Twelfth Doctor #12 - The Hyperion Empire (Part One)

An international space station is suddenly assaulted by an almighty entity, resembling both a comet and a star. Before long, Lake Windermere in England is attacked by the same malignant entity, and reduced to an ugly-looking crater. The British Prime Minister calls in UNIT and Commander Kate Stewart to try and suppress the destructive force.

A significant time later, the TARDIS appears within Central London. The attempts to contact its heroic crew regarding the attacks on Earth have seemingly not been successful.

The Doctor is still not entirely comfortable with Clara, and vice-versa. This is mostly because of the controversial decisions the Time Lord made recently (during Death In Heaven and Last Christmas).  After a bit of spirited disagreement as to which time zone of London they have come back to, the pair make the big mistake of wandering off in different directions. This leads to both facing danger, from seemingly maniacal survivors armed with lethal weapons. But worse is to come, and it is soon clear just why London has turned into a desolate capital city.

Year One of the Twelfth Doctor comics has featured a good variety of stories, some of which are more interlinked than others. Writer Robbie Morrison has quite clearly decided to go full-force with this new four-part story. The scope and premise are established clearly enough - even if the pace is clearly slower than most other stories. The Doctor and Clara take half of the story to show themselves, and there is no meeting with UNIT. Given the jump forward - designed to promote both mystery and suspense - it could be quite some time before such a team-up reoccurs; unlike the earlier story The Fractures.

Despite these rather bold choices, I still was able to enjoy the story quite a bit. And somewhat surprisingly, given my normal preferences, I was fully engaged by the first section of the story set over in space with unknown characters. There is a fine 'motley crew' of astronauts from around the world, such Dimitri Yemtov, Lee Jae-Yong, as well as the Americans in Major Weir and Cory - the latter being amusingly curmudgeonly.

Morrison does well to make us care for these ill-fated human beings. There is a feeling that despite the inferno that consumes them, there is some kind of later use for one or two of them in the developing story.   

I have mixed feeling on the artwork for this instalment. There is a well-done contrast between the earliest pages, which cover just 'another day in the office' from the astronauts' perspective, and the later sections involving grim ruins of London. The art manages to transition from being bright and picturesque, to heavily sketched and muddy-looking. But more negatively, Daniel Indro seems to repeat his weakness from the Weeping Angels/ World War One story, in that he struggles to produce familiar enough images of Clara and the Doctor. Their words and actions are recognisable enough as taking place between Series Eight and Nine, but the facial mannerisms and demeanour they display is rather distracting.

Ending in a pretty decent cliffhanger, this latest storyline is proceeding at a steady clip. It should ultimately be a fitting finale to the Twelfth Doctor's first year as a Titan comic feature star.

HUMOUR STRIP: The Five Masters

As stated last time, a bewildered Doctor and Clara have encountered a menagerie of ill-intentioned 'Masters'. Such a collection of near-immortals in one place is obviously against all known Laws of Time, and is normally attributable to the Doctor. Believing that they can brand themselves as a unique act, and then take over a cosmos subdued by their songs, this mix of Masters are feeling more than a bit giddy.

The catchphrase of Missy gets wheeled out as three quick sentences - "Say. Something. Nice." - and is a nice self-aware joke.  It seems the ongoing 'music for aliens far and wide' arc will persist into at least another issue. This is not problematic by any means. Certainly, the precedent has been set ably by A Rose By Any Other Name (which features in the monthly Tenth Doctor comics).