Free Comic Book Day 2024

"Someone's trying to scare me."

Writer: Dan Watters

Format: Comic Strip

Released: May 2024

Printed in: Free Comic Book Day 2024

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor, Ruby

Synopsis

The Fifteenth Doctor faces a fearsome new threat!

Verdict

This untitled comic strip that comprises the Free Comic Book Day 2024 release from Titan Comics was a wonderful start and preview of what's to come in their Fifteenth Doctor comic series. I'm very excited for what's to come from Titan as there is a lot of potential there and they can really expand the comic strip adventures for Doctor Who beyond what Doctor Who Magazine are able to do. There's clearly more of a budget and it's just great to get a full comic rather than just six pages. For a free release, this was tremendous. I was reading on the Kindle app for the first time and it took me panel by panel which was an intriguing little experience, but one I was eternally grateful for. I thought the characterisation of both the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby was pretty spot on whilst delving into the depths of continuity and setting things up for the series proper to come. The concept of a sound in the vortex was intriguing, especially when it was one clearly targeted at the Doctor. Someone trying to scare him with the sound reverberating across past nightmares in his life was excellent and some of the artwork we saw was magnificent! The depiction of Skaro in particular where the Doctor saw the Daleks born was brilliant and really impressive. Then we saw the sound vibrate across numerous places that have caused hurt to the Doctor from the likes of Metebelis III and his regeneration in Planet of the Spiders to facing his own grave itself on Trenzalore in The Name of the Doctor. And as if that wasn't enough we bounced to his encounter with the Devil in The Satan Pit and the famed Library where he saw River die in Forest of the Dead. They were some incredible choices and the Doctor didn't take too kindly to being threatened. I thought Ruby was a little bit of a background character in this story but that's more so because of its length as a free release. I'm sure she will shine when things kick off proper. I thought the artwork was pretty strong and I liked the almost rough and shaded feel. It felt gritty and that was good. I do think the scale of the TARDIS wasn't captured properly in the comic strip and the console did seem a little off compared to what we see on screen, but these are just minor details. For a free release, they were more than sufficient! The 1739 setting once the TARDIS had caught up with the sound was strong and I liked encountering Dick Turpin as the fastest highwayman in the land. The Doctor didn't take too kindly to him having a Cyber weapon and wasted no time in chasing after him on the horse! That was entertaining stuff and a good injection of action into the comic strip. Turpin actually recognising the Doctor was unexpected and it's exciting to set up some sort of story arc here with his god. We saw a glimpse of the crazed figure in the crowd when Turpin was to be hanged and unleashed an almighty scream as he realised the god would not be saving him, and I don't think I recognised him as someone from the Doctor's past! That seemed to be confirmed with the Doctor suspecting that people trying to scare him hadn't met him yet. I thought that was a great line and really showed just how powerful the Doctor can be. It was fun for him to claim Ruby as the Princess of Notting Hill with the psychic paper and I think that might be the first time we've seen that device used for this incarnation? I may be wrong. Ruby reacted in a fun way to being considered royalty. The god waiting and housing a gallery of evil collections was intriguing and I'll be interested to see the connection with Cybermen! Overall, a quite excellent comic strip! 

Rating: 9/10