Doctor Who: Four Doctors #1

Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Neil Edwards
Publisher: Titan Comics
Page-count: 32pp
Price: $3.99
Release Date: Wednesday Aug 12, 2015
Available here: http://titan-comics.com/c/338-doctor-who-2015-event/

If you are a modern fan of Doctor Who and are still onboard with Peter Capaldi (I totally am), but haven’t yet delved into the various related comic titles, this title is an excellent point of entry. First of all, Titan Comics is already providing so many extra helpings of the Doctor with three ongoing titles (ones for Doctors #10, 11, & 12) as well as a miniseries title for the ninth Doctor. And now they are launching a new crossover miniseries which brings the latest three together for an unexpected paradox in a fixed point in time. Now I know what you’re thinking: “But it says it’s called Doctor Who: FOUR Doctors?” Yes it does, and on that promise they deliver.

This first volume in the arc shows Clara attempting to secretively avoid the paradox in question by meeting up with the two other companions and revealing a plan to keep the Doctors from running into each other. But this plan quickly goes up in smoke when the twelfth Doctor intervenes. The intersection shows off all three Doctors behaving exactly as you’d expect them to in word, deed and mannerism (kudos to Paul Cornell & Neil Edwards on that). And while the companions for the tenth and eleventh are not any of the familiar faces from those screen eras, these are their own well-defined characters that have been created for their respective Doctor Who comic titles.

I personally was a big fan of the artwork – each frame looks as a scene from an episode was cartoon-ized onto the page, which gives it a sense that you could almost feel the flow of action were it a part of the show. Each Doctor is clearly recognizable both in how they are drawn and in how they “behave” in each frame, making very distinctive faces and gestures that true fans would know in an instant.

This miniseries is slated as a 5-part run with new issues each week. If you are as big a fan of the show as I am, then I have no doubt that this run will be required reading (as well as likely going back and reading the books for the tenth and eleventh Doctors to better know their new companions). Brilliant work and a welcome set of hors d’oeuvres in this respite between seasons.

I give this 9 out of 10 capes, and I will be eagerly awaiting next week’s issue.