Empire of the Wolf

Jody Houser writes with such freedom. Cherry picking what she likes from Doctor Who and then introducing new elements with charm and creativity. Nothing is too precious. Seeing Rose Tyler’s child and learning what happened to her next feels like forbidden territory, but it’s handled so breezily. This is a story that majors on fun: two Doctors, two Rose Tylers, and a whole load of fun. It manages to be both silly and substantial.

If I was to have one critique it would be that the Sontarans are a bit of a spare part in this story. They arrive en masse and disappear en masse at regular intervals without much emotional consequence. It's the only part of this story which didn’t feel thought through.

The artwork is phenomenal. The care and attention paid to Rose’s stunning purple empress robes is impressive and impactful.

Full disclosure, this is my first non-DWM Doctor Who comic in a long, long time and I’m struggling with how legit this story feels. It feels like the reins are taken off and the story can go anywhere. A crossover event is also a nice way to ease into the world of Titan comics. We can never have enough Paul McGann.

You know, I haven't really connected with the Jody Hauser Doctor Who Comics out of the ones I've read so far.  I still have a number to check out so hopefully that will change, but at least I can say I largely enjoyed Empire of the Wolf.  So far all of Hauser's comics have a Dan Abnett style problem of featuring excellent set-up and world-building but struggling with endings and pay-off, with the effect much more prominent in the Hauser-written Missy and Fugitive Doctor comics.  Empire of the Wolf is very much suffering from this too - the Sontaran army that threatens to be an antagonist is easily hand-waved away in the last issue and never actually sees combat or conflict of any kind.  But I credit this story for not relying on that conflict - it feels more like a detail than the main thrust of the story.  The focus is on the characters like these two versions of Rose, the Eleventh Doctor, and the Eighth Doctor, all of which get their moments to shine.  It's fun getting a glimpse of what Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor are up to and I really thought that part was well realized.  I'm glad I read this and I think Doctor Who fans of all sorts would appreciate this one on some level, even if it is just to see 11 chastise Rose for bringing 8, who he refers to as a "child."  That was great and it's a good example of how Jody had a solid handle on all these characters.  It's fun to see them all in a story like this, even if it is relatively simple and crowd pleasing, it's at least creative and builds on the world as much as it is living in it and bringing all these different characters together.

Rose Tyler x Rose Tyler ship name Rose Tyler who’s with me?

I like this comic purely for the fun factor. It’s literally Rose comes back and meets 11 and 8. You’ve gotta be very talented at writing bad stories if you’re able to mess that up. I’ve wanted this premise so bad, I even read fanfiction about it!

And gotta be honest, that fanfiction was probably better written than this.

Because maaaaan. You get to play around with this insanely fun premise and you make it this lame!? Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun, because how could it not be, but it just screams missed potential at every page.

Rose’s interactions with the 8th Doctor are nice. Even when the cautious “try not to reveal anything about the future”-lid is thrown right off, it’s fun. Yes “he will just forget so dont worry” is a super lame and overused trope, but it’s fun so I’ll let it pass. If it is the only real thing this comic is offering anyways, might as well revel more in it’s primary goal.

Rose’s interactions with the 11th Doctor, are on the contrary, really empty. Think of her reaction to seeing him; one two three go! Okay now stop. What did you think? She would be happy and that’s it? Good job! You could be a writer for Titan comics. There is nothing about their interactions. No real emotional impact. They look like they haven’t seen each other for two weeks at max. I don’t need one of those overly melodramatic fanfic moments where they cry and laugh and they have missed each other so much and you the original is the only one I’ve ever loved things. I just need more than a hug and then move on to the way less interesting multi-doctor scene.

The most we get from Eleven and Rose is at the end where we have literally one page of some very weak “i still think of you”. There was so much more that could have been done. If not just for the fun part. At least something like RTD did when Ten and Donna reunited. Where they themselves have fun going on another adventure together. Even that is not here. Actually, why is the Eleventh Doctor here at all? He’s only really here to explain who the other Rose is, do things he can only do because he knows her, and use two TARDISes for some magic multiverse trick. For the story itself, the Eleventh Doctor’s presence offers very little. You would expect him to do things with Rose. You know. The Doctor and Rose finally reunite and they do all these fun things together. But nope, nothing of that. He’s here purely to have the multi-doctor selling point, which is really just okay at best. The two doctors have barely any meaningful interactions with each other and their bickering isn’t even that enjoyable.

The story itself. Is. Very empty. Basically: there is a Rose who is doing bad things. Our Rose, 8 and 11 convince her to stop doing bad things. Other Rose has an assistant who decides to do bad things instead. Magic time travel things happen and everything is solved. Also there are Sontarans. Don’t worry, they don’t do anything. They literally just stand still and say a sontarha here and a sontarha there. It might sound like I’m dumbing down the plot, and I am a little bit of course, but it is pretty much this. We are reliant on the ways we get to these situations and how these situations are handled.

Even though this comic is 112 pages long, it felt like way less to me. There are multiple reasons to this, but the main one is that most of the time, nothing is really happening. It takes us 42 pages to even get all the main characters together. The plot of trying to convince emperor Rose only starts there. And i consider those 42 pages to be relatively well paced compared to the rest. Getting to the part where Eleven finally talks with other Rose takes ages. After which we get the unnecessarily drawn out plot of the assistant taking over. It’s all drawn out to be as long as possible. Instead of using those 100 pages to do something with Rose and the Doctor, those pages are used on little purple guy being mad. Like the writer doesn’t know what to do and is just trying to fill the page count. Honestly might be one of the few times where a large page count doesn’t feel like an opportunity for the writer to do something great, but more as a school assignment where you try to use as many adjectives as possible to get to the word requirement.

All of what is happening in the story is reliant on the reader liking seeing these characters do things and nothing more. There is no deeper meaning or story to find here. Not even more than the most basicest of basic character ‘development’ for original character Rosetoo.

If you don’t know anything about these characters already, you’re probably not going to like this very much. Without the appeal of “It’s Rose and two Doctors!” there is nothing. It doesn’t utilize the chance to use these characters. It doesn’t use their mythos and history, meanwhile it completely relies on them.

Its whole appeal is these characters interacting. That’s also all that it offers. It puts these silly guys in a paper thin plot and doesn’t lean further into character moments instead. Like I said, Rose’s interactions with Eight are “nice”. But it stays at that. It’s all just “fun i guess idk i like rose”.

And that’s why I’m giving it a 4/5. Because I like Rose. I like seeing Rose reunite with the Doctor and do things. I don’t care that the story isn’t good (that’s a lie, i do care but more in a so much missed potential way, not a this is bad way). It could have been so so much better, and if it wasn’t Rose and 8 and 11 on the same page I would’ve said it was terrible. But it is Rose and Eight and Eleven on the same freaking page. Who needs a good story when you have that?

The art is passable. Characters don’t look like their actors at all, but I don’t really mind. I’m used to comics. While their faces don’t look like their actors, they do feel like they fit the characters. There are a handful of quite pretty looking pages, but generally it’s nothing spectacular. It does the job I’d say.

Is it good? No. I don’t recommend it except if you like Rose. But if you like Rose you’d consume all Rose content anyways. So for most normal people; no. It’s bad. 4/5 though.