📝7/10 = ENJOYABLE!

Time Lording through time and space, one victory at a time!

VICTORY X

Defender of the Daleks sees Titan Comics join the Time Lord Victorious event with a two-part story written by Jody Houser. It sees the 10th Doctor wake up in the TARDIS with no recollection of where he is and why, and then come face to face with the Daleks. They force him into an alliance against the Hond, an ancient race seeking to wipe out every living being, including the Daleks and themselves.

This adventure is fast-paced, even if it takes a good while to set things up. The big panels and the quirky dialogue see to that. There's also a light mystery: how does no one remember the Time War? Why are the Dalek defences on Skaro so limited? 

It's a bit confusing to place this story at first, because the last we've seen of Ten, he was initiating a battle against Eight, Nine, and the Daleks. In the Titan continuity, he's just been on an adventure with Thirteen and cannot remember it. The strange way some panels and scenes connect also confuses me.

Things pick up halfway through once the Hond are introduced. They look like green Clayface copies that wish for nothing but to die, because they are pain itself, made sentient. Hauser then brings the conflict to a very hasty close.

Thirteen pops up in the end to help Ten get out of the situation, and while it's cool to see Ten and Thirteen together, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense with the event in mind.

Hauser writes Ten with his usual quirks and humoristic quips. A bulk of the story is about him being witty to the Dalek Strategist, and this goes on for quite a while. It's both fun and a bit slow.

It's unclear exactly how this fits into the larger TLV arc—there are no Kotturuh here, no Brian the Ood, and no other Doctors. It seems very detached from the main TLV conflict. I think it would be better suited to being read early on in the order.

The big, colourful panels and the solid art style bring the story to life effectively.