Blogtor Who: COMIC REVIEW: The Twelfth Doctor #1

Terrorformer, featuring the brand new and shiny (or crinkly and grumpy, depending how you look at him) Twelfth Doctor, has a similar theme to the recent Eleventh Doctor comic, "The Friendly Place" – the idea of a fake paradise, or one that has been demolished for some ulterior motive. This story is far darker though, starting off with a light-hearted conversation between a traveller and his robot co-pilot and descending into a gruesome death…

In Terrorformer, The Twelfth Doctor is as spiky and alien as he has been on television, but also displays that slightly softer side that we see only rarely. In the first few panels, he feels as familiar in pen and ink as he does on television. This Time Lord has absolutely no patience for time wasters but he yet again is prepared to jump in at the last moment and save some travellers in peril, much like he does in Into the Dalek with Journey Blue.

The snappy dialogue often ventures into the meta with references to hiding behind the sofa and people asking the question "Doctor who?" The Doctor also gets in a couple of digs about his previous incarnation (hint – it’s fez related) and yet another nod towards Scotland, this time regarding its weather.

Everyone's favourite Gallifreyan also conforms to his recent practice of telling Clara he’s taking her somewhere fun, like skiing, but actually ends up taking her to somewhere dangerous – in this case an unstable planet that has undergone some terraforming which seems to have gone horribly wrong. "I’m a magnet for adventure", he says, by way of a kind of apology.

Clara, who is captured perfectly as the love-struck teacher trying to live two different lives, and her alien traveling companion get stuck into the mystery of how the tropical paradise planet Isen VI could have been a frozen planet only a few decades ago. The culprits, "Dollar Intergalactic", and its pet robots, brilliantly named Eric and Clarence, drive the Time Lord to snap and bark at the people running the operation in a way we’ve all become accustomed to in the last few weeks. It also includes some fascinating insight into the legacy of Gallifrey and the Time Lords.

Terrorformer is a great introduction to The Twelfth Doctor in comic format and captures his character as faithfully as the other comics in the Titan series have.