Once Upon a Time Lord
A Graphic Novel Collection
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Titan Comics Once Upon a Time Lord A Graphic Novel Collection |
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| Published | 2023 |
A Review by Thomas Tiley 18/7/26
A collection of two comic book stories by a famous Marvel comic writer called Dan Slott, he has written for She Hulk and Spider Man and various others (he notes his Silver Surfer comics were a bit Doctor Who-ish).
The first story, Firelight, starts with a flashback of various Doctors warning their companions about an alien race called the Pyromeths --- a race that feed off stories --- and what to do if they encounter them, finishing with the Doctor and Martha stepping out of the TARDIS and a sequence of events that ends in, of course, Martha ends up getting kidnapped by the Pyromeths and has to keep them entertained with stories or else.
It is an all right story. Both Martha and the Tenth Doctor are in character. The art varies: standard comic-book art for the frame story and a looser, cruder art for the stories Martha recounts, which I understand as an aesthetic and story choice, but the art isn't as nice to look at. Considering the various settings such as alien pirates ships on alien seas, Egyptian tombs and a literal hellscape, this is a little disappointing. The stories that are told are all right. It does have the usual fanboy sort of things you would expect, filled with reoccurring monsters (Dalek, Cybermen, Sycorax, Alien cat nuns), surprising characters (Horus, the wolf from Tooth and Claw, The Empress from The Runaway Bride) and lots references to past tales; not as bad as some authors, but still there are a few good moments. There is some fun to spotting the references in the background. There is also a bit of meta commentary with the Pyromeths acting as the audience, asking questions or trying to guess the course or the story or picking holes in the plot. I did like the Doctor's speech to the Racnoss empress. Why should she help him, she asks. Because he killed all her children, so she gets to spend the afterlife with the all people she loves, he replies. The solution in the end is clever, as the Pyromeths feed off the psychic energy of stories and end up discovering everything that Martha told them was true.
The second story, Rhyme or Reason, takes place seconds after the first, and like the first story has a character recount an earlier story, the Doctor this time, about the Ninth Doctor and Rose saving the Earth from the Terileptils. It is another all right story, nicer and more consistent art (although the adult Terileptils look rather weird in this art form, but the baby ones at the end look adorable). Much more playful, it does some interesting things with the TARDIS translator but is a bit slight story wise.
Writer Dan Slott, judging from the interview inside, seems like a nice guy (although how he got away with calling the BBC the Doctors ultimate enemy is a surprise; maybe no one checks the American comics?). He does a good job for the most part, and the characters come across accurate to the show for the most part, although I am not sure if Rose Tyler knows what an ad hominem is or would be familiar with pig Latin (maybe she picked it up on her travels). Likewise, Martha is shown to be good with children, citing her experiences with her siblings, but in the show herself in stories like Utopia she seemed more unsure with kids (although maybe it was just being at the end of the universe in that episode). Minor nitpicking, Martha has a smartphone, which weren't about in her era, and as nice as the K9 cameo was, he is in the wrong control room (the wooden one instead of the Season 15 standard control room). While we are onto it, every Doctor warning every companion about the Pyromeths seems a little silly. The Pyromeths also join the long line of monsters even older and more mysterious than the Time Lords --- a bit of an overused cliche by now. Also surprising is the Doctor texting Martha in the story; you would think they would notice.
The standard art is all right but does suffer from the usual problems that tie-in comics do: copying and tracing from publicity stills and such leading to some boring and undynamic posing. The quality of the likeness varies throughout and there are some occasional off model appearances (Martha shows an alarming amount of gum at one point that makes her look truly demented). The art for the retellings is much cruder and disappointing, nearly childlike in some places. If you were judging the interior art from the rather nice cover art, you would be seriously misled.
All in all, I would say that it is an all right story, average but nice. If you can borrow a copy from a friend or the library or see it going cheap, I would recommend it.
I would rate it a 5/10, maybe bumping it up a point for a few nice moments