Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor #2 - Titan Comics

DOCTOR WHO: THE FIFTEENTH DOCTOR No.2, September 2024

Containing a narrative with numerous ups and downs, it’s arguably not difficult to imagine many readers of this twenty-two page periodical feeling as if they had just stepped off of a rollercoaster ride once they’d finished perusing it. In fact, every time it appears that any of the leading cast have got a handle of the deeply-dark goings on inside the last shopping mall on Earth, Dan Watters cleverly pens another exciting twist which many within the audience might not see coming; “Listen to me, they aren’t real. They aren’t going to hurt anyone. Just close your eyes and… No. No no no! Run!”

The first of these unpleasant shocks is poor Bruce Cotton’s sad demise, who against all the odds actually appears to be about to beat his greatest fear, before quite literally finding the boardwalk he is cautiously travelling along fatally falling away beneath his feet. This action sequence should initially have all but the most cold-hearted of bibliophiles cheering the acrophobic shopper on as he travels to the building’s uppermost level to change a fuse. However, just as everything looks good to go, the British author pulls the rug out from under him, and makes it clear that the diabolical Scream Sommelier is playing a genuinely deadly game.

Impressively though, having established this ‘rule of thumb’, the comic’s narrative then performs a complete U-turn when the Fifteenth Doctor is about to be blasted to pieces by a horde of ultimately illusionary Cybermen. This eventual lack of threat may well prove a tad frustrating at first, as the suspense leading up to the Time Lord’s apparent demise is utterly enticing. Yet this notion that the cybernetic giants from Mondas aren’t really hiding beneath the superstore is shrewdly revisited later on, and then pans out to be an entirely different proposition for the Gallifreyan to outwit.

Prodigiously pencilling all these pulse-pounding proceedings is Kelsey Ramsay, who does a first-class job in ensuring that any onlookers are absolutely convinced that the titular character is about to become the latest member of the Cybermen. Likewise, the illustrator does some great work in imbuing the hapless Cotton with the heart-wrenching haunted look of a man doing something which terrifies every fibre of his physical being.

The regular cover art of "DOCTOR WHO: THE FIFTEENTH DOCTOR" #2 by Roberta Ingranata