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Comic Book Review


Book Cover

Doctor Who
The Twelfth Doctor #13

 

Writer: Robbie Morrison
Artist: Daniel Indro
Colourist: Slamet Mujiono
Publisher: Titan Comics
RRP: UK £2.65, US $3.99
Age: 12+
32 pages
Publication Date: 21 October 2015


Earth is under attack from an ancient species who yoked suns and spanned galaxies before we’d even evolved opposable thumbs. Cities are tumbling under their assault, people are dying in droves… and only two people in the universe can save us. But first the Doctor and Clara must save themselves! Burning with fury forged in the heart of stars, armed with technology beyond human comprehension, composed of a fleet of unstoppable warships, the Hyperions have returned at last. Welcome to the Hyperion War… Welcome to the last days of Earth…

Hyperios rises – to the occasion! The Hyperions have got a whole lot scarier since their debut appearance in Terrorformer. As depicted by artist Dave Taylor, their bloated six-pointed forms had been ever so slightly comical. The new-look Hyperions realised by Daniel Indro have a more humanoid physique, with a touch of Marvel’s Ghost Rider to their flaming skeletal heads. There are also definite physical distinctions between the male and female of the species.

The menace of these sentient suns is compounded by the gruesome images that abound in this story. As the Hyperions’ smouldering victims return to life to threaten our heroes, at times the comic reads more like The Walking Dead than Doctor Who.

There are further similarities to The Dalek Invasion of Earth as the Doctor and Clara find some survivors hiding underground and the Hyperions use mind-controlled humans as a slave labour force. Whereas the Daleks wanted to harness the Earth as a giant spaceship, the Hyperions intend to drain the energy of our sun in order to prolong their own existence. However, the artist seems to forget to illustrate the neural usurper device to which the Doctor refers and which Clara appears to remove from one worker.

At least UNIT commander Kate Stewart looks more like her normal self. Well, colourist Slamet Mujiono gets her hair colour right, anyway. Elsewhere, at one point the Twelfth Doctor looks more like Dennis Chinnery than Peter Capaldi.

However, I am prepared to accept the occasional dodgy likeness for what is otherwise an extremely powerful comic book.

9

Richard McGinlay

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