We're in the trenches of World War One as we join the 10th Doctor and his new(ish) companion, Gabby Gonzalez, on an unplanned trip to the Somme. In actuality, this strip has sequences set in many different years, including some set in 1914 as well as quite a few in the 19th Century where some of the Angels victims are sent back to.

The Weeping Angels of Mons is a Titan-published comic strip and, as the title suggests, plays on the World War One legend of the Angel of Mons.  There is another comic strip called Warfreeqz which was published in the Doctor Who Adventures magazine.   In that instance, it was Rose who became the Angel of Mons but here, it is arguably the modern series’s most successful monster – the Lonely Assassins; the Weeping Angels. The legend details the appearance of angels on the battlefield and the disappearance of soldiers…a perfect fit for the Weeping Angels’ modus operandi.

The Weeping Angels are popping up all over the expanded universe of Doctor Who. They are obviously a great monster on TV, as their various episodes have demonstrated. It’s a huge shame that Class seems to be dead in the water after the shock reveal in the final episode of an Angel’s presence. Novels have worked with the Angels and even the audios have managed to include these most visual of monsters (Big Finish’s Fallen Angel works extremely well with a monster which makes no sound). But the comic strips is arguably where, in the expanded universe at least, the Angels work the best. Comic strips are visual like TV and artists can work with the distinctive and striking image of the Angels to create some compelling artwork.

Not that I feel the artwork in The Weeping Angels of Mons is fully successful. It’s a rather messy, scratchy style from artist Daniel Indro. The Weeping Angels are effectively drawn – particular when they have scary faces, but the human characters have features which are incredibly wrinkly and lined. The 10th Doctor’s likeness isn’t great in some of the frames either.

The artwork style does lend itself better to the scenery – the ruined town, filthy trenches and No Man’s Land look horrendous and squalid.

The Angels themselves work well in a historical setting – possibly much better than they do in the present day/future settings of their TV episodes. Soldiers leaning against, or taking cover behind, memorials and statues featuring angels is a relatable sight and the myths, legends and religious teaching surrounding Angels is reflected in the characters of the soldiers who have heard various tales as well as the company’s chaplain, Thomas Monaghan.

This story doesn’t really explore the Angels background or modus operandi in any new ways, but it does suggest that they are attracted to war and battlefields because of all the lost potential (which is, in this story, ultimately their downfall). Of more interest to this script is tying in the fates of those sent back in time, with the contemporary scenes of the story. All of the soldiers sent back in time end up some time in the 19th century. Their fates interweave with each other (the chaplain finds himself at the birth of Jamie Colqhoun, a soldier who is key to helping the Doctor and Gabby defeat the Angels, as well as providing a love interest for Gabby; another soldier grows old and returns to the town as an old man, knowing he can rescue his former comrades; another leads a happy life, married with children, only to die from shock and grief when war breaks out in 1914).

The 10th Doctor and Gabby are thrown into this horrific world and the Doctor is on good form as he lurches from one crisis to the next. He is required to think on his feet quite a lot in this story and it reminded me somewhat of the fast pace of stories like Tooth and Claw. Gabby is a more difficult to get a hold on. She’s a companion exclusive to Titan comics. I have read quite a few of her stories, including her debut, but haven’t quite managed to get a handle on her. Her defining characteristics seem to be her Hispanic heritage and her art-loving background. The latter is often used in the comic strips to create interludes where she writes and draws letters/diaries for her friend Cindy, who is still back in Gabby’s home city, New York (although she will later join the Doctor as a second companion). The parts of the strip which feature Gabby’s artwork are cute, but the writing is often quite tricky to read as the artists try to reflect Gabby’s personal handwriting (I read ‘Cindy’ as ‘Gudy’, for example).

There is a definite Rose vibe around Gabby in that she works in her father’s laundromat and restaurant with no real opportunity to pursue her ambitions in life. She’s a strong, independent woman, with a bantery relationship with the Doctor, very much in the mould of Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, Clara and Bill and as such doesn’t really stand out as much more than a generic modern series companion. It doesn’t help that for this story, a lot of her plot revolves around her blossoming romance with the soldier, Jamie. I want to like Gabby but I think I need to re-read her run of comic strips to get a better handle on her (later on, for example, she starts to display some special and unusual abilities).

The First World War aspect of this story is highly reminiscent of the scenes in The Family of Blood set during the conflict. This similarity is compounded by the coda to this story which sees the Doctor and Gabby travelling forward in time to a war cemetery where, from a distance, they watch an elderly Jamie Colqhoun and his family visiting the graves of his fallen comrades. It’s very reminiscent of the scene at the end of The Family of the Blood where the Doctor and Martha watch a Remembrance Day ceremony with an elderly Timothy sitting in a wheelchair (just as Jamie does in this strip).

The historical setting, though, is really just a backdrop with the focus being on how horrible it was for the soldiers involved. There are a couple of references to the Christmas Truce and traditions prior to going ‘over the top’ but the lion’s share of the story focuses on the Angels. The final episode takes the Doctor and Gabby into mine tunnels under the trenches which relays a bit of information about how both sides recruited miners with the hope of tunnelling under No Man’s Land to reach the enemy’s line. Unsurprisingly, these tunnels were dangerous and the presence of explosives provides a climactic sequence where Jamie and Gabby attempt to sacrifice themselves to stop the Angels.

Aside from the artwork style, I found a lot to like in this comic strip. It’s a thrilling runaround and demonstrates how effective the Angels are in a historical setting. With more appealing artwork, I think this would rank as one of my favourite strips, although that may be partly because I think the Angels are a great invention of the modern series. If you haven’t already read it, this is one to look out for.