Doctor Who: Supremacy of the Cybermen #1

By George Mann, Cavan Scott, Alessandro Vitti, Ivan Rodriguez, Tazio Bettin, Nicola Righi & Enrica Eren Angiolini

Since the 50^th Anniversary TV event, The Day of the Doctor, which paired up the Eleventh and Tenth Doctors with the War Doctor at a crucial event in the Time Lord’s history, multi-Doctor stories are becoming more and more popular in Titan’s comic series. We’ve already  had a meeting between the Twelfth, Eleventh and Tenth in The Four Doctors from Paul Cornell, Neil Edwards and Ivan Nunes , but unfortunately, that only featured a cameo from the Ninth Doctor, so it was great to see him joining up with the other three in this brand new event series that has really hit the ground running.

George Mann and Cavan Scott both throw the reader straight into the action, splitting time between Twelve, Eleven and Ten to establish the narrative and the characters. One thing that the comics have that the show doesn’t is the fact that they do not have to follow a TV budget, so both Mann and Scott use all the resources at their disposal here, featuring many exotic alien locations and indeed, plenty of aliens themselves such as the Silurians, the Sontarans and the Cybermen, who are this event’s main antagonists as teased by the events in the apparent game-changing final cliffhanger which will certainly leave an impression on readers. Whilst no Doctors actually meet this issue, we get a brief introduction to them and their companions in separate timelines, with only Rose, Jackie and Jack Harkness being carried over from the show.

You do not have to be up to date on the Twelfth and Eleventh Doctors’ comics to understand what is going on in this one though as the writers are able to introduce you to them in ways that work. The characters are fun and likable, and the writers have also nailed the personalities of the various Doctors well, meaning that it should be really fun when they eventually cross paths. And given that any show fan will no doubt be familiar with what happened to Rose’s character in particular, her potential meeting with future Doctors, especially after the Tenth, will no doubt have interesting consequences.

The first issue is extremely tense and moves along at a great pace, boasting everything it needs to kick-start a brand new event. The artists involved are solid with Alessandro Vitti, Ivan Rodriguez and Tazio Bettin all on pencils whilst Nicola Righi and Enrica Eren Angiolini handle the colors. The style changes don’t really feel that jarring and it’s great to see both Bettin and Angiolini in the few pages that they’re given really show what they’re capable of, helping bring that jaw-dropping cliffhanger to life with great detail.

The use of multiple artists allows for a more varied visual look that works due to the split in locations of the Doctors. Pre-historic Earth with the Eleventh Doctor is full of vibrant and rich colors that delivers just as well as say, the time spent in the 24^th Century. Unfortunately, though when it comes to characterization, some Doctors aren’t quite brought to life as well as others, and the portrayal of the Tenth Doctor falls short of the mark. But that’s only a minor problem, because for the most part everything is pretty great across the board with the potential to just get better and better as the event goes on.