Top Five Titan Comic Stories: The Twelfth Doctor (Doctor Who)

*Spoilers.*

The Twelfth Doctor was in a different position than his predecessors when it comes to the Titan comics. While earlier Doctors were getting new adventures after the fact with mostly new companions, Twelve’s comic run started during his TV run, so many of his stories stuck with ongoing TV companions like Clara and Bill. That’s nice too—I love characters like Gabby, Cindy, and Alice, but it’s always nice to get new stories featuring TV characters. The Clara-to-Bill gap, however, does leave room to sneak in a few oneshot and short-term companions.

 

“Gangland” (2015)

What’s not to love about fighting alien gangsters in Las Vegas in the ‘60s? The Doctor and Clara head out to Vegas to catch a show by an obvious Rat Pack stand-in, and they get embroiled in an extraterrestrial criminal conspiracy. Throw in a little Time Lord history and a stolen weapon, and you’ve got yourself a comic! Did I mention that the Doctor plays craps and calmly gives a history lesson while sitting at a Russian Roulette table?

 

“Clara Oswald and the School of Death” (2016)

Creepy boarding school on a remote island? Check. Teachers and a good swathe of the student body who aren’t what they seem? Check. Clara working undercover as a teacher while the Doctor investigates behind the scenes with a few students who are weirded out by everything that’s going on? Check and check. You can see some parallels with “School Reunion” and “Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood,” but this story brings its own eerie, fantastic style to those tropes!

 

“Terror of the Cabinet Noir” (2016-2017)

I’d never heard of Julie d’Aubigny before this story, but she’s fabulous and makes a great combative companion for the Doctor. I love this creepy adventure in 17^th century France, where the Doctor meets the dueling, opera-singing bicon Julie and they’re thrown together to investigate some sinister goings-on led by a theocrat who’s supposed to be long dead.

 

“Beneath the Waves” (2017)

Gotta love a sleepy little seaside town full of secret terrors! This story features Hattie, a comics-only companion. The 40^th century rock star bassist makes for a fun recurring friend for Twelve, and there’s both mystery and thrills as they investigate what’s lurking in the deep. Bonus points for baddies that feel like something straight out of a classic Who serial.

 

“The Wolves of Winter” (2017)

There are a couple Twelve-and-Bill stories that combine two tangential iconic baddies in interesting ways. This one already starts off with a winning premise, as the Doctor and Bill are caught between a group of Vikings and a group of Ice Warriors, two proud warrior cultures who aren’t looking to back down. But when you throw in the Flood, the virus from “The Waters of Mars”? Forcing everyone to band together to avoid getting infected? Top marks all around!