A New Beginning

"What's the point of knocking around the universe if there's nothing new to see?"

Writer: Jody Houser
Format: Comic Strip
Released: October 2018 - February 2019
Printed in: The Thirteenth Doctor #1-4

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham

Synopsis 

The first collection of the Thirteenth Doctor's comic book series sees the newest incarnation of the Doctor, along with her new companions – Graham, Yaz and Ryan – trail-blazing through time tackling vile villains, avoiding an intergalactic alien civil war, uncovering the truth behind a secret human time travel experiment, and doing battle with an alien hoarder obsessed with amassing the greatest treasure in the history of the universe!

With this new Doctor in charge, one thing's for certain: there's never a dull moment or a second to spare, even if you are a Time Lord!

Verdict

A New Beginning was a decent start to the Thirteenth Doctor's life in the pages of Titan Comics! I have to say that I thought the artwork was sublime from start to finish and certainly trumped any of the Thirteenth Doctor comics from Doctor Who Magazine thus far. It really was glorious and just full of colour which is exactly what you want from a comic strip. In saying that, the writing probably wasn't quite as good as things have been in DWM but this was still a good start. The characterisation of Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor was a real highlight and was pretty much perfect throughout. It wasn't even just the dialogue, it was the way she was drawn with her mannerisms and demeanour. I thought that was very impressive to happen in a comic strip with those kind of details often going overlooked. The companions were less impressive in this one as there just didn't seem to be enough for all of them to do. Ryan particularly fell victim of this and whilst he's my least favourite of the three, he just seemed to be quite useless and merely there to offer condolences or comments of appreciation. He didn't offer much to the plot at all which was a shame. I liked the idea of humans experimenting with time and it going wrong with the Hoarder quick to take advantage and use Perkins and Schulz for his own gains. I thought things were a little wobbly when it came to when certain events in the story were taking place with a lot of jumping occurring that wasn't always obvious. There needed to be a couple more captions for my liking but it wasn't a big issue. I did think the Hoarder was a good villain but I do wish he got to spend more time with the Doctor as I thought things were begging for a good confrontation! It didn't really occur sadly and the Doctor's arrival just meant that the Hoarder was doomed and defeated. Even the ending was a little iffy as we didn't actually see the throw of the vortex manipulator that sent him into meltdown. I thought the following on from The Road to the Thirteenth Doctor miniseries could have been better referenced but the fact that there was a link was a positive in my eyes. Yaz getting to try and enact some authority to the Grand Army of Just was humorous, but they didn't stick around long enough for my liking. Whilst being good, this comic strip was slightly frustrating in places as I felt it was so close to being a great deal better. There just needed to be some more elaboration to make things work better. It was a little clumpy and with some threading out it would have turned out to be excellent. The past between Schulz and Perkins was explored nicely when clear but one thing I couldn't quite buy into was how easily the Doctor and co found her. It was sheer luck. The use of bringing the TARDIS to them was also slightly overdone, even if it resulted in a humorous comment from the Doctor. Overall, a good story that could have been great! Some wonderful comments from the Doctor about why she loved having new companions kept this one strong.

Rating: 7/10