Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 Review

 

Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 Review

Writers: Dulce M Montoya & Dan Watters

Artist: Robert Ingranata

Colorist: Valentina Bianconi

Letterer: Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith

Editor: Jonathan H Wilkins

Cover Artists: Jay Anacleto, Photo, Robert Sienicki & Flops

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $6.99

Release Date: July 8, 2026

 

Time Travel is a tricky business. Forget stepping on a Butterfly. You can change someone’s life with a harsh word or a smile. And then there are the things we touch or take with us when we leave. Thankfully, there is an organization that keeps track of all these ripples in spacetime. The Unified Intelligence Taskforce safeguards the people of Earth from alien invasions, scheming mad scientists, and interference in the timestream. But how is UNIT watching over us? And who helps them prevent reality-shattering paradoxes? Let’s leap into Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 and see!

 

Story

Osgood and Andrew were looking forward to working with the Doctor. But they didn't realize that the Fugitive Doctor would assist them. Unlike the others the Doctors have met, the Fugitive Doctor doesn't know about her other incarnations. Nor does she care what Osgood and Andrew think of her. She has a job to do, and she's doing it her way.

 

UNIT has amassed a storehouse of items from other planets and time periods. In Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1, the Fugitive Doctor must assess where they belong. When she takes each item to her TARDIS, it transports her to the general area where the item belongs. But the Doctor doesn't know who to return it to.

 

Dulce M Montoya and Dan Watters' story transports the Fugitive Doctor to ancient Greece. Instead of arriving amid the Trojan War, she finds a land at peace. The local town has a bustling marketplace. And the locals bring their offerings to Zeus' temple, even if it leaves them with little to eat themselves. Unfortunately, no one there recognizes the item the Fugitive Doctor is trying to return. And after seeing a man faint with hunger, she cannot help but hike up to Mount Olympus to discuss the gods' reliance on the locals' generosity.

 

The Fugitive Doctor arrived in Greece under a cloud, as Osgood and Andrew worried that her last mission might initiate a civil war. But the Doctor can't help their worries. They cannot blame her for other people's irrational actions. As the Doctor attempts to rectify the problems threatening peace in ancient Greece, she tries to help people work together to better their lives. But while an unseen party observes, the Doctor fails to recognize that not everyone shares her definition of reasonable behavior in Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1.

 

Art

After a view from space of other planets, the Doctor, Osgood, and Andrew walk between tall rows of open shelving. The Doctor plucks a pair of alien glasses and tries them on. Osgood rips them away from her. The Doctor frowns and looks away, her body language defensive. Then, the Doctor’s eyes fix on an item crackling with energy set on a high shelf. She runs outside, past the trees rising above a fence, and into her blue police box. The shape of the ceiling and the double-hexagon shadow on the floor evoke the First Doctor’s TARDIS. Then, as she sets the Dalek gun on the console, the Doctor sets her coordinates and pulls a lever as the weapon crackles with energy.

 

As Robert Ingranata portrays the Doctor amid pastoral splendor, Valentina Bianconi adorns Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1 with vibrant colors. The surrounding hills and trees recall the greenery beyond the UNIT base. The white-robed people in the fields seem as innocent as the grazing sheep. Villagers wear browns and pastels, while some in the market dress in more vibrant colors. She may be the Fugitive Doctor. Yet the Time Lord's bright purple hat and suit, accentuated with a multicolored blouse and hatband, command people's attention.

 

Richard Starkings and Tyler Smith fill white and green balloons and boxes with black uppercase dialogue. Raised voices enlarge words and turn balloons spiky. Giant white letters warn the Doctor of approaching danger, while giant red letters accompany its arrival. She faced down a red apple with certainty. But the Fugitive Doctor finds another red menace more difficult to reason with, even if it speaks in a font befitting the birthplace of modern philosophy. Thanks to Titan Comics for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

The Fugitive Doctor recognizes she needs to work on her people skills. Yet she doesn’t understand why people can’t get along. As she goes about her job, trying to prevent world-threatening paradoxes, she struggles to see things from other people’s perspectives. Still, she tries to help, even if success seems unlikely, in Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversary of the Daleks #1.

 

Rating 9.2/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Doctor Who Circuit Breaker: Adversaryof the Daleks #1. 

 

Doctor Who: Doom’s Day #1 Review

 

Writer: Jody Houser

Artist: Roberta Ingranata

Colorist: Warnia K. Sahadewa

Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt

Cover Artists: Pasquale Qualano;

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: July 5, 2023

 

Wearing a cloak, a monocle, and a Cat Eye mask, Doom attends a 19th Century ball. Missy, the female incarnation of the Master, also crashed the party. She introduces herself to guests as Doctor Who. Is the assassin after Missy or someone else? Let's activate our vortex manipulators, travel into Doctor Who: Doom’s Day #1, and find out!

 

Story

Doom, the time-traveling assassin, received orders from Terri at the Lesser Order of Oberon. Her target is The Thief. In the webcast, "Meet Doom: The Universe's Greatest Assassin," Doom says that Death stalks her. She only has 24 hours to live unless she can find the Doctor. Somehow, she knows that Missy isn’t the Doctor. We later learn that The Thief she hunts is a couple. Amid the costumes, the aliens fit right in.

 

Later, Doom visits the Stormcage Containment Facility, the sometimes home of River Song. Doom tells the administrator she's here to quash a danger threatening the 52^nd Century prison's reputation. Missy tracks the trail left by Doom's vortex manipulator and follows her there.

 

Doctor Who: Doom’s Day #1 sparkles with humor. While most stem from Missy's banter, Jody Houser suggests allusions to the Third Doctor story "The Sea Devils." It's difficult to know how to feel about Doom or worry that an assassin we don't know might die. But at least she protects the administrator's job and saves the universe from her targets' villainy.

 

 

Art

Some guests in the grand ballroom wear fanciful masks like Doom’s. A few wear costumes. Most dress like Missy, in attire suitable for high-society functions in the late 19^th Century. Wood-paneled walls rise to decorated ceilings. Guests stride past turned banisters lining the upper-story landings. Lord and Lady Pretty Paw bring to mind the Sisters Of Plenitude from the Tenth Doctor story "New Earth." A cloak sheathes Doom's clothes. Missy saunters along in her purple coat and skirt. A green stripe and “12” placard adorn her purple tophat.

 

With bar-lined cells occupying several levels, Stormcage brings to mind the original Master’s visit to Stangmoor Prison in the Third Doctor story, "The Mind Of Evil." Yet another cell, holding a green-skinned alien, uses laser beams for metal bars. With his green skin, pointy ears, and purple hair, Administrator Cire looks nothing like Colonel Trenchard, the prison warden in "The Sea Devils," or Raymond Westwell, the Prison Governor in "The Mind Of Evil." But he's got a pleasant view as a blue-tinged transparent ceiling reveals stars glowing and ribbons of cloud circling a gas giant.

 

A rich spectrum of soft colors makes Doctor Who: Doom’s Day #1 an appealing comic. Sometimes shadows ground characters, and shading adds depth to interiors. Panels glow with radiance. Missy's purple tophat, coat, and skirt link her with the purple-haired administrator and Doom, who wears a purple waistcoat. The vortex manipulator on Doom’s arm also features purple. While our monocled assassin doesn't wear green, the green stripe on Missy's hat blends well with the administrator's skin and that of one of Doom's targets at Stormcage. My only question is why Missy's travel through time makes the "12" placard shrink when she reaches Stormcage.

 

Uppercase black letters inhabit white dialogue balloons, making Doctor Who: Doom’s Day #1 an easy read. Yellow narrative boxes relate targets from Terri at the Lesser Order Of Oberon. Sound effects help us hear Doom's vortex manipulator activate and feel the anguish of her targets.

 

Final Thoughts

Doctor Who: Doom’s Day #1 is a diverting romp from 19^th Century New York to 52^nd Century’s Stormcage. Seasoned with humor and peppered with allusions to the original Master and River Song, the story satisfies as Missy constantly fights her instincts to be oh-so-bad.

 

Rating 8.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.