Please discuss below - no need to finish it first, discuss as you go along but please add spoiler tags for anything that could be considered a spoiler!
If you’ve previously read the book and want to join in the discussion, that’s great too!
Participating in the Comic Club will earn you a badge 
Hey this one is actually on the way to me 
Might even try to join this Comedy Club (I don’t do improv!!!)
…what? Comic Club?..
Yay I love Year Two!
It make my head go hurty…
Time War!
Paradoxes!
Lots and lots of comic goodness!
(I do need to get a copy of the second volume though, only have Then and the Now and The Malignant Truth)
The Time War, The War Doctor, and Paradoxes, oh my.
There’s a lot going on here, and all of it great (apart from maybe the art in a couple of places). First and formost, Abslom Daak is a great character to bring onto this TARDIS team, Eleven is already a bit of a more cerebral doctor, and Alice being a librarian also leans a bit more into the intelligent rather than the action heavy. Abslom isn’t stupid, but he’s definitely more of a brawn before brains kind of character and works brilliantly set across from the other two, plus bringing back an iconic Doctor Who comic character is always going to be fun.
What we get of the Time War is great, hearing about the ramifications of The Doctor’s visit to the planet, seeing War for a few panels alongside an as-of-yet unnamed child is intriguing, and the fact that he’s seemingly responding to the current events of the comic is even moreso. There’s also the mystery of Squire, who is she, why does she remember War but Eleven doesn’t remember her, why doesn’t she remember her age and how is she 18 or 19??
And then the paradox creature as well is great, the idea that this is what you become if you go back in time and ruin all the fixed points in your life intentionally, the fact that someone did that to themself purely to take down The Doctor.
All in all, a really fun story
I’ve said before that I love it when people use a medium to tell a story you couldn’t in any other medium and my god The Eleventh Doctor’s Titan comics just keep doing it!
Formatting the panels like the front of the TARDIS is genius, especially with the one panel each page of just text in that font. The art in those panels as well is great, the splash pages especially are just brilliant, the one of Squire’s memories is a particular standout.
And the plot as well is solid here too, Squire’s memories are traumatising for her and build on the mystery of what’s going on there. War shows up again with that mysterious child by his side. Abslom Daak gets a great but of characterisation with the full page spread of him holding his wife after hearing Alice say Exterminate. Alice’s grief gets shown once again to great effect, and there’s something happening to her mind as well, a strange almost mechanical almost angelic creature seemingly tormenting her? The design is incredible and can’t wait to find out what’s going on with it.
And then there’s the scenes with Eleven. The dark and red of the room contrasts the bright greys of the rest of the comic really well (with everyone eventually meeting in the warm yellow of the main console room), him trying to figure out what’s happened to his past is great while he’s being interrogated by a mystery group. I also appreciate that you can tell from the art what’s actually going on before the big reveal, the panels slowly showing more and more of the figures as the story goes on.
Overall a genius bit of comic writing, exposition done perfectly.
Is my bias towards Time War related stories showing?
Maybe a little.
Outrun is another really solid story, we get more from War than we have before, again that child with him, we get to see what happens if you try to enter the time war, something stops you and the war itself is so complex that all humans can perceive is a wall.
We get to see that rage that Eleven usually hides so well, and instead of everyone cowing to it as often happens when we do, we see Abslom just laugh at him.
I also love seeing the ruins of The Time War here, a fallen dalek saucer, mechanical spiders (that gives a great moment of Abslom and Squire running in to fight, while Eleven and Alice just kind of stand there), more flashbacks for Alice, and a lone column standing among it all…
A great cliffhanger, and the promise of Eleven finally getting a Master story is really fun.
@shauny you might want to get in on Comic Club
An unfortunately disappointing end to the collection.
Pull to Open and Outrun were both more exposition than anything else, but they wrapped it up in brilliant framing or a beautiful set pieces. Here we get Sontarans with Goatees.
There’s some nice character moments in here, especially for Abslom, but other than that, this story doesn’t really have anything to write home about, it’s just more setup for the rest of this year’s run. I’m looking forward to the rest of this year to be clear, but yeah, this issue in particular felt a little pointless to me.
You’ll be seeing a lot more of River from now on…
The then and the now: the new companions are really interesting, as is the then and the now. I’m unsure if I like the general vibe of this story though
Pull to open: oh, I love when stories go conceptual like this and play with their medium. Really like the artwork here
Outrun: this one I liked, the time war stuff is really interesting
The Judas goatee: mostly setup, some nice reflections of the doctor on the master. And River, my beloved!
I’m intrigued by the depiction of the Time War in this series. The series seems to subvert many of the thoughts I previously had about what kind of Doctor Who I would like. Absalom Daak, in particular, seems to be used in an interesting way, contrasting the Doctor, and also making me laugh.
