The Fourth Wall

"The story you're reading isn't a story. It's real."

Writer: Robbie Morrison

Format: Comic Strip

Released: 30th June 2016

Printed in: DWC: Tales from the TARDIS 08

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara 

Synopsis 

It's the long awaited return of a deadly foe, as the Doctor and Clara face a monster that will have you checking your stack of comics for suspicious movement! Dare you continue reading, when every page turn could bring you into MORTAL DANGER?! You have to - you're the Doctor's only hope!

Verdict 

The Fourth Wall was an outstanding comic strip story and may just have eclipsed Relative Dimensions as my favourite Twelfth Doctor comic adventure to date. Yes, that includes the run that is also occurring in Doctor Who Magazine because I'm actually yet to award a perfect rating to a DWM comic story featuring the Twelfth Doctor. I must say that Doctor Who Comic is considerably better but I think that's only natural because it's longer and is solely a comic whereas the comic is only a part of a much wider magazine. Anyway, enough about DWM. This comic strip is a real treat and shows the beauty of the format in a number of ways. We have some astounding artwork, an unexpected returning enemy and reader involvement! The very first page was incredible and I love the idea of a comic strip breaking the fourth wall. It is the format where you can get away with things the most and you only need to read the Voyager graphic novel for a few examples of that. We had the Doctor breaking down the slides that make up the comic, conservation changing as we read and even speech bubbles coming off the page! It really was phenomenal. The characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor was once again sublime with Peter Capaldi's likeness captured with effortless ease. Not only that but the story was so recognisably set in the latter stages of Series 9 so that was nice. Clara was magnificent and I liked how she had to take a lot of the limelight in the story with the Doctor stuck in a comic strip. What an ending to a sentence that was! That really does sum up the comic - it was incredible. The return of the Boneless was something I did not expect so I was absolutely delighted to see them return! Following on from the return of the Sontarans in my reading of The Judas Goatee yesterday, this DWC issue really has been a bargain! The Doctor ridiculing some of the comics in the store was terrific with him mentioning Cybermen, Metebelis III and Leela as comparisons to some so called superheroes was terrific. He was then horrified to see himself in a comic strip entitled 'Time Surgeon', a title that didn't humour him at all. He was horrified by what was inside (and that was before he knew the Boneless were the culprits). The references to Flatline were fantastic and I'm just pleasantly shocked to see that the Boneless got a quick return. That episode was very good and with the comics replacing graffiti, what a format for them to return. The concept of them is brilliant and when I come to think about, a return in this format was surely inevitable. It just had to be done because there's just too much potential not to bring them back. I liked the reference to The Runaway Bride but I also liked how the comic strip reminded people that they should be proud of collecting comics. People often get ridiculed for collecting comics or are too embarrassed to admit it which I think is a real shame. I love the comics and take great pride in collecting them! I thought the ending was very clever with the Doctor uniting all of the people trapped into the comics to almost think themselves back into reality and literally stamp out the Boneless and catapult them back into their two-dimensional existence. The Doctor closing the story by addressing the reader again was wonderful and I just loved that the fourth wall was broken. Overall, a simply delightful comic adventure! One of the very best. 

Rating: 10/10