic we have a female timelord who is stealing things. The gang promptly escape from the space Pantomime Clown Circus Performer Aliens and… go looking for this time lord. As such mentions of Missy (aka the Female MASTER) comes iup and she ponders if it is her, but it cant be her since she perished at the end of the 12th Doctor’s reign (on the colony ship of humans being converted into Cybermen where they left Nardole at the end of the 12th Doctor’s run).

SPOILERS

Yes this comic was published before January 1st 2020 so of course they do not talk about how the MASTER has returned and survived the events of that end somehow… but yes as of this comic the Doctor still doesnt know that the MASTER has returned, has returned to being male, and went and gone homicidal madman killing everyone on Gallifrey while they were frozen in time… however you do that because its ONE PERSON trying to murder billions… now that I think of it the reveal at the end of Spyfall Part 2 is dramatic but also makes no bucking sense to me. Hmm… maybe someone will be kind enough to explain how one madman killed billions while they were safely frozen in time and thus untouchable?

Anyway the search leads to a TARDIS that is bigger on the inside AND the outside, as it now looks like a giant pirate ship. And no it is not the space faring pirates the 11th Doctor Matt Smith met during Season 6. It is… it is a female timelord invented apparently by Sandman writer Neil Gaiman for Doctor Who called The Corsair… the Corsair?

And she supposedly was made for the TV Series so… there should be an image or twenty of her then… hmm…

Nope. All I can find is images for her from this trade. No more and no less. Figures. Its a character Neil Gaiman created but doesnt seem to have appeared in the actual show. Well… if anyone knows what episode this Neil Gaiman character appeared in do let me know please. Email me your reply and I will go look it up. Thanks.

• 

• 

Otherwise thats that. Tomorrow we go with the first full issue featuring The Corsair in 13th Doctor #10…. that will be tomorrow’s review so see you then eh?

Titan Comics’ 13th Doctor #8 Review

Ok lets just get this over with….

The Review

So they stop off at another time, in Ireland as they come across a church where they are burying someone who happens to have been killed… but not by the Flesh Eaters. They fed on him but the human died of… natural causes. Odd that there are a bunch of blood drinking “Flresh Eaters” and they apparently supposedly kill their prey… except they dont kill their prey now. Why?

After a ton of discussion about the Hidden Human History podcast they go forward to 2019 to the one who makes the Hidden Human History podcast where you find out that… yes… the two Researchers from the middle of the comic who are now Time Police? They…. were just time killers to pad out the story. And Madga? … she might have been someone but she also plays no role in the story. Nor does anyone else. Why?

Because I wish I could find an image of this but they are invited in by the podcast creator and you quickly find out that she is the Mother figure of the Flesh Eaters, and she has turned into a very human lifeform after so many hundreds of years. So she is now a quiet harmless humanoid like creature who just wants to live alone, doesnt seem to have her kids around anymore, and is just making a podcast recalling her long history on the Earth almost as if she wanted to put it out there to draw the Doctor back to her to see her once again. And yeah thanks to drinking the Doctor’s blood she seems to have been turned into a alien version of the female Doctor in a bit but still quite cute designs for her. She turned into a cute little humanoid ET alien… and she likes Tea. Thatmakes her an enemy of Joseph Smith and the LDS because they hate tea. Dont you know.

So thats it. We finally find out the connection between the Hidden Human History podcast and the events connected to the Flesh Eaters. And that is… a tired seemingly immortal alien turning human every century she lives, just wants to recollect her history and relive old stories of her past… thats it. No more, and no less. So yesn we went through all this trade and the resolution is… well it is charming and such but really we get that sort of ending for a Doctor Who comic.

But then again even when it was with IDW the Doctor Who comics were not exxactly banging it out of the park with superior storytelling. They had good stories dont get me wrong, but they were just ok to mildly good… thats it. Nothing to send a communique back to your dead homeworld of Gallifrey over… also if they do not have a Doctor reunion to resolve this whole plot of Gallifrey being dead… again… before 13 clocks out and 14 comes in that would be such a missed opportunity.

And yes I still have to sit down and review Episode 3 Orphan 55 so hang on that is coming up. But as for this trade….

The Verdict

This is… ok. It is a bit better of a story than the first trade, but really now that I have seen the ending much like with my reaction to reading Star Trek TNG Ghosts I would have rather seen the story of this motherly Flesh Eater, and how she gradually matured from a hot headed patriarch of her little clan of children, to the wise peaceful nice creature she became in 2019. Also where are her children? They somehow was affected by the Doctor’s blood despite the fact they didnt drink it, only the mother did… so where are they? And really why is it both this and Ghosts hint at better stories we didnt get?

Still… this is by no means a good comic but it is a 3 out of 5. I kinda liked it a bit better, though disappointments of disappointments we came all this way and the ending was a bit anticlimatic. IF you thought it was all building up to some great reveal… well arent you disappointed. Still I did like the happy ending the mother figure of the Flesh Eaters got in the end, so at least that was nice and I did like that if nothing else.

Still if two trades, going on three and a pointless two part Holiday Special just to milk money out of you, is any indication? 13th Doctor Year 2 better hit it out of the park because Year 1 so far is about as pedestrian and middling of the road content wise as you could expect… and I mean that in as nice a way as I can say it because these comics are just a chore to read through. Again I liked this better than Volume 1 but in the end it was no better than Volume 1 so…. sigh….

Next Week…

I finally sit down and read the third volume, or Issues #9 to #12. I already read through the two part Christmas Special and really… I’ll just say it there was no reason for this to be a TWO PARTER! They should have just tightened up the story, got rid of the filler, and released it as a thick one shot that maybe had to charge $6 to $8… but given how I had to pay $13 for both issues? Yeah…. paying $8 seems like a bargain given what I read…

But we continue on numerically and hit #9 to #12 next. Such as it is. That’s starting off on Monday so see you then.

Titan Comics 13th Doctor #7 Review

Short and to the point as this is no more interesting than the last two issues but… at least it is a step above the first trade with the Hoarder.

The Review

So the glowy figures who are not the Multiversers from Spyfall? Its the pair of researchers from the first Trade. Who apparently went and joined the Time Agency (the Doctor Who equivelant of Temporal Investigations from Star Trek) and they are investigating incidents occuring during what they deem as minor wars…. yeah…. any war where you lose loved ones is not minor by any means to you but that’s another argument.

So now that one of the Flesh Eaters who dont eat flesh but drink blood? Now that it has the Doctor’s blood it is now easier for the Doctor to track, after a page discussion about why the Doctor cant cross her own timeline… despite the fact the Doctor has done that on countless occasions. Anyway they find the Flesh Eaters and they are the still the same Silent Hill looking monsters… except they now have the cutest Emoji faces because they apparently have eaten too much Human blood plus adding Time Lord blood that one time and suddenly they are just oh so adorable human emoji faced things… and they are not too happy about it as Mama Flesh Eater goes off on the Doctor about it.

However before she can go and tell the Doctor how they changed, and quite possibly spoil the end reveal of who is behind all the mischief in this trade, who should show up but the stupid pair of Researchers turned time cops who promptly scare the Flesh Eaters away by shooting at them.

One scolding later and suddenly they are telling the Doctor where to go next to further the story along… and that is where we end the comic as the Doctor and her companions argue out how they knew where to send them along next, and well we are getting closer to the end so tomorrow…

Tomorrow we stop off in Ireland for a funearl that reveals more about what is going on, but not enough as the Doctor finally addresses the fact that they have been hitting location after location which has been the talking poitns of podcasts of the Hidden Human History podcast. As such they travel to last year 2019 and… the story ends.

How does it end? And what will my final Verdict be? Stay tuned.

Titan Comics’ 13th Doctor #6 Review

So the story continues ever onwards…. and this will be a short Review recap as there isnt much to the story.

The Review

The creatures, all of one of them, tries to drink the Doctor’s blood… and finds it to their liking. So much so they completely ignore their hatred of direct sunlight and try to chase her and her companions down… only for Magda to start ringing the town’s church bell which gives the Doctor the notion to tell the creatures that she is alerting the village to their presence. She’s not but they buy it anyway and leave. Just as well since a grand total of zero people come out to investigate the ringing.

She bandages the wounded Doctor up and the Doctor and the team leave. Seemingly that is that for Magda and she wont appear again… since the comic now leaps forward to 1711 North Carolina so she shouldnt be there… EXCEPT it is during another war or conflict, and it is the subject of yet another episode of the Hidden Human History podcast so… yeah.

The gang spends several pages talking about the strange coincidence that the TARDIS has taken them to two seperate lcoations that were topics of Hidden Human History podcasts… upon which they finally shelf the topic, and wander about until they find the cabin in the woods that Professor Knowbly deciphered the Necronomicon in from the Evil Dead… only they just find an old lady inside who seems to be preyed upon by the blood eaters from the 15th Century.

Yeah… didn’t you know? The Doctor completely up and left the creatures without trying to make sure they left the planet before she left, so they are still around and still feeding on people… also the comic ends with two glowing people… no they are not the Multiversers from Spyfall Series 12… showing up. Who are they?

SPOILER… its the male and female scientist duo from the first volume storyarc. Who apparently have upgraded their jobs from Time Thieves to Time Police buecase… sure why not. Anyway I am sure things will get even more disappointing come tomorrow as we look through 13th Doctor #7… coming up.

Titan Comics’ 13th Doctor #5 Review

So we continue to look at the 13th Doctor run of comics from 2019. This time out this week its Volume 2, Hidden Human History. SPOILERS… you will so be disappointed to find out what that title refers to. Anyway credits then we hit the review itself with Issue #5 to start us off.

Writer – Jody Houser

Artists – Roberta Inganata and Rachel Stott

Colorst – Enrica Eren Angiolini

Color Assistant – Viviana Spinelli

Letters – Comicraft’s Sarah Jacobs and John Roshell

Editor – Jonathan Stevenson

Senior Designer – Andrew Leung

The Review

The TARDIS shows up in past… where the 13th Doctor decides to have it out by informing the local flocks of sheep around the TARDIS that she is watching them carefully…. darn sheep… you never know what mischief they’d be up to when you turn your back on them… is this a Shaun The Sheep reference? Ehhh…. sheesh.

So anyway it’s Early 1500s Guelder. During the Guelders Wars no less… and no that little tidbit and a bit more doesnt come from the Doctor, it came from her companions. Why? To introduce the title of the volume. Hidden Human History. The reaso why the companions are suddenly in the now about the past before the Doctor fills them in is due to a podcast called H3 or… yes… Hidden Human History. And they talk about the podcast for a page or two, and accuse the TARDIS… yes… they accuse the female persona of the TARDIS of being a fan of the podcast… right.

But then again during the Holiday Special 2019 the Doctor does accuse the TARDIS’ female persona of having pissy hissy fits when she is not allowed to pick the music she likes to listen to during transit so… yeah… apparently now the writers of Doctor Who have given the female persona of the TARDIS (barely mentioned much throughout the many years of the series prior to now) a prominent mention and… apparently… running gag. And you thought the Female persona of the TARDIS having a hate boner for Clara from Season 7 Part 2 was bad enough. Nope. It apparently can get worst… somehow. And yeah now that I think of it they do hint at this humor in Series 12 but I am still overall positive about it despite that.

So yeah they are in 1500s Guilder and run into a rather plot convenient lady named Magda. Who seems to be a focus of this story… hmm… cant possibly see the obvious foreshadowing to her importance being shoved into my face in this story oh no. So… she is either an important historical figure like Ada Lovelace from Spyfall Part 2 OR she is the villain of the story… Anyway she tells them there are Demons about the village. As if just being around during a time of War wasnt bad enough they also need demons. Demons in the form of… Silent Hill looking creatures with giant tubeworm heads with a mouth full of endless teeth within said mouth… its like the Artist of this comic made the horrible mistake of watching the horribly made I think its using the same graphics engine as the animators of Reboot from Canada horrible perverted horror movie “Where The Dead Go To Die” (or whatever that monstrosity was called)

SPOILERS – Its a horrible movie where a young man has sex with the dead corpse of his own moter… while imaginging he’s having sex with a demon dog that can talk… if that is not a pure vision of OH BUCK WHAT THE BUCK AM I WATCHING I dont know what is…

The issue ends with Madga wandering of, and one of the creatures (who the Doctor identifies as Stilean Flesh Eaters… though they seem to live off the blood of the dying I take it)… except they dont seem particularly picky as the comic ends and one of the Silent Hill monstrosities is trying to drink the Doctor’s blood…. through her clothes… because sure.

I probably dont need to say this but the appearance of these Silent Hill creatures is probably a red herring and the real menace of the comic probably has a lot to do with the Hidden Human History title, and Madga… but we will see as we continue tomorrow with Issue #6. Where the gang wander about for the whole issue, get manced a bit by the Flesh Eaters… the run into glowy people who are not the Multiversers from Spyfall who turn out to be… disappointing. Very disappointing.

But that is all for tomorrow so see you then…and yes I did try to find some image of these flesh eaters but maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow when I review Issue #6.

IDW’ Star Trek TNG Doctor Who Assimilation #8 (8) Review

And so Assimilation Squared ends… lets just wrap it up.

The Review

So lets cut right to the chase. For the first several pages we have Picard, Worf, the Doctor and teams running around the Cybermen lead ship, shooting away at them like crazy. And given that the Cybermen do not have the adaptive ability to protect them from attacks… but after several pages they do surrender to the Cybermen… so we can have the priceless moment of the Cybermen… in their own special way… falling in “love” wioth Data. The most perfect being they ever ran into, conversion not necessry for him.

SPOILERS

Im guessing the Cybermen would totally love what the Federation is doing in the 25th Century and building a army of Datas. Eh.

Also since the Enterprise, thanks to the help of the Borg, have finally caught up with the Cyber fleet they use their gold enhanced torpedos to bombard all the ships with gold dust… and yes Picard/Doctor and team have rebreathers to protect them from the gold dust. But it is more than enough to put a stop to the Cybermen. Except the Cyber Commander. Well after several pages the Cyber Commander is defeated and the team escapes on the TARDIS. On the TARDIS the Borg try to take over the TARDIS, but the female consciousness of the TARDIS merges with Data and the two proceed to put a stop to the Borg’s attempt to assimilated the TARDIS. The Borg with the team, Riker’s old friend, is thrown out into the time stream and is… dead.

The comic ends with the implication that the Borg, inspired by running into the Doctor, is supposed to have lead to the events of First Contact… somehow. Despite the fact the Borg Queen was nowhere to be seen throughout the story, not even the end… but sure… this comic inspired First Contact. The end.

The Verdict…

Its a good story. I still liked it reading it again as I was reviewing it so… a 4 out of 5. It has weird hiccups, and a bit of missed opportunities (like the chance to tie together the Time Lords and Guinana’s people…)

SPOILERS…

Which of course would mean rubbish now that the BBC has decided to flip everything upside down on Galiffrey and the Time Lords, and imply they lied about something. Something so horrible that it drove The MASTER crazy enough to genocide murder death kill his whole race while they were held frozen in time… even though I thought that was resolved after the 11th Doctor became the 12th Doctor and at the end of Clara’s time with the Doctor? Guess not.

Anyway its a good arc and if you can get ahold of it go do it. You should like it, as it is the one and only rare Doctor Who comic that is a crossover event. Have fun…

Next Review…

Well… I already am looking at some Doctor Who with the 12th and 13th Doctor, and a Star Trek The Next Generation review so… hmm… guess we can finally start looking at Star Trek Discovery since the DVD set is about to show up so… this coming week we start with Episode 1 : Brother.

IDW’ Star Trek TNG Doctor Who Assimilation #7(8) Review

So we are almost over with the one and only Star Trek TNG Doctor Who crossover so lets see…

The Review

So we last left off with the 11th Matt Smith Doctor, Amy & Rory running into Locutus during the battle of Wolf 359… and nothing happens. Despite the fact strange unknown humans have suddenly appeared on the command deck of the Borg cube, with no explanation to their appearance… let alone any explanation to why the Doctor looks human but is not human. Also once again despite the fact that the Borg Queen was supposed to have been there, she is not here.

So yeah. Locutus ignores them despite the fact they are strange humans that popped up out of nowhere on a giant Borg cube… also why didnt the Borg detect the arrival of the TARDIS? You think a ship that big would be a slight bit curious about the sudden arrival of unknown technology they have no information on… but nope. They go unnoticed, and easily get the download of the programming they need to restore the Borg Collective… somehow. Again it seems a bit off that the store needed to use the EASY BUTTON so the Cybermen could be the threat of the story… but ok.

So… after having a few page long theological discussion about the Borg and how they assimilate humans… in front of Picard’s back no less… they finally get about to getting around to getting the necessary programming they need. Anyway there are like 20-ish pages of filler so lets just cut straight to the rest of the comic.

The TARDIS returns to the present, and it is decided the Doctor will take a task force of Enterprise crew in the TARDIS to jump ahead to catch up to the Cyber fleet since apparently the Enterprise cannot catch up fast enough to get to the fleet on it’s own… until next issue when it seems the Borg helps modify the Enterprise to get them to the Cyber fleet fast… basically the same thing Seven of Nine did to make Voyager go faster in Star Trek Voyager if memory serves.

The story ends with Picard, Doctor and both teams (Worf and his team, and Amy/Rory) running about the Cyber Fleet lead ship, surrounded by a ton of Cybermen looking to stop them.

So tomorrow we wrap up Assimilation Squared, and the day the Cybermen fell in love with Lt. Commander Data… because he is perfect.

SPOILERS…

And yeah. If the Symths of Children of Mars turn out to be a legion of Datas made as teased all the way back in Season 2 Measure Of A Man? Then the Cybermen’s dream of an entire race that is superior to even their own perfection has come to pass… hmm… interesting. Anyway see you tomorrow.

Titan Comics’ 12th Doctor #2.5 Review

Fourth wall?!? Where this comic is going we dont need no fourth wall!

Writer – Robbie Morrison

Artist – Rachel Stott

Colorist – Marcio Menys

Letterer – Richard Starkings and Comicrafts Jimmy Betanicourt

With Thanks To Jamie Mathieson, Douglas McKinnon and the avisVFX crew — For the inspirational Boneless Nightmares!

Senior Editor – Andrew James

Deputy Editor – Jessica Burton

Assistant Art Editor – Amoona Saohin

Designer – Rob Farmer

The Review

So the comic starts off with the Doctor already trapped inside of a comic book, warning some young guy not to keep reading because he will be trapped inside of a comic book… which he promptly is because Boneless and Fourth Walls, we dont need no pesky fourth walls. They are such a bother… just ask Pinkie Pie!

Anyway this is the break of the Fourth Wall in a story called… The Fourth Wall. And we start just prior to the Doctor being absorbed into a comic book when the TARDIS arrives… smack dab at the corner of a busy London intersection. Because you know, the Doctor was always parking his TARDIS out in the open in view of the public… right. Anyway this is all so the two can walk into a nearby comic book shop, and for the Doctor to throw a fit over the NOT MARVEL and NOT DC comics on display… and realize there is a comic based on him in the lot for him to cry over.

The comic? Its called Time Surgeon, and on the poster board cut out stand next to the comic on the stands you have an image of the 12th Doctor wearing a giant oversized clock around his neck like he was some sort of American Rap star… that and the comic has his travelling the multiverse with… Thelma from Scooby Doo… fighting weird Dalek knockoffs from his ship which is disguised as… a giant wardrobe… right.

Why are they in a comic book shop? Besides the obvious to move the story forward and trap the Doctor in a comic? Also so the Doctor can name drop Leela in relation to not Wonder Woman? Because of unexplained disappearances and mysterious readings from the area which leads them to the comic shop… and a couple of owners who apparently have not been doing their due course or duty to report to the authorities that their comics are sucking up their paying customers and holding them prisoner.

No seriously. They collected up every issue that has imprisoned people… and thats it. They have a growing collection of comics holding their customers prisoner but have done nothing to report the incidents to anyone… well moot point. Even if the shop is run by normal everyday lady and white Not Mr. T Night Elf Mohawk Warrior from World of Warcraft.

The Doctor is absorbed into a comic, and right out of another comic comes one of the Boneless to chase down Clara and the last remaining comic book store employee not sucked up into a comic. Meanwhile inside the Comicverse the Doctor has to figure out a way to get them all out of the comics they are trapped in. All the while Clara and the female employee she’s with are being chased by the Boneless.

The Doctor has Clara go back to the TARDIS with the lady, and use the TARDIS to distrupt the Fourth Wall so that he can rally all the iprosioned people inside the comics to free themselves. And so they all escape the comics, the Boneless are stopped from doing whatever they wanted to do to invade or what not, and if Night Elf Mohawk guy is lucky his shop wont be sued out of exsistence by the angry customers who he held in his shop for however long it took for the Doctor to arrive and sort out the whole mess…. which probably sucks given he probably right up polybagged his customers and put them all in a box for safe keeping… sigh.

The Verdict

Well for a one shot story this was way more fun than the other four ocmics of the 4th Trade of the 12th Doctor… in fact I almost say that its worth getting the fourth trade just for this comic alone… but thats straight up daft and silly. You might as well get the trade even if the last Clara story is a bit rubbish but still… this comic, in anycase, gets a 5 out of 5. Nice story, fun fourth wall breaking, and it was fun having the 12th Doctor deal with a comic book universe and acknowledging that there is a Doctor Who comic… though really why not just straight up show the 12th Doctor comic? Why parody it? If they had to parody something they could have parodied the IDW comic… because I am pretty sure the BBC has no love in them left for the IDW comic let alone IDW itelf given how they have not once tried to crossover with them… something everyone else and their fifth cousin has done in the years since the BBC and IDW broke ties.

But that is another story…

Tomorrow…

Tomorrow we look at 12th Doctor #2.6, the first story with the 12th Doctor’s tempoary new Titan Comics issued companion. Who is she, what is the first story that introduces her, and what is going on? Find out tomorrow.