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I love a good time war story and this definitely is that. I can understand some people saying that the time war gets overused or isn’t interesting, but I think it can be used to explore some really out there sci-fi concepts, and it’s put to great effect here.
I have massive nostalgia for The Cult of Skaro, but in just two pages, the Volatix Cabal grabbed me in a way they could never. Their insanity combined with intelligence is brilliant and chilling. They know they’ve made themselves into madmen, but they’ve done it for a reason “madmen win wars”. Their quoting of Alice in Wonderland also makes them seem more threatening than most other daleks I’ve seen, and that’s before you even see their designs. The basics are there, you can tell they’re Daleks, but they’re so perfectly twisted. One looking almost like a biblical angel, one with animals tied to it, almost a mockery of clothing, and one with humanoid limbs, all horrific.
The reveal that the child is The Master has less weight put on it than I’d expected, but with the reveal done we now get to see him as The Master which is brilliant, his relationship with War and Squire here is just great to see. It’s also nice to finally see a young Squire, knowing she’s actually from here and was a companion (though have a feeling there’s more to it)
And lastly, the main threat being gods that sided with The Daleks just to experience genocide. It’s great, more of that please!
Again, just more great time war stuff. Alice stealing the box to stop War using it is great, and then the fact she uses it to save the doctor (at least from breaking his morals).
War and Squire saving Alice at the last minute before she’s killed by the Volatix Cabal member is great. Everything about that member is great to be fair, the way it peels itself from the flesh of the person it was inhabiting is just, wow, the art is horrifying.
The ‘Gods’ almost don’t really do all that much in this story which is a shame, almost acting as more of a ‘stage hazard’ than an enemy to face, at least in this story.
But lastly The War Child is delightful. The opening where he talks about how you can kill anything in the time war is great, and his trying to run away in his own TARDIS, but creating a paradox by doing so is just great comeuppance for him, and funny with his previously mentioned love of paradoxes.
The art is incredible, the paradox energy spilling out of the panels, the shifting doctors, The War Child’s fate, it’s all just done really really well. We also get the origins of both The Malignant and The Then and The Now, which are both brilliant and both just work. There’s no way to have guessed them, but the reveals of each both just make so much sense.
And then there it is with Squire. It was alluded to earlier in the story (and in the title), and the setup has been there all along, but I didn’t see it coming, and it’s brilliant and horrific and so much more. The art at the end especially sells it, Squire with a broken neck, standing over the body of Daak. “your squire lives, your squire is dead, your squire sleeps”
Christ this is gruesome, the art for Dalek-Squire throughout the entire book is just. Wow. That’s some vivid imagery.
The cabal’s plan as well is great here, basically just taking The Doctor’s plan from the time war, but with the addition of Dalek ascension through hijacking the god’s ascension and then killing the gods. Leads to some great art of daleks emerging from the malignant as the planet’s population dies.
And then there’s that opening speech (which of course I’ve added to the site). This writer really gets the daleks, and they feel more threatening here than in any of the Moffat era dalek stories, and Dalek-Squire is what Moffat could only dream of when making the dalek slaves in Asylum.
And lastly, Abslom Daak getting shot again!!!?!? Christ, he really just doesn’t stay down does he. Dalek-Squire taunting him with the ‘Exterminate’ before shooting him is cold , even for a dalek.
So with fourteen issues of build up, is the payoff to it all satisfying…
Eh, I mean, kinda.
I feel this story resolves itself too quickly and too easily. There’s a lot of stuff in there about Eleven’s plan going wrong, and how everything’s doomed now, but you never really feel like it’s going to end badly. The other characters around him are mostly just acting fine with everything and like it’s all already sorted (which in a way, it almost is), and so it never lives up to other finales.
Eleven, Alice, and River here are… fine. I don’t really have much to say about it, Alice calls Eleven out for how he’s basically just been manipulating everyone for this entire year, but because he’s sorry about it and was doing it for good reason it’s fine? I guess?
I don’t only have criticisms here though, there’s one thing I’ve absolutely loved about this year of comics, and his name is Absolm ■■■■■■■ Daak: Dalek Killer. God I adore this himbo. His utter glee at killing Dalek-Squire, and the very end when he’s sent back into The Time War. What’s not to love?! Easily the highlight of these comics and I’d love to see more of him.
The Organ Grinder: I really love this insight into the Time War, the Cabal are a really interesting idea and look very good
Kill God: this incarnation of the master is really interesting, I want to see more of his motivations and methods, also timey-wimeyness is getting stronger, I like that
Fast asleep: this has some really beautiful pages of the paradox and space, but the people looked odd at the end, but all the time war bits are beautiful. The war doctor is especially written very well
Gently pulls the strings: have to admit, this one is a bit too much for me, it’s very gruesome and there’s really not that much else to it
Physician, heal thyself: I feel like you could have done more with these concepts, but it was a fine ending. Abslom Daak’s joy at killing daleks is really something
