‘Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf #3’ Review
Written by Jody Houser | Art by Roberta Ingranata | Published by Titan Comics
Having (a tin of) Roses at Christmas is very traditional, so in the absence of a Doctor Who comic book Christmas Special, this mini-series with its multiple Doctor’s and Rose Tyler’s will have to do. That’s fine by me because it’s been great fun so far, and will hopefully brighten up a dreary January and February for us readers. Events to date have almost been panto-esque, with mistaken identities and wrong turns all over the place. Where we have got to now is, essentially, that the Eighth Doctor and ‘our’ Rose have rescued the Eleventh Doctor from the clutches of ‘their’ Rose, the Bad Wolf Empress. Is she all bad? We don’t really know yet, but she certainly seems to have let power corrupt and misguide her sadly.
So The Doctor’s find themselves in a very familiar role, that of the hunted. I think they enjoy it in a perverse sort of way. They also fall into another familiar behaviour, that of squabbling and sniping. Doesn’t seem to matter which incarnations of The Doctor meet, they always start by taking a pop at each other. Sort of sibling rivalry, but with a timey-wimey twist. I suspect they also enjoy that in a perverse way. Luckily, Rose is on hand to act as referee, and gets them to focus on the immediate problem. ‘Bad’ Rose. Specifically, her army. How can they stop both her and her army? Plus, how to get Rose back home , if you can call an alternate dimension where you are married to the human regeneration of the Tenth Doctor home.
Time for a reunion, of sorts. The Doctor’s and Rose find Empress Rose, with the intention of seeing if she realises that she may not be the great liberator she thinks she is. They want to show her the worlds she liberates, and make her understand the real situation, and to see if she cares or not. She is Rose, after all. So, the Tenth Doctor takes the Empress on a quick tour, while The Eighth Doctor gets Rose to dress as the Empress and stop the army attacking the planet they are about to. Definite panto influences at work here. ‘She’s the Empress’, ‘Oh no, she’s not!’.
It’s always nice to have a more serious message underpinning the action and humour, and Jody Houser doesn’t disappoint here. There’s a nice reflection on the nature of conquest and liberation. Although ridding the universe of ‘bad’ people and their armies is a good thing, it’s just as important what you replace them with. A liberator doesn’t require statues to be built of them, or to have the inhabitants perform labour and service for their freedom. As the Tenth Doctor points out, you just reset the cycle, and are doomed to repeat it.
To be fair to this Rose, she genuinely seems upset by all this this. She was probably more naive than anything else it seems, and we are all guilty of that sometimes. Although admittedly without universe-reaching consequences. Unfortunately for Rose, sometimes once you let the genie (or world conquering armies) out of the bottle, they tend to not want to go back in. Oops. Not only that, they might invite a Sontaran army to help them conquer even more worlds.
The real skill Jody Houser and Roberta Ingranata have is just making these stories effortlessly feel like authentic Doctor Who stories. I say effortless, but I know they obviously take a lot of talent and application, but they make it feel to us, the reader, so authentic and real. Great scripting as always, even better Doctor(s) characterisation, and nice clean, clear artwork and pacing. Fab stuff.
So, Bad Wolf Empress Rose Tyler, be careful what you wish for. There’s always a Badder Wolf out there.
**** 4/5
Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf #3 is availabe at your local comic shop from today.
