Jamie Revell
Quite a fun story about a number of DC's magically inclined heroes attending a magical university (which, so far as I can tell, is retrospectively created by somebody changing their pasts). It's a nice mix of student hi-jinks and magical threats with an over-arching mystery about which of them will eventually turn out to be evil (that, admittedly, isn't that hard to guess). It's quite a good mix of breezy entertainment with darker undertones and manages to bring in quite a number of DC's magical characters in addition to the core five students.
The Doctor arrives in near-future Arizona just as a project to combat climate change starts to go terribly wrong. In some respects, it's a formulaic base-under-siege story, with our heroes trapped in a blizzard as monsters attack and then eventually up the stakes. However, it's very well done and there are some twists on the usual progress of the story, with some characters that initially appear to be villains eventually turning out to be more sympathetic than we expect. In fact, misunderstanding people's motives could be said to be one of the themes of the story.
There are a couple of quibbles. For one, and this may just be me, I can't help but notice that nobody pronounces ‘Jötunn' correctly... There's also the fact that we're told early on that what eventually turns out to be a large part of the solution won't work for what seem like perfectly sound reasons, but that seems to have been conveniently forgotten by the end of the story. Okay, so the Doctor got it wrong, but that could have been more directly acknowledged.
But these are fairly minor issues (especially the first one) and don't really detract from what's a fun story with a decent monster and links to Norse legend. Constance once again proves herself an effective companion, with her background giving her a unique perspective on things; Edginton, in his only writing credit for BF, seems to have quite a good handle on her character, although Miranda Raison's performance may also have a lot to do with it.
There's nothing particularly innovative in the story, but there's nothing too much to dislike about it, either. It's fast-moving, with a plot that (in context) arguably makes more sense than usual, and a good way to spend a couple of hours. A solid, but basic, story that manages to capture some of the core appeal of the show without stretching any boundaries.
The story moves to Spain, where Black Adam has ousted Franco as dictator. The story delves into Adam's past, and thus this reality's version of the Shazam mythos, as well as bringing in Talia al Ghul, among others. The focus, however, is more on Batwoman and her bonds to those around her, following up on some of the background previously explored in other volumes. This works really well, and Black Adam seems a perfect fit as a jackbooted fascist. While the artwork is still variable (although this time around, more often good than weak) the bittersweet tale with the usual period touches puts the series back on track, just in time for the finale in the next volume.
Deadman can be an interesting character and has been done well in some other, relatively recent comics. This, unfortunately, is not one of them. The art is perhaps a matter of taste, but the writing comes across as garbled, somewhat old-fashioned, and severely detracting from the underlying story. Everything seems to happen in a rush and can be quite hard to follow at times. On the plus side, there are some fun guest appearances, but they can't salvage this confusing mess.
A collection of one and two-part stories concluding Hope Larson's run, and with a couple of guest writers before Mairghread Scott takes over. There's no arc here, although there are some links back to earlier stories and... some work, and some don't. There's a comedy Christmas piece that doesn't make an awful lot of sense (and probably isn't meant to), some shenanigans with Penguin and Two-Face, and a story featuring a rather over-used plot device that at least does a reasonable job of showing us Larson's interpretation of Batgirl's persona. As it happens, Scott's story is possibly the strongest, although it's more of an interlude than a regular Batgirl tale, and only stands out by being different. But, while there's nothing truly bad in the collection, there's nothing particularly great, either... just a selection of short and largely forgettable sketches.
This time we move the focus to Gwen and Rhys, in a story set some time after the events of Miracle Day, but nonetheless still tied in to the loose plot arc of the first two releases. It maintains the full audio style of Fall to Earth, rather than the narration of The Conspiracy, something that will hopefully continue.
Despite the absence of most of the original cast (for obvious reasons, given when it's set) this feels very much like a Torchwood episode. In part, this is because it plays up the Welsh setting, in the description of the landscape and the use of Cymraeg. But there's also at least one genuinely chilling moment, and the fact that we're dealing with a real-world subject that other shows in the Whoniverse would normally avoid.
Specifically, it concerns events at a home for patients with dementia who may, or may not, be the victims of something sinister. It's an emotive, and potentially touchy, subject, but handled with compassion here, making the story about more than just action and alien technology. There's plenty of mystery about what's going on, and how it relates to Jack in particular and, of course, there are also some clear sci-fi elements in the plot to complement the emotional darkness.
So far, this is turning out to be a strong series.
This is a little better than the first volume in Seeley's run on the comic, although I may be on the generous side nudging it up to the full four stars. There are two reasons for the improvement. One is that Seeley is trying more obviously for humour in this outing and, even if his political message is, once again, hammered home a little too forcefully, and the romance subplots are implausible, it's easier to take this as an amusing bit of fun rather than anything actually trying to be serious. Taken in that light, it kinds of works, if you don't think about it too much. The larger reason, though, is that the volume also includes a standalone story (the annual for that year) which is by a different author. In particular, Diggle has a better handle on Jessica than Seeley does, and writes her more convincingly, which improves a story about the Corps' past.
For the first time, the audio series breaks out of the time period and core characters of the TV series, with a story focussing on Yvonne Hartman and set in the immediate aftermath of the Doctor Who episode Rose. Hartman, of course, is the head of Torchwood One in London, and only appears in one episode, having been killed off before the Torchwood TV series even started.
The plot is, to be honest, fairly slight, concerning the murder of Cardiff mayoral candidates, and doesn't really make too much sense. It's for that reason that I'm knocking this down to three stars, but there's still a lot to like in this release.
For one, there's the portrayal of Hartman herself, expanding on her one guest appearance. We see a very driven and ruthless character, arguably more efficient than many of the main ones in the actual TV series. Her personality and background are fleshed out here, and are really the main focus of the play. Which is as well, because the other main characters aren't really all that believable, something that's lampshaded at a couple of points.
There are also some nice touches of humour, mainly at Hartman's expense. In particular, there's a clear sense of a Londoner's stereotypical attitude towards any part of the UK that isn't London, and of the corresponding Welsh attitude to the capital. This is done brilliantly, and there are plenty of moments that you would never see on DW, in keeping with the different tone of this series.
If you like strong character pieces with a dash of humour, and can put aside the weakness of the underlying plot, you'll probably like this quite a lot. Honestly, I enjoyed it too, and the three stars might be a little stingy, but this series has set a high standard so far. For one thing, I'm glad that there are more stories featuring Hartman later in the series, because the strength of the character is really what's good here.
The Early Adventures reach the sixth and final season of the black-and-white era of Doctor Who with Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury (Zoe) taking over narration duties. This is written as a sequel to TV adventure The Invasion and, while it has some good points, it's another underwhelming release in a set that's been weaker than the First Doctor stories that preceded it.
As with the immediately prior release, part of the problem here is the heavy reliance on narration. This would work fine in a standard audiobook and, indeed, would be part of the point, but it's distracting and arguably rather unnecessary in a play with six different voice actors and a full range of sound effects. The main cliffhangers and final dramatic moment also have resolutions that are obvious a mile off, so that, while what's going on with the non-Cyberman monsters is at last somewhat mysterious, the plot is otherwise predictable.
On the plus side, there is some decent atmosphere here, with the TARDIS crew somehow ending up on a devastated colony world shortly after a Cyberman invasion. In an obvious nod to Second Doctor classic The Web of Fear, most of the story takes place in an underground monorail system, and the Cybermen are undeniably the right vintage - including a Cyber Controller similar to that in Tomb of the Cybermen. The incidental music is also very 1960s, giving the story the right feel.
So some good points, certainly, and a fairly strong emulation of the sort of stories we often got in this era of the show's history. But the overuse of narration and a perhaps slightly too slavish adherence to the relevant tropes unfortunately drag it down a little.
Probably the strongest volume in this particular run - just before it got cancelled, of course. This is quite a strong story, avoiding some of the clichés of volume 2 (although there's a fight with Batman, which is kind of a cliché). The first few parts wrap up the Arms of Death storyline, with some good use of Batwoman's background, as well as giving a decent pay-off to some of the events in volume one. The coda at the end doesn't feel as tacked-on as such things normally do, with Kate facing the possibilities of her future in a nice mix of action and introspection. I've enjoyed this trilogy, and it feels like there could have - and should have - been more.
Raven comes across a sinister program to breed powered individuals that, inevitably, turns out to have something to do with her dad. There's rather a lot of fighting and Trigon shouting at people and looking dramatic and, fortunately, some rather good sections about her trying to live a normal life with her aunt and uncle. It's a decent enough story, with some good guest characters, and the art certainly works well, but it doesn't head in any new directions and the bits about Night Force are more confusing than anything else (possibly requiring a knowledge of backstory that I happen to have missed). Still, it's self-contained in this volume, albeit clearly setting things up for the second half, and if you're going to do a story about Trigon this is as good a way to do it as any, but he's just frankly not all that interesting as a villain (not to mention being a pervy creep, which tends to get glossed over).
The TV show's 50th anniversary introduced us to the War Doctor, a “missing” incarnation between the 8th and 9th versions. Naturally, he only really appeared in that one episode, leaving us knowing that there was a whole series of stories that we never got to see on screen. Fortunately, despite already suffering from what proved to be terminal cancer, John Hurt agreed to appear in a series of four audio releases, of which this is the first.
It's a single three-hour story, albeit structured into three individually titled episodes. Nothing much happens in the first of these, but that turns out to be a wise decision, allowing this part of the story to focus on introducing us to this “new” Doctor and his personality. Of course, we already have some idea of that from Day of the Doctor, but here he has the freedom to be the focal point of the entire production and Hurt is (unsurprisingly) magnificent as the tortured and war-weary central character who refuses even to acknowledge his own name.
From there, however, we are into a classic type of war story, with the Doctor placed behind enemy lines to rescue a captured Time Lord strategist. The story is rather more complex than this - Briggs cites Where Eagles Dare as an inspiration in the sleeve notes, and it's easy to see why - and there's a strong tie-in to a certain classic era TV story as well.
Having said which, this is undeniably Nu Who, and those who aren't familiar with the classic series won't be missing out on anything - it's just a reference that longer-term fans will probably appreciate. Part of the Nu Who feel comes from the superb orchestral arrangement of the theme tune, strongly reminiscent of that in the Eccleston/Tennant era, but with added military bombast.
If there is a weakness, it's that the Daleks are rarely interesting foes, and it's hardly possible to write a War Doctor story that isn't largely about them. There is also, of course, no companion, although this is alleviated by having a guest character partly filling that role (as is often done in TV “specials”) and serving as the conscience and soul of the story, off-setting the Doctor's more sombre tone.
Nonetheless, the production as a whole is very high quality, with a good plot, excellent acting (and not just from Hurt) and a real insight into the Time War and how this un-numbered Doctor differs from all the others while still identifiably being the same character underneath. It'll be interesting to see where this goes once other writers get to show us their takes in the remaining three releases...
We're back with Captain Jack again for this instalment, that's a fairly direct sequel to the audio series opener The Conspiracy. This time, the play dispenses with the narration, save for a few brief sections at the beginning and end, making the story more immersive than its predecessor.
The story concerns Jack tracking down a reclusive billionaire, an unwitting pawn of the conspiracy who seems to have the ability to be in two places at once. You can probably guess how he's doing this from the picture on the cover, and it's revealed quite early on in the story, which primarily deals with how this came about and the repercussions on the billionaire's emotional life. This all dealt with well, and includes some distinctly Torchwood-esque scenes that confirm the adults-only nature of this series.
But, seriously, if gay robot sex is something that puts you off, Torchwood probably isn't for you anyway.
This almost entirely a two-hander, with just one other actor other than the two leads, and is a slow build where the journey is more important than the denouement. How it all fits together with the larger plot arc is rather incidental although clearly the writers still have some way to go before actually sorting it all out. In the meantime, this is an interesting and unusual story, if not the most powerful in the series so far.
The start of a triad of books focussing on the US outside of New York, this consists of five short stories with a mix of new and old characters, all set on a paddle steamer travelling up the Mississippi. The tone is, for the most part, more relaxed and low-key than is often seen in the series, and arguably rather more upbeat, too. Which is certainly welcome after the previous book.
* Wingless Angel - The first story, set in New Orleans, brings back Billy Ray and Angel, and deals with some of the fallout from the previous volume. It's rather atypical of the rest of the book, having more action, and its ties to the earlier triad make this less standalone than one might expect for the first book in a triad. You don't need to know what the Kazakhs are running from to enjoy the story, but it probably helps. Miller also seems to be poking a bit of fun at his editor, in that the story features both a horde of zombies and a dire wolf...
* A Big Break in the Small Time - This brings back on the of the minor characters from Inside Straight, now working as a lounge singer on the riverboat. The story is about heroics and how not everyone with superpowers is really cut out for them, despite their best intentions. Andrew is a charming and fun character, as well as having powers that prove rather useful and makes a significant contribution to the unusually light tone of this particular book.
* Death on the Water - Now we switch to a detective story, bringing back characters from Fort Freak who don't happen to have any superpowers. The story is fairly straightforward, and it's immediately obvious what secret one of the suspects is hiding, but, again, it's good to see something low-key, relying on the prejudices of the Wild Cards world rather than on superheroics.
* Find the Lady - The central character here is another interesting one, something that's not been tried in the series before, to my recollection - a nat pretending to be a joker with minor ace powers. In large part, this is a romance story, and those elements of the plot do seem to move rather too quickly, although that may be more a product of the tight page count than anything else.
* Under the Arch - The steamboat reaches St Louis and a character who has been in the background of all the previous stories finally reveals his secret. Although it's not a secret to anyone who has read the whole series, since he was in some of the earlier books, and, even if he's now in his seventies, you'll have known this was coming since his first appearance in this one. When it does come, it's part of a tense battle that's also been brewing through the course of the book. The romance elements, however, feel very much tacked on.
* In the Shadow of Tall Stacks (interstitial) - The framing device for the other five stories features a new character, basically the ghost of a former captain of the riverboat doomed to haunt it for eternity. (Obviously, he's actually a wild card, but he may as well be genuinely supernatural). Rather topically, the story also concerns ICE agents trying to arrest illegal immigrants, as well as the boat being threatened with retirement, and it ties together the short stories rather more than is typical in the first books of these triads.
Another series of mad adventures for the eponymous antihero, this time largely focussing on fighting various other villains from the Batman comics. This includes some serious ones (Penguin, Killer Croc, etc.) but also some mostly abandoned joke villains - including one who, so far as I know, only ever previously appeared in the '60s TV series. The humour and violence is offset by the theme of Harley still recovering from the events of the previous volume, and some good use of the supporting cast. It's by no means the strongest volume in this series, but it's still quite fun. The only major downside is the one-off special bolted on to the end, which riffs off Mad Max, but doesn't manage to go anywhere interesting, or particularly funny.
This is the second half of a two-part story. I have reviewed both parts at The Paradox Planet.
Seeley provides a good end to the latest run, with a plotline harking back to some of the original run back in the late '80s, as well as following up on the new character he introduced in V3. There's also an appearance by one of DC's unpowered costumed heroes, who fits right in with the story, as well as allowing Constantine to remark snarkily on the superheroic world. It's a classic story of demonic possession and double-crossing that's not quite Hellblazer at its best, but certainly makes good use of its tropes to tell a worthwhile story and bring out Constantine's character. At which point, of course, DC cancelled the run... although, as I write this, a new one is slated for November ‘19.
Grodd is the main villain here, and manages to be quite interesting, due partly to the particular motivation he's given in this story. Although there's quite a lot of running around and fighting Grodd's allies, the collection manages to rise above that by getting into Barry's head, developing his relationship with Iris and bringing in as much of the current version of the ‘Flash Family' as will fit - and managing to give them all something to do. There's also a calmer section at the end, showing some of the aftermath (although, even for speedsters, the physical damage is arguably cleaned up a little too quickly) until it all ends on a cliffhanger that's going... goodness knows where, really.
The first of the two stories in this collection is quite good, with Seeley getting to grips with Jessica for a change. It's about an incident from her past, tied in with her becoming a Lantern, and is largely set inside a warped version of her memories of the event. The Justice League gets involved, although more as window-dressing than anything else and there's some use of the wider setting. It is, however, let down by Jessica being a bit dumb in getting herself into the situation in the first place... but, if you can get past that, it works well enough.
‘Being dumb', unfortunately, is very much the key theme in the second, slightly shorter, story, which sees Jessica pursued by the other Green Lanterns for a crime she's allegedly committed. Obviously, she hasn't, but this possibility doesn't even seem to occur to Hal and the others, making them look like prize pillocks until the explanation almost literally punches them in the face.
This is the second half of a story begun in The Pursuit of History. I have reviewed both parts there.
There's an inevitable problem here in that this is the climax of the current story arc, and there aren't terribly many ways it can go by this point. It starts out well, though, with an issue written from the villain's perspective, and giving some insight into what drives him, even as we see his sanity crumbling. Then he turns into an insane, inhuman, creature, blunting any moral question as to how he should be dealt with. Even so, we do see Aquaman struggling with his conscience for a while, but that fades once it becomes clear how far Rath has descended.
As the political intrigue is swept away to make room for the final confrontation, there's a fair bit of Atlanteans saying “well, even he wouldn't dare to... oh, he just has,” and a battle that's quite well done as such things go, but we know where it will end up. Having said which, there's an interesting cliffhanger at the end, and Abnett does a good job with some of the supporting cast, so it perhaps works as well as could be expected.
The second “season” of Torchwood audio plays kicks off with the series' first real dud. It's set in 1899, well outside the usual setting, and this really ought to be a good thing, stretching what the series can achieve beyond what the TV show could. And, to be fair, there are some nice touches with Torchwood's history and some good use of Victorian London as setting, from socialist firebrands at Speakers' Corner, to the early Underground.
The problem is simply the believability of the plot. This concerns Jack Harkness and Queen Victoria teaming up to chase an alien across the city, something that completely broke my suspension of disbelief. Assuming you can swallow the inherent ridiculousness of the whole thing, there are some rather good vignettes on the way, and some well-written reflections on age and mortality, and it's really only these that allow me to give this three stars rather than two. I'll add that the final resolution doesn't really make any sense, either, although it probably didn't help that I hadn't bought into the story by that point.
Is this episode going for comedy or pathos? Possibly, it's a bit of both, although, if so, the first part has certainly failed, and the attempts at it undercut, rather than enhance, the latter. Had this been a different character than Queen Victoria, I'd probably have loved this, and if the 79-year-old Empress of India traipsing around London armed with a laser gun and accompanied by only a single chaperone seems the kind of thing you might enjoy, there's a decent chance you will feel differently than I did. But, for me, this just felt too implausible to work.
While this is a separate mini-series, it ties directly into the ongoing plot arc then running in Aquaman and makes no sense without it. The plot focuses around Mera trying to find a way to help Arthur and, in that sense, is a side-story to the main plot about the Atlantean civil war. What helps is that, although there are a number of fights along the way, the story focuses more on the Atlantean/Xebelian culture, and how it enforces duty on those who don't necessarily want the burdens that go along with it.
Perhaps the strongest element is how the story uses Ocean Master, making him a more complex character than before, while remaining true to his roots. The story is not without its flaws; some of the fights are shoe-horned in solely to break up the dialogue, and, while the story is really about Mera and what lengths she'll go to, the fact remains that it's at least as much Aquaman who's driving the plot (even though he's not in it, except in flashback). But this is a nice diversion from the central part of the story, and Mera gets to shine.
The first of a set of three stories featuring the Master as villain (in this case, the Beevers version from the early '80s TV series) this is self-contained, rather than relying on anything else, or ending on a cliffhanger of any kind. The plot sees the Doctor, and a number of others, trying to track down the Master and his TARDIS, although to say much more would venture into spoiler territory.
It's rather more complicated than most DW plot, with a sizeable cast, relying in part on something that the Master did over 30 years before the main story is set. This, in particular, sees the story jumping back to 1984 for a number of scenes - replete with references to the pop music of the time (the viewpoint characters for this part were teenagers at the time, so hey...) In fact, we're mostly seeing the effects of the Master's actions, since he doesn't turn up until the half-way mark, and then mainly in flashback.
It's perhaps not a stand-out story, more of a “3.5 stars” than the full 4, but it's competently done, with a decent mystery as to what's going on, and a scheme for the Master that not only makes perfect sense (for once) but that contrasts the way he treats people with the way the Doctor does. On the subject of which, the usual companions are away for this story, allowing the various guest characters to take more of a central role.
The second part of the “Master trilogy” sees the Sixth Doctor facing off against the audio-only version of the Master previously used in stories featuring the Seventh and Eighth Doctors. (And, yes, they do come up with an explanation as to why Seven doesn't recognise him on their first meeting, and one that fits perfectly in the context of the larger story).
The story is rather slow to get going, with quite a lot of chasing around after clues as the Doctor teams up with the daughter of a scientist trying to trace some of his colleagues who have mysteriously gone missing. It does pick up in the second half, with a story that, as in the previous instalment, makes much use of the Master's hypnotic powers.
MacQueen is good as the Master, and his interactions with Six are really the best thing about the story. There are also some nice touches close to the end, when some of the reasons behind his latest (and typically over-elaborate) scheme come to light. On the other hand, while the companion stand-in does a decent job, she isn't particularly memorable or distinctive. Likewise, while the plot does at least make sense, it's rather predictable in places, and doesn't stand out from other, similar stories.
Unlike the previous instalment, this one does end on a cliffhanger, and perhaps suffers from the “middle episode syndrome” that affects many trilogies, being more notable as part of something larger than it is on its own merits.