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First, I have to say that I really loved the art in the first story—it might have been the best I’ve seen in any of the Titan Comics I’ve read so far. Unfortunately, the story didn’t quite grab me. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t hold my interest as much as I’d hoped. I think I would have preferred if the companion from the previous book had stayed around.
The second story, on the other hand, had much weaker art, and the plot didn’t resonate with me at all.
That said, I really enjoyed the Twelfth Doctor’s second year overall! It was a definite step up from the first and a great read.
Mariano Laclaustra and Rachael Stott are two of my favourite DW comic artists, so visually, this book is stunning.
The first story is very creepy, and it’s length gives it the room it needs to tell the story. Plus, we get a really cool one-off companion, a real person from history!
The seconds story is good fun, only hindered by the irritating dynamic of the two creators of the comic.
The Terror of the Cabinet Noir is easily one of the best Titan stories I’ve read. Right up there with the WWI Weeping Angels story with Ten. The setting comes alive, the art is glorious and the story overall is interesting. I think Julie is the best part of this story - a swashbuckling, fiery, fun persona! I love her! She’s my favourite companion for Twelve now, so it’s criminal that she’s only in this one story! Also, I didn’t know that she was a real person, so I learned something new here.
9/10
Invasion of the Mindmorphs was not as good, but still a fun one. I agree that the comic book creators were a bit annoying, but the references to past villains were fun. And floating brains, really? The art wasn’t as interesting here.
7/10
Here is an article I found about Julie d’Aubigny. It’s interesting that they didn’t have to exaggerate her life much (or at least not exaggerate the exaggerations) to make her seem modern and interesting
Also special mention to Carlos Cabrera
The art is great on it’s own, but his colouring really makes it work
The Technical Difficulties (including Tom Scott) did a Citation Needed about her too which is well worth a watch!
Yep, this was the first time I actually stopped reading several times just to admire the art.
Unfortunately, the story was not as good as the art. But yeah the art was amazing.
I actually enjoyed the story as well. Not the best ever, but still enjoyable.
I absolutely adored this story.
The art in this comic is spectacular, the style feels realistic enough that The Doctor doesn’t look out of place, this is very clearly Capaldi, it’s not super stylised like some other runs (not that that’s a bad thing to be clear, but it’s nice to have this). It’s also not too realistic to have the element of uncanny valley though.
The villains too make great use of this art-style. When you get aliens that are too… ‘alien’… for lack of a better way of putting it in a comic with this more realistic art style, they can feel quite out of place. The monsters here however, being humans taken over by dark matter, are just spectacular. The realism of the style adds to the horror when you see the inky black dripping from their eyes.
And then there’s the flashback sequences. I love when stories make use of their medium, and having the flashbacks be in this beautiful sepia sketchbook style is just so lovely.
Julie D’Aubigny makes for a delightful companion in this piece. A truly incredible historical figure that I’m surprised hasn’t been used in the main show. She’s such an incredibly interesting person and I love how she’s portrayed here. Seeing her history in a flashback, and seeing both her vocal and dueling talents on display is great. On the one hand I could see it argued that the moment with her singing fending off creatures thanks to the sonic feels a bit of an asspull, but I think it really works for the doctor, ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ vibes.
If I did have any criticisms, it’d be that gargoyles are a bit out of place, and the ending is a little Deus Ex Machina, but those definitely don’t take away from this story for me at all
Was this a good story? Ehhhh. Was it fun as all hell? Absolutely!
A fun, little, somewhat meta story about the power of comic books and creativity. I love these stories where we can just have a little bit of fun with The Doctor without world ending stakes. Okay sure we do get bigger stakes towards the end of the first issue, but even then it feels disconnected enough from reality and that, that it all still feels very fun. I mean they win the day with the power of love and imaginary gorillas (among other things), how can you not love that?
Not really a review thing, but I do wonder if this story was originally meant to take the place of Playing House. There’s a comment in the story about Time Surgeon #24 being due, and if this were taking the place of Playing House, it’d be the 24th issue of the Twelfth Doctor comics.
Whatever the case, this second year of Twelfth Doctor comics doesn’t exactly go out with a bang, but honestly, I like it this, aiming for something fun rather than big and bombastic is just a nice change from every other year’s finales.
Terror of the Cabinet Noir: like already said, this story is amazing. The art is incredible, the historical basis is used to full potential, I don’t really have anything else to say
Invasion of the Mindmorphs: this one is much more basic, and I find that some of these gimmick stories just end up relying far too much on finding it funny on a meta level which just isn’t enough for me
However the reimagined Doctor in the in-universe comics absolutely slaps:
I adore the design
Ditto on loving the art style, it’s incredibly cool.
The historical aspect of Terror of the Cabinet Noir works really well for the story it’s telling, combining political plot with the magic-like dark matter monsters that evoke something demonic to the people of the time. Additionally, having the journal entry of Julie in a separate art style was excellent as a framing device. That being said, while fun at times, Julie didn’t really grow on me. While being incredibly interesting, I felt the way she was characterized was kind of one-dimensional, relying on the overused archetype of a devil-may-care tomboy that reduced the weight of other aspects of her character. That being said, it’s still a great story.
With Invasion of the Mindmorphs, I appreciated the gimmick most of the time. The in-universe DW ripoff comic is so much fun and looks great. The companions, while enjoyable, feel a bit one note though. I didn’t really care or not about their relationship because it already felt so played out. And while slightly cheesy, the power of imagination is always an interesting resolution.
