Gangland Part 2

"We rose from the waters of the planet Octos like leviathans! We broke across the universe like a tidal wave!"

Writer: Robbie Morrison 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 3rd December 2015

Printed in: DWC 2.03

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis 

When Clara and the Doctor landed amid the bright lights of 1960s Las Vegas, a group of intergalactic high-stake marauders, known as the Cybok Imperium, crashed the party, intent on world domination - and on erasing all who stand against them with the help of a stolen Time Lord weapon! As Clara flees for her life alongside legendary lounge singer Frankie Seneca and his Wolfpack, it's up to the Doctor and boxer Sonny Lawson to muscle their way past the Cybock...! How much is the Doctor willing to gamble to save Earth from being wiped from existence?

Verdict 

Gangland concluded in excellent fashion with this superb second and final part! It's taken me around two weeks since purchasing the magazine to finish and that's just down to me being ridiculously busy this past month and well, since November really! University work really stepped up and throw in a trip to Dublin, Christmas on the horizon and coming home for three weeks and to be honest I've been surprised by just how much I've been able to do these past six weeks or so. I even had my birthday thrown in between everything else! For a comic strip, something I seem to be doing an awful lot of lately, this was brilliant to be fair. Doctor Who Comic really is getting better and better with the release of the sister comic that I picked up today (more about that tomorrow), it can only mean success is occurring and that the magazine will be here for a long time coming. The first part was very good and after re-reading, something I do for my own benefit as usually it's been a month since reading the previous part and I've covered a whole lot of other Doctor Who in between, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I think I had been caught up in the hype surrounding Four Doctors (and why wouldn't I be?) that I forgot about this particular adventure. I wasn't overly struck by the cliffhanger of part one but I loved the beginning of part two here! We had the Judoon making a brief return! I did enjoy that although I must raise a question I haven't really thought of until reading this story. Is the Judoon Captain we saw in Smith and Jones and later in The Stolen Earth and The Pandorica Opens the same captain that appeared here? If so, where does that leave the Doctor's encounters with the commander of the intergalactic police? Or do all Judoon captains simply look the same? I'm not sure and while it doesn't really need to be answered I thought it was an intriguing point. The idea of Rassilon's Time-Gun is brilliant I must say. It's arguably the most dangerous weapon we've seen in Doctor Who! Not only does it kill, but it erases the victim's entire timeline! Clara hanging out with the Wolfpack was wonderful and this story really had a feel of Series 9 to it which, whether intended or not, worked magnificently for me. Clara being adventurous and wanting to see history is the companion that I want to see and I got it in abundance here. I love how she challenges the Doctor and the mention of the competition of who could get in the most trouble was fantastic. Sonny Lawson appearing in the story and getting quite an extensive background feature was a pleasant surprise. I'm a huge sports fan and seeing this really was brilliant. I love how Robbie Morrison brought real life historical events into a Doctor Who story the way he did. The characterisation of both the Twelfth Doctor and Clara was outstanding and was right up there with the best of any comic strip range I must say. This story was excellent as a whole and the only reason that the story doesn't quite achieve full marks is down to the Cybox Imperium really. I wasn't a huge fan of the comical appearance and when a monster looks as ridiculous as that, it's hard to take seriously the threat they provide and the fact that the Time Lords had to outsmart them to thwart them. Clara working out that the Doctor had tried to cheat his way to victory with the Time-Gun was fantastic. I just loved how she knew him so well by now that for him to know that Rassilon had provided safeguards the Doctor must have tried to tamper with it! Brilliant. The last line of "I did it my way" was a marvellous inclusion. The tying up of the opening of part one and the climax of part two was brilliant and overall this story really was magnificent! I was impressed and it was just a shame it couldn't quite join the elite full marks club which has been quite rarity in DWC despite the consistently high standard. 

Rating: 9/10