Doctor Who, Blacklist, and Rivers of London Comics Review 9/23

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I apologize for the lateness of the article.  I have had a busy week with the birth of my second child.  This week I had the great pleasure of review three comics from Titan Comics based out of London.  New Prints of Doctor Who, Blacklist, and Rivers of London came out this week and I can say that each one is worthy of picking up and reading. 

DOCTOR WHO: FOUR DOCTORS #5
WRITER: Paul Cornell
ARTIST: Neil Edwards
PUBLISHER: Titan Comics
PAGE COUNT: 32pp
PRICE: $3.99

Can the Doctors and their surviving companions put time back on the right track?!

Doctor Who: Four Doctors is a Doctor Who fans dream.  Bringing together the last three Doctors to find a way to save the timeline.  Something that couldn’t be realized on the television medium is brought in the comic medium with the amazing work of Paul Cornell and Neil Edwards.  The final chapter of the four doctors doesn’t hold back at all and does a great job at wrapping up the loose ends.

Paul Cornell does a great job of keeping the intensity high from the first page to the end.  With the three Doctors working together to save the timeline it is realized that the 12th Doctor is the key to saving the timeline and humanity.  In the end it takes the three doctors and their library assistants to work together against the Voord and save the universe.  My only complaint about the final chapter of the series is the lack of the 10th and 11th Doctor.  For such a special event of having three Doctors work together I wish the final chapter had a bigger role for 10th and 11th Doctors.

The artwork for this series has been well above the standard.  What is difficult for a series like this is the artist has to reflect real life people.  Neil Edwards does an amazing job of not only creating a remarkable resemble to the real life counterparts but also creating an environment to resemble the emotion.

Overall Score: 8/10

 

THE BLACKLIST #3
WRITER: Nicole Phillips
ARTIST: Beni Lobel
PUBLISHER: Titan Comics
PAGE COUNT: 32pp
PRICE: $3.99

As Liz struggles to deal with catastrophic events, the noose tightens on terrorist-for-hire Kiklinski, as his mysterious employer, The Gambler, unleashes legendary assassin John X to silence him before he can be apprehended by an FBI Task Force.

I will admit that I have never watched an episode of The Blacklist and that is probably why I had a tough time getting into this comics story line.  The third comic of the ongoing series had three story lines to follow.  The main character of the series Raymond “Red” Reddington is in pursuit of an old ally that goes by the name “The Gambler”.  Elizabeth is still trying to figure out her life now that she realizes that Red has had an impact in almost every aspect of her life from birth. While the current bad guy Kilklinski, who is under arrest, is being transported to the FBI task force.

I will give Nicole Phillips credit that she tries to put as much information as possible into this comic.  Each page is covered in dialogue with detail.  This comic is definitely written for an older audience.  Nicole does a great job of giving each character a moment to shine in this episode.  For a person who never watched The Blacklist I felt lost for most of this comic.  This is definitely a series for fans of the show or ones who have read the series from the beginning.

The artwork done by Beni Lobel is on par with other Titan Comics.  A lot of the panels of art have to be shared with the intense amount of dialogue in this comic.  Beni does a great job of matching the intense settings with the intense dialogue.

Overall Score 6/10

RIVERS OF LONDON” BODY WORK #3
WRITER: Andrew Cartmel and Ben Aaronovitch
ARTIST: Lee Sullivan
PUBLISHER: Titan Comics
PAGE COUNT: 32pp
PRICE: $3.99
ON SALE: Sept 23, 2015

 The members – all two of them – of London’s most secret police force are on the trail of a self-driving killer car. But it takes something weird to catch something weird and soon they are behind the wheel of  â€“ The Most Haunted Car in England!

Rivers of London Body Work #3 is a buildup feeder story to lead into the next in the series.  This storyline is becoming more like Men in Black meet Knight Rider.  This series does have a ton of potential with the established cast but if the story doesn’t progress fast it will stall with readers.  I will give credit that the concept of a self-driving killer car is different in this series than other stories that used this concept.

The work that Andrew Cartmel and Ben Aaronovitch as writers for this series is great.  Though the story was slow for this specific comic the character development is better than some of the more popular comic series. The relationship between Grant and Nightingale seems like real partners in law enforcement.  Something between best friends and common co-workers.  Although this was a filler episode Cartmel and Aaronvitch do a great job leading up to the next comic.

Out of all the Titan Comics in print right now Lee Sullivan and this comic are my favorite visual.  Lee does a great job of making each panel unique but has a smooth flow throughout the comic.  The amount of detail from the characters to background along with the cover is amazing.  Lee Sullivan is one of the great artist in the industry right now.

Overall Score 7/10

Source: Titan Comics

Twitter: @olivervsslade

Instagram: @olivervsslade

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