The Twelfth Doctor: Fractures

This volume contains three stories, thankfully largely ignoring the tedious "Hyperion" storyline introduced in volume 1 of The Twelfth Doctor, except for small references. The first story is a tie-in to the "new UNIT" era, with Kate Stewart; I found it dull. I think it's supposed to be scary, but neither writing nor art really carries an element of fear, and I found the motivations of the villains confusing and unconvincing.

The second story was, even if not as strong as some of Titan's tenth and eleventh Doctor stuff, the best twelfth Doctor comic yet. It's the first of these comics to really capture was worked about Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman on screen, as the Doctor and Clara swan through 1960s Las Vegas, battling gangsters being aided by aliens. Lots of colorful art and colorful characters, and great ideas, I really enjoyed it.

The whole book ends with a brief short focusing on Clara, which didn't make much of an impression.

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This collection contains two big stories and a short story.

“Fractures” deals in the challenges of multiple universes and resolving time paradoxes that occur when these universes collide. Clara is rather bossy in this story, continually demanding that the Doctor return her to Coal Hill in time for class and complaining that she will go grey before they get back. To which Twelve responds that “grey hair’s great! Gives you gravitas. You can never have too much gravitas.” I could totally hear Peter Capaldi saying that line (and would agree with him).

“Gangland” is set in Las Vegas in 1964, with the Wolf Pack, gangsters, and octopus-like aliens. I couldn’t stop swooning over Twelve in a fedora! SO GOOD. This is one of those stories where aliens intrude on an otherwise mundane Earth situation and put an interesting twist on it. This interesting twist involves an artefact of Rassilon’s (and Rassilon is looking very much like Timothy Dalton these days).

“The Body Electric” is a quick story and is narrated by Clara. It was exactly the right length.

I liked the art in this volume better than in Vol. 1; Twelve looks more recognizably like Twelve, especially when he’s wearing that fedora (and in the very last panel of “Gangland”). Clara looked most like herself in “The Body Electric” and sounded the most like herself in the best possible way in “Fractures”, which involved students from her school and was set in the present day. Lots of zingers by Twelve at her expense, haha.

Again, the writing is great, too; I feel like Robbie Morrison gets this Doctor’s voice and rhythm. Looking forward to the next volumes! ( )