Written by Scott Gray

Artwork by Michael Collins, David A. Roach, & Adrian Salmon

Paperback: 180 pages

Publisher: Panini UK LTD

The Eleventh Doctor's tenure in Doctor Who Magazine comes to a close in fine fashion, in The Blood of Azrael. Joining him in his final set of adventures is Clara, and together they meet Famous British Pilot Amy Johnson, battle Animated Characters in an evil Amusement park, take on a mental parasite, lose the TARDIS and save Cornucopia from an ancient Artist who kills for his art.

In the opening story featuring Amy Johnson, the Doctor and Clara take on an evil bug that uses telekinetic powers to make Sand Monsters, which is fun. They even save Johnson from her eventual young death at sea by saving her and placing her on Cornucopia (and not changing history because her body was never found). They then travel to Tickle Town, an Amusement Park where the walls are closed off and the visitors can never leave...and they are kept in line by Holograms of the Animated Characters the park is themed around. In a strip that was published in the 50th Anniversary Issue, they take on a mental parasite that makes the Doctor believe he is a boring bureaucrat afraid to change the rules, using a mental parasite as a good excuse to make a bunch of references to old friends and foes for the Anniversary.

The Doctor and Clara then end up in a corrupt auction world, where in order to save Clara from being auctioned off herself, the Doctor puts the TARDIS on the auction block, hoping to disrupt the systems of the Auction Planet.  It does the trick, but while Clara is saved, the TARDIS is lost.

This final story ties into some previous arcs as well, the Lake family and their Project Wonderland from Hunters of the Burning Stone are heavily featured in the final story, and the concept of the Necrotist (the artists that kill for their art) were first introduced in the Eighth Doctor era, and made a brief return in the Eleventh Doctor's "Sticks & Stones" (which can be found in The Chains of Olympus). The final story is nice because it doesn't involve having to save Earth, but save Cornucopia and a wide variety of aliens from a Human...which makes a nice twist on the usual. 

It's another great set of stories from writer Scott Gray and gives the Eleventh Doctor a nice exit from his pretty solid tenure in the strip (a tenure that was, in some ways, generally more consistent than his own TV run).  The best part is that instead of breaking things up again, the whole arc is nicely packaged in this one volume.  The Eleventh Doctor's time on the strip was an improvement over both the Ninth and Tenth Doctor strips, as they continued the trend of quality storytelling and solid arcs that returned to the strip during the Tenth Doctor's final year in the strip. 

Writers: George Mann, Cavan Scott & Nick Abadzis
Artists: Rachael Stott, Adriana Melo, Cris Bolson, Mariano Laclaustra, Carlos Cabrera, Leandro Casco, & I.N.J. Culbard
Colorists: Rod Fernandes, Marco Lesko, Dijjo Lima, Hernán Cabrera, & IHQ Studios
Letters: Richard Starkings, Comicraft
Publisher: Titan Comics
Hardcover, 128pp
On sale: February 20, 2018

Book One of Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension, released by Titan Comics is all about setup. If the image of seeing Doctors Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve standing together, each reacting in their own characteristic way, to some unseen threat (as depicted on the cover) gets you excited...consider it a bit of a tease.

Stories in which more than one Doctor feature prominently can be structured a few different ways. The two most common ways feature each Doctor in their own story which relates to the other in some way, until the stories collide, or, something forces these Doctors together rightaway. The Lost Dimension takes advantage of the former option with mixed results.

While the draw to this crossover event is, undoubtedly, the chance to experience our modern Doctors bringing their vastly powerful minds together to solve some universe-shattering problem, the creative teams behind it make you wait. It can be equal parts thrilling and frustrating.

Seeing the return of the Doctor's "daughter" is fun, especially her interacting with Twelve, but the time spent explaining how she got their slows everything down to a crawl. Her arrival catapults an epic story into motion, Upon her reveal, the reader is ready to take off through time to find Nine, Ten, and Eleven.

Unfortunately, the story breaks to let us know what Nine's been up to, and as cool as it is to see he and Rose hanging around with Lady Vastra and her...companion?...the adventure leaves a lot to be desired.

Doubly for Ten taking on an armada of Cybermen. At any other time, the story would be heart-poundingly exciting. It's a station under siege by lots and lots of Cybermen! Given the impending menace that we certainly know will bring these Doctors together, and an overabundance of technobabble weighs this story down hard. It's simply too difficult to become invested in the base when you can't understand much of what's being said and you're waiting for more Doctors.

Perhaps the most interesting story in the book tells of Eleven, on ancient Gallifrey, assisting Rassilon and other Time Lord scientists in developing TARDIS technology. On its own the story is exceedingly well done, with all the hallmarks of a great Eleventh Doctor story. It's mind-bendy, funny, suspenseful and a little sad. That's Eleven through and through.

Beyond that, the story appeals to any fan of the ethereal "Cartmel Masterplan" and the concept of The Doctor going by another name in Gallifreyan lore. The inclusion of it here is immensely gratifying, making Eleven's story by far the most entertaining of the bunch.

After such a gargantuan, unbalanced setup, one can't help but hope that the rest of the story, or stories, does justice to that phenomenally promising cover.

Written by Scott Gray
Artwork by Martin Geraghty & Michael Collins
Paperback: 164 pages
Publisher: Panini UK LTD

The Eleventh Doctor's comic adventures from Doctor Who Magazine continue in his third volume, Hunters of the Burning Stone.  Like the previous volume, it only features half of writer Scott Gray's story arc, but at least this volume features the conclusion to the whole thing. The two volumes should have been collected into one slightly larger volume, but as that did not happen, I suggest getting both and reading them back to back, because it is a pretty satisfying storyline. 

This volume also collects together just three stories, the first two seeing the end of Amy and Rory's time on the strip.  The opening story takes place in 1989 Prague, around the time the Soviet Union was falling apart. It continues some of the elements that began in The Chains of Olympus, and setting up some key elements for the storyline's major finale.

The second story "Imaginary Enemies" is a one-off that unrelated to the rest of the arc, and doesn't even feature the Doctor. Instead of showing us an adventure of Amy, Rory, and Mels as children, though the events are only remembered by Mels (AKA the eventual River Song).  The ending of this story is a nice little tribute to Amy and Rory, giving us a glimpse into what their life was following their departure from the Doctor at the end of The Angels Take Manahattan.

The final story is a longer-than-usual adventure, which saw the return of First Doctor companions Ian and Barbara, concluded up the ongoing arc involving Psychic metal, was a bit of a sequel to the first serial in the show's history (An Uneathly Child), and served as the comic strip's 50th Anniversary Celebrations. This is not only the best story in the collection but probably the best story in the whole arc. Reading it only made me wish that both volumes were collected together more...as the stories featured in the last book were solid, but they rather need this conclusion to make them all the more satisfying.  Breaking them up does a disservice to both.  It's a well-told tale, with lots of nods to the show's history which add flavor to the proceedings, rather than feeling like the entire point. 

I would definitely recommend reading both books (The Chains of Olympus and Hunters of the Burning Stone) back to back. Splitting them up is an odd choice, as these collections, Panini puts together usually make a lot of sense. Still, both volumes are good reprints of the stories, with the usual commentary. If getting both is not an issue than you get the whole story. But it does seem a shame to have to pay about the same for both books when they each feature only a half of the complete story. 

Written by Scott Gray

Artwork by Michael Collins, Martin Geraghty, & Dan McDaid

Paperback: 132 pages
Publisher: Panini UK LTD

The Eleventh Doctor’s comic strip adventures continue in this second volume “The Chains of Olympus.” Eighth Doctor scribe Scott Gray returns to full time writing duties after a 6-year hiatus, and in doing so launches a whole new arc. Unfortunately, Panini made a somewhat unusual choice of splitting up that arc over two volumes...so while this volume has some solid stories and set up for the new arc, you don’t get the same level of satisfaction as you do when you get the full story.

Only three stories are featured in this volume, the opening has the Doctor, Amy, and (making his debut on the strip) Rory travel to Ancient Greece and meet Socrates and Plato...and end up battling “Zeus” and other Greek “Gods.” The second is a slightly lighter adventure involving an alien graffiti artist turning humans into his art. The final takes place on a criminal world called Cornucopia and definitely plays a role in stories to come, based on the little hints at the end.

This is not a bad book, all the stories are pretty entertaining, it is just a shame that you are getting the beginnings of a larger story, but none of the payoff. This was a problem that sort of plagued the Eleventh Doctor’s TV run as well, particularly following his first year...so in a way, this seems appropriate to his Doctor. I have a feeling that the longer 50th Anniversary strip that headlines the next volume and keeping to a certain release schedule are reasons for the splitting up of the volumes...but this volume feels short and lacks the big story payoff...so in a way it just feels like a release that isn’t as rewarding as previous volumes.

Written by Jonathan Morris

Artwork by Michael Collins, Roger Langridge, Martin Geraghty, David A. Roach, Rob Davis, Dan McDaid, & Adiran Salmon

Paperback: 242 pages
Publisher: Panini UK LTD

The Eleventh Doctor’s launch as the lead of the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip is collected in “The Child of Time” which collects together his first strip adventures with Amy Pond along for the ride.

Following Dan McDaid’s Majenta Pryce arc that wrapped up the Tenth Doctor’s run, Jonathan Morris takes over writing duties and begins the Eleventh Doctor off with a brand new arc. The most interesting thing about this arc is that even the smaller goofy one-offs end up playing a role in the final story, so every strip ends up being important for the conclusion of the book, which honestly makes the whole experience of reading it more rewarding.

In the opening story, the Doctor and Amy encounter a strange virus that mutates and merges people and plants and other creatures together. This story ends up having more dire consequences than initially thought, as the villain of the book turns out to be a creation of that disease, a being that is a biological merger of several people met by The Doctor and Amy in their adventures...and the TARDIS itself. This being ends up becoming Chiyoko, seemingly a child with unlimited godlike powers over time.

It is a perfect story to launch the Eleventh Doctor with, it utilizes his era’s time-traveling shenanigans and epic storytelling, and in some ways, it might end up being slightly more thought out and coherent than even some of this Doctor’s TV counterpart had throughout his run.

Writer: Alex Paknad el & Rob Williams 
Artist: JB Bastos & Luiz Campello
Cover A: Blair Shedd Cover B: Photo

There are times when Doctor Who comics seem to be the ultimate storytelling form for Doctor Who. Such a malleable franchise deserves an equally malleable format. Comics are unrestricted by a television budget. Nor are they concerned with appealing to a larger audience than the one they’re guaranteed. Their stories can be as broad or as intimate as they want. As bold and new, or referential. Doctor Who comics can be anything.

No other line of Doctor Who comics exemplifies this better than The Eleventh Doctor series published by Titan comics. Their characters are rich, complex, hilarious, and charming. Their plots range from personal trials to epic battles (quite often both at once). Some concepts are simple and fun, while others are mind-bendingly brilliant. Most impressive of all - no matter how intense a story gets, there’s always room for a bit of silliness.

Number 13 in this Doctor’s third year of comic book adventures takes all the elements of Doctor Who that work best and brings them together with utterly gorgeous art by JB Bastos & Luiz Campello . The Doctor’s world has never looked more cleanly detailed, with not a single line out of place.

The story is a climax of sorts. The Doctor and Alice inhabit a world built on their memories, complete with a Gallifreyan skyline and sonic screwdriver buildings, with the two of them experiencing some pretty intense amnesia. The Doctor isn’t quite sure what he is, what he should be, or how to dress. His new wardrobe is mishmash of his old wardrobe, harkening back to Doctors past in a splendid way. Alice is with her mother, always thinking of the man from her dreams with the bow tie.  

A character losing one’s memory can often seem like a tired gimmick. More often than not the trope is used to change a character’s personality or a lazy effort of introducing conflict. Here, amnesia is both a tragedy of what was lost and a celebration of all the adventures we’ve had with these two phenomenal characters. Throw in an offshoot of The Silence controlling everything, characters surviving in the consciousness of a previously very dangerous sapling, and all the heart a Time Lord’s biology can muster, and you’ve got Doctor Who as you know it and love it best looking better than it ever has before.